Doi Tung

Doi Tung is coffee grown to replace opium. On the mountain of that name in Chiang Rai, a royal development project begun in 1988 replanted the forest and gave hill farmers arabica to grow under its shade instead of poppies. Grown at 800–1,200 metres and processed and roasted locally, it is now protected in Thailand and the EU.

The short version

• 800–1,200 metres, under forest shade.
• Catimor, Caturra and Catuaí.
• Balanced and fruity-sweet, with strong but not sharp acidity.
• Picked October to February, washed and fermented about 36 hours.
• A Thai GI in 2006, an EU PGI in 2015.

What does Doi Tung coffee taste like?

Balanced and fruity. Its EU registration describes a balanced coffee with a fruity-sweet aroma, strong acidity without sharpness, a medium body and a “mountain” finish. The shade and altitude slow the ripening of the cherries, it says, giving dense beans with an intense flavour. Green beans are graded peaberry, Extra Fancy, Fancy, No. 1 and Prime, and are roasted at Doi Tung from light to very dark.

The growing area

The protected area covers 93,515 rai (149.62 km²) on the border of Mae Fah Luang and Mae Sai districts, in the Nang Non range. Mountain ranges run north to south on either side of a narrow central valley, with many streams. It rains on at least 120 days a year, about 2,266 mm in all, and the average temperature is about 22 °C. Coffee is planted about 2 metres apart under the forest, with no chemical pesticides; fallen leaves feed the soil, and the shade gives a home to birds and other wildlife, the registration says.

Harvest and processing

The harvest runs from October to February. Only ripe cherries are hand-picked and taken to the project’s factory the same day, where they are floated, pulped, put through a demucilager and then fermented in water for about 36 hours, washed and sun-dried on concrete, turned every 30 minutes, to 10–12% moisture. The whole process, from planting to packing, is overseen by the Mae Fah Luang Foundation.

From opium to coffee

The Doi Tung Development Project was launched in 1988 as a royal initiative to reforest the area and fight the drug trade, and arabica was one of the crops chosen for the hill people to grow instead of poppies, the registration says. Wikipedia credits the interest of the Princess Mother, Srinagarindra, and notes that residents were given land-use titles and encouraged to grow coffee and macadamia. Doi Tung coffee may carry a seal from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and a chain of Doi Tung coffee shops was opened to sell it in Thailand. Thailand registered it as a GI in 2006, and the EU registered Kafae Doi Tung as a PGI on 9 July 2015.

Doi Tung and other Thai origins

• Coffee in Thailand: the whole country, its output and its history.
• Doi Chaang: Chiang Rai’s other protected origin, higher, at 1,100–1,700 m.
• Coffee in Laos: Thailand’s neighbour, with its own highland coffee.