The northeastern tip of Thailand, a rural area north of Chiang Rai, near the border with Myanmar and Laos, is a place few westerners have ever seen. Here is where we get most of the beans for Kāfæ Mūl Cĥāng™. The Doi Chang village is located in a mountainous region within the Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand. The hills are filled with over 8000 acres of coffee and are surrounded by lush, old-growth forest, fresh-flowing spring water and breathtaking mountain views. The area has an ideal climate and rich fertile soil. Doi Chang is one of the premium coffee growing regions of the world. Doi Chang’s production area comprises only 8ooo acres.

We researched the best hill tribe farmers. The Akka and Lisu produce the finest beans in Thailand. So we started the journey. It was hands-on every step. We put together a ‘dream team’ of coffee experts, farmers, top roast masters, experts in coffee health, etc. Our very special coffee is never mass-produced. There is a limit to production, which is largely determined by the elephants. It takes about ten thousand cherries (35 kilos) to produce one kilo of Kāfæ Mūl Cĥāng™.

Well-known and highly respected, they are certified organic farms. And our purchases are above and beyond fair trade — the farmers are paid for their beans in excess of the price recom-mended by the fair trade organization.

We wanted to form a strategic alliance between hill tribes to produce a coffee for highly-educated drinkers and provide the best possible quality as we go forward. This is organic, direct-trade, single origin coffee.

The most sustainable way of processing coffee, the oldest method, takes little water at all. We leave the cherries on the bean and dry them in the sun, usually on raised beds. The defective beans are sorted out by hand. Only the highestquality and most-flavorful beans remain.

The beauty of these coffee cherries is stunning. Sun-dried natural coffees look and taste drastically different than washed coffees.

The elephants eat the berries (see Our Elephants) for their fleshy pulp, which is broken down in their digestive tract.This digestion also changes the chemistry of the bean.

The theory is the elephants proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Then the beans are defecated.

Several researchers have examined the process in which the animals stomach acids and enzymes digest the beans’ covering and ferment the beans. Research by food scientist Massimo Marcone at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada showed that the animals’ endogeneous digestive secretions seep into the beans. These secretions carry proteolytic enzymes which break down the beans’ protein acids, yielding shorter peptides and more free amino acids.

After gathering, thorough washing, another sun-drying, and finally roasting, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with less bitterness. This coffee is widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world, with prices reaching $1200/kilo.

At Kāfæ Mūl Cĥāng we take our love of Mother Earth seriously. Our process is as eco-friendly as we can make it. We even use the remaining dung for paper and fertilizer; the coffee remnants are used to make soap and other products and the remains are composted — nothing goes to waste.