Coffee - Doi Chang Mountain

Yesterday, it was a nice sunny day as we got in the car and headed to Boonreang's, Daeng's son, school in Chiang Rai to talk with him and his teacher. 

It was an easy trip, about 60 Km, from our home in Mae Sai.  Daeng talked with his teacher at school for a few minutes without her son as he was sick.  He does have some allergy problems and was all stuffed up so he did not come to school.

After Daeng talked with his teacher, we drove over to when he lives, took him some bar-be-qued chicken for lunch and talked.  The concern is for his well being and his grades.  It was kind of a "What do you want to be when you grow up?" talk. 

I explained that we just wanted him to be safe, happy and have a good life.  We also talked about how I did not like school, when I was young, and decided not to go past high school.  I went into the Army and then worked in gas stations and construction becoming a plumber/HVAC technician.  What ever he wanted to do was okay by us.

He stated he wanted to go to school and would do the work to make sure he passed this semester with no zeros and a minimum of 2.0 total grade average.  He seemed to be happy with our talk ever thought I felt 2.0 grade average was a very low grade.

We said "Good-bye" for now and headed to Doi Chang Mountain.  This area is now a huge coffee area as the opium fields have been turned into coffee fields.

I learned a lot about coffee this trip.  To read about another trip we made  to Elephant Mountain in 2008 just CLICK HERE.  You can also see Daeng in Full Akha Dress at the end of that story.

When we drove the 100 Km up through the mountains we came to an area where the road was all torn up.  I walked down the road and felt the care we were drive, a Nissan March, was to low to make it through the bumps and mud.

We found our cellular phones did not work on the mountain so we drove up the high side of the road and asked folks if they knew were we were suppose to go.  Finally a sweet lady said we could use here cellular phone that worked in this area.  She was from Mae Sai and was very helpful.

We found out later that she knew Chom-nom and he would invite her to dinner sometimes when he killed a chicken.  It is a very small world up in the mountains.

It was almost dark but was only a few minutes after Daeng call him he jumped off a pickup truck and jumped in our car to give us directions to get to the coffee company that he worked at. 

It was a dirt road but the little car made it okay.  Chom-nom went right back to work. 

At this time of day the coffee bean picker bring the fresh, bagged beans to him.  He weighs them and gets agreement with the pickers and either pays them 18 Thai Baht a kilogram then or gives them a receipt to pay them 20 Thai Baht a kilogram when processed and sold. (1 Thai Baht = 03.28 Cents US)

The beans, after weighing, are pored into a pit with water in it.  They soak for a little while and then are pumped into the bean huskers.  Bean husker is what I call it as no one can translate it for me, just show me what happens.

The outside of the bean is mostly removed when the bean go through this machine and the inter part of the bean goes into another vat full of water. 

It is time to quit.  Chom-nom took us to a little house where we are going to spend the night.  We are going to sleep on the floor with mosquito net over us. 

It is a cool little house with modern, duel flush, western toilet, sink carved out of wood and shower with hot water.

Chom-nom cooked us an Akha dinner of jungle food and rice while Daeng made up the bed. 

We ate with Chom-nom and another man that lives at the coffee company, also.  The meal was very tasty and included vegetables that no one had an English name for them.  The only thing I could recognise was the rice. 

After dinner, Daeng and I said "Thank you for cooking for us and good-night."  We told Chom-nom we would see him at sunrise for breakfast.

In the morning before I woke up, Daeng picked some vegetables out of the jungle and helped make breakfast.  When breakfast was ready she came and woke me up telling me to hurry as food was ready to eat.

I crawled out of the mosquito net, threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth and headed to the cook house.

For breakfast I recognised three thing: rice, bean cracker and egg.  The bowl in the picture directly in front of Daeng is a vine she picked out of the jungle.  It was fried and I really liked it.  To the left of that is a gourd looking thing that grows on a tree.  Chom-nom picked some more and gave them to us to take home. Everything was great and it was wonderful to have breakfast together and talk about what was the normal day.

After we ate, we walked across the bean drying field to the office and had coffee.  We talked about how the process of getting the coffee from the bush to the cup.   We also talked about the company set up of this company and Doi Chaang Coffee Company.

It was my understanding that all the coffee from Doi Chang Mountain went through the co-op of Doi Chaang Coffee.  Chom-nom explained that there we 500 coffee companies in the area and Doi Chaang was just one.

This company is the BECHEGE Coffee Company.  This company specializes in Arabian un-roasted coffee although they do have one coffee rooster and will roost a limited amount and package under their own name.

I might add that this coffee has a real kick.  Daeng and I drank only a small cup of this coffee and got really hyper.  I'm sure the caffeine contain is very high.

After coffee, Chom-nom had a little work to do before he could give us the grand guided tour of the place.  He told us to look around and he would see us in about 45 minutes.

The place is really beautiful, up in the mountain. There is a large pond along with a gazebo and everything is very clean.  It makes you feel good about drinking the coffee.

We started the tour with the scale area and water pools that the coffee is poured into after it is weighed along with the husking machinery. 

I had to laugh as the "Thai Way" showed through on the husking machine.  Instead of loosing the bolts on the motor brackets and moving the motor back to tighten the pulley belts they just tied a piece of bamboo to take up the belt tension.   

Now, after the coffee bean is picked and brought to this company, it's weighed, pored into the water vat, pumped into the coffee husker and dumps into another concrete vat.  There is sits for about 8-12 hours, pumped into another vat where it is stirred.  Then the husked bean is placed on a big cart and wheeled into the drying area.

The beans are then placed in the sun and turned everyday for at least nine (9) days until they are dry.

You can see coffee beans drying every place you look.

After they are dried they are run through another machine and then hand sorted for size and quality.  Yes, We said by hand. 

There were no sorters working today as they had all gone for a holiday in Chiang Rai.  To see a picture of folks sorting coffee beans just go toward the end of the story of our last trip.  CLICK HERE

The beans are then put in large bags for sale to packagers or rooster.  At this stage the price of the coffee is around 180 THB a kilogram (about $2.68 USD a pound).  Each bag weighs over 40 kilograms (about 90 lbs.)

While I was walking around the warehouse, all of a sudden Chom-nom and Daeng started yelling: "Bean, Bean!".  There were coffee beans all over the floor so I did not know if I wasn't suppose to walk on them. 

Finally Daeng said: "Stop, Stop!"  I stopped and she came over and pointed to this huge bee's nest with these giant bees flying around it.  Now I understood.

On the other side of the warehouse was the storage of "aged" coffee beans.  I never know that "age" coffee was more valuable than "new" coffee but Chom-nom said it was like having a savings account.  He also said they take very good care of it to be sure the beans don't get wet and spoil.

After the tour Chom-nom had to get back to work so we packed up everything.  As we were putting the bedding up Daeng started to scream and pointed to the corner of the room.  It was a big lizard. 

Chom-nom came; he and I chased it out of the house.  He said it was a lot scarier looking but could give you a rash if it jumped on you. 

We finished packing up and loading the car.  Chom-nom climbed the bushes and gave us some jungle food to take home.  It is a nice clear day and you can see forever.

We let our friend, Chom-nom, get back to work. going to head back down the mountain and spend the night in Chiang Rai.