Back home, drinking coffee was part of our daily routine. Whether it came from the communal office pot during the week or was more leisurely enjoyed from our little four-cup coffee maker on Saturdays and Sundays (brewed strong with cardamom, served with sweetened condensed milk), we enjoyed having a daily cup of joe. We still find ourselves drinking coffee, but we’ve had to modify our morning coffee-making ritual a bit.
Here in Thailand, we haven’t readily found ground or whole coffee beans at the major grocery stores. We’ve also noticed that among the display of small home appliance, coffee percolators are nowhere to be found. There are plenty of microphones (karaoke, anyone?) and rice cookers, but no coffee makers. And it’s not a question of whether coffee is or is not commonly consumed in Thailand because there are cafes everywhere.
Instead, what we’ve commonly found is an array of instant coffee and espresso. The end product smells and tastes about the same as a freshly brewed cup, (at least, to us non-coffee connoisseurs) but it certainly starts out a bit different, in form of little, black, dissolving granules. Care to have your cup o’ joe with cream and sugar? You’re in luck, because there are 3-in-1 packets that included instant grounds, cream, and sugar in powdered form for your convenience. As for appliances, instead of coffee pots, there are plenty of flower-decked hot water pots and dispensers for a quick supply of boiling water.
Although we miss the smell of brewing coffee, we’ve modified our morning ritual to include a one minute water boil in the hot water pot and a few spoonfuls of those dark, aromatic granules by Nescafe Red Cup in our Louboutin coffee cups. Oh, and we still do the cardamom and sweetened condensed milk, inspired by the many times we enjoyed “Thai Coffee” at Thai restaurants in Northern Virginia.
Mind you, coffee shops still serve the real thing. We’ve happily watch them brew up a shot of espresso using freshly ground beans. Surprisingly, cafe drinks aren’t much less expensive than they are back in the States. An iced latte can easily run 50 to 100 baht ($1.50-$3) depending on where we go. That can be as much as a meal!
I got hooked on 3-in-1 coffee while in CM, and I get excited to find them in the grocery store here in Canada!
Haha really? Well, we’re glad you found them halfway across the globe!
We have the same problem here in China. Lots of tea of course but no proper coffee.We have to go downtown to the big METRO German supermarket to get that.
Hopefully you stock up while you’re out. Sounds like a few good bags of whole beans and a nice grinder is a good investment!
I do like the cardamon in my coffee over the years of trying arabic style coffee. Its interesting how different places do it similarly and differently as well too…
I don’t really care much for instant coffee overall. I prefer the regular brewed kind. Yeah lots of countries are huge into the instant coffee for some reason…
Cardamon is delicious! Since writing this, we’ve found our favorite shop to buy local coffee beans and they grind them for us. We also bought a French press from there. It’s called Hillkoff Coffee and it’s just outside the moat near the Chang Puak (North) Gate in Chiang Mai.
Never thought of adding cardamom to coffee before, but I’ve used it to make home-made chai. I’ll have to try that sometime.
We were inspired to add cardamom to our coffee after regularly drinking Vietnamese styled drip coffee whenever we went out to eat pho. It adds an exotic pop to the coffee :)
There is a Chang Mai Coffee company in CM.
JC has done a video of it in his member site.
REAL Coffee maker Real Beans any way you like.
TRY maps and More it may be listed as he lists several places.
I plan on doing the move in 5 yrs. And Coffee is my Daily deal.
Have fun living the dream.
;-)
Thanks for the advice, John. We’ll look through JC’s blog for the exact location of Chiang Mai’s coffee supply place and take a trip there to fulfill our coffee needs!