Is it hard to import coffee beans?
Yes. Coffee is not easy an product to import. The tax is probably 100% of the cost, and the number of importers is also limited.

What makes a good cup of coffee?
Before the coffee reaches you, it goes through about 40 hands to grow, tend, harvest, process and roast. The final step is the barista, who probably plays the most important role. A good barista needs to really know their coffee, so that they can get the most potential out of all the different beans. They need to respect what they do.

How do your customers have their coffee?
The coffee drinking culture is growing slowly. Not so many people want to invest a lot in good coffee. But fortunately, we have a small group of customers who understand what we’re doing, and we hope it’s getting better. Hopefully, it’s only 3-4 years until Thailand becomes a lively café hub like Singapore.

What’s the current state of the Thai coffee industry?
It’s better compared to the past. But with only a few years until the AEC comes in, I’m quite concerned for our farmers, as the prices for Thai coffee might drop.

What are your plans for the near future?
We’re going to open a place called The Roots, between Ekkamai Sois 15 and 17 in April. It’ll be more like a roast factory-lab, plus a coffee bar. It will be all about coffee and we’ll be using the cold brew method. There’ll also be lessons in basic and advanced latte art and more.

Any advice for those who want to open a café?
Firstly, you need to ask yourself why you want to have a café and who is it for. If you’re in the coffee industry, you need to learn about coffee, be service-minded and love drinking it. Make sure that you really love what you do.