Laos Paksong Hills

At lighter roasts, citrus fruit notes dominate, with a pleasant sweetness in the cup. Moving into medium roast range, the tart citrus notes are displaced by sweet caramelized sugars, clean and clear. Darker roasts retain some brown sugar and caramel sweetness and begin leaning into bittersweet chocolate notes. Our default roast on this bean is dark, but we love it at any roast level — always a crisp, clean flavor and a satisfying mug.

Though agriculture is one of the main driving forces of the Laotian economy, coffee is not what Laos is known for. Production is low, especially in comparison to neighboring Vietnam, the 2nd largest world coffee supplier. Most of Laos’ coffee is grown in an area called the Bolaven Plateau, a mountain range that is very near to the Vietnam border, with altitudes averaging 1200 meters, and micro-climates conducive to growing coffee. Part of the slow growth is the staggering amount of unexploded bombs (thought to be in the tens of millions), a bi-product of the Vietnam war. Coffee made it’s way to Laos during the French colonial period in the early 20th C, and has remained a cash-crop for villagers in the Bolaven Plateau ever since. This coffee is from that region, Paksong village in Champasak to be exact, and is made up of coffee from small farms in and around that area. The coffee is sold to a central mill near Paksong where it is processed. They do fairly intensive grading to cut down on defects in the final sort too. They also are doing separations of the different cultivars they grow. This lot is Typica, one of the oldest coffee varieties to be disseminated around the world, and known for positive cup attributes.