Thai Coffee & Chocolate Tasting in Muang Thong Thani
As someone who has been living here since the last century, I am still occasionally amazed by how fast Thailand suddenly embraced coffee. Considering how I started here by drinking either instant or Thai traditional coffee for many years, this change is definitely revolutionary!
A few days ago I stumbled upon the announcement of Thailand Coffee Fest 2023 (*) and passed it on to one of my coffee-loving friends, Leo.
The only problem seemed the location, Impact Arena in dreaded Muang Thong Thani, which to me is similar to the dark side of the moon (**)...
Luckily Leo managed to persuade me to join him on a coffee fact-finding expedition in the bowels of that horrible place.
We met at Victory Monument, where after 20+ minutes of waiting in vain for bus 166, decided to forget about public transport, and grabbed a taxi. A little over half an hour later we stood in front of Impact.
For the first (week!) day of such an event, it was quite busy, lots of interest!
Both of us had never seen so many different local (& a few foreign) coffee brands before.
Besides heaps of coffee stands, there were also tea and bakery products on sale.
No lack of camera crews either, this was a serious event!
Assorted coffee-related products, such as incredibly fancy grinders and roasters were on show as well.
First we bought two cups of pretty good coffee, but afterwards we just tried the samples that were offered at most stands.
A very pleasant surprise was a locally produced chocolate maker: Siamaya (***)
Their Khao Soi Northern Curry Chocolate (I know, it sounds unreal!) tasted fantastic!
Lots of baristas showed off their brewing skills.
I don't remember how many kinds of coffee we tried, but probably a hell of a lot.
Luckily there were some stands offering samples of fruit juices as well.
If you ever consider starting a collection of coffee cups, this is the place!
Demonstration of a one-cup Italian Roast drip coffee.
Cool T-shirt!
Some stands went overboard on decoration.
I thought that was a rather weird name for coffee, but who cares?!
A very colorful syrup stand.
I always love well-designed posters!
Some history as well with the Aroma Group stand showcasing expresso machines from the past!
Beautiful!
And there came my sample coffee mocktail from Boncafe!
It tasted like it looked, excellent!
Interested? You have until July 16 time to check it out!
Also featured was a photo booth, offering a free ThailandCoffeeFest2023 photo session, so I decided to give it a try instead of taking a selfie. The first attempt ended in "error", the second one (kind of) succeeded and was handed over to me with a big smile...
(**) NOT Pink Floyd!
Amazing!