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| Move over East Timor. While the world’s newest state boasts some of earth’s most prized coffee beans, new competition arises from another Asian land nearly as remote: Laos. This landlocked mountainous country wedged between Vietnam and Thailand, produces some of the world’s best organic coffee. |
| Plantations not harvested since French colonial days have been resurrected to meet a world-wide demand for terroir-based beans, and the Boloven Plateau, centered around Pakse in the country’s south, is ideal. Although its high-ph volcanic soil sits seemingly on flatlands compared to the country’s mountainous north, it's still a high elevation at around 3000 feet (800-1250 metres). Add a cool micro-climate with plenty of rain, and you’ve got the perfect perk.
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| Although neighbouring Vietnam rapidly overtook most countries in the 1990s to become one of the world’s top three coffee producers, tiny Laos with a population of just 6 million will never reach those numbers. Current production is a miserly 20,000 tones per year, and although this make coffee Laos’ fifth largest export, compare this to Vietnam’s peak of 900,000 and Indonesia’s 500,000 tones. |
| Surprisingly, larger robusta beans are often preferred over Arabica by the locals – both for its higher caffeine, but also excellent taste. But be aware: the country’s mountainous and jungle covered north is also coming into production. But save these beans for tourist trinkets. Their clay-soil output is nothing compared to the Boloven Plains beans. |
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