Meet Khun Jaroon. He grows coffee inside a forest.

Every coffee we sell carries the name of the farmer who grew it. Not a region or an estate. A person. That changes how we source, what we pay, and why we keep going back to the same families year after year. This is about Jaroon Chaipin, from Khun Lao in Chiang Rai. We have been working with him for nine years.

Fifty years of family farming, under the forest canopy

Jaroon farms in Khun Lao, Chiang Rai, alongside his wife and daughter. His family has been working this land for fifty years. Ninety percent of the farm sits under old-growth forest canopy. He does not clear trees to make room for more coffee. He grows inside the forest, and the shade that comes with it slows down how the cherry develops. You can taste the difference.

He processes the coffee three ways: honey, washed, and natural. He also produces cascara from the dried cherry, so nothing from the harvest goes to waste. We have been buying from him for nine years, at prices well above the local market.

He said something once that has stayed with us. Walking his farm, he talked about growing coffee together with the forest, not instead of it. A relationship where both benefit. It is a simple idea and a fairly rare one.

Why shade-grown coffee tastes different

Shade-grown coffee takes longer to ripen, and that extra time shows in the cup. More complexity, a cleaner finish, less of the flatness you get when pushing for yield. For Jaroon's washed lot, brew at 93 degrees C with a medium grind. Give it a 30-second bloom before you start pouring. This is coffee that rewards a little patience.

Direct trade Thai coffee from Northern Thailand

Left Hand Roasters sources 100% of its coffee directly from named farming families across Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, and Tak Province. No intermediaries. Every receipt documented. Khun Jaroon's coffee is available in 1kg bags, roasted fresh in Chiang Mai and shipped within two days of your order.