The best Chiang Mai cafes for coffee lovers serious about their coffee are the third wave cafes and specialty coffee roasters that opened in Chiang Mai over a decade ago, such as Akha Ama, Ponganes, Ristr8to, and Graph Café. Distinguished by their artisanal approach, ethical sourcing of single origin beans, outstanding baristas, and award-winning latte art, these pioneering cafes are still serving up some of Chiang Mai’s best coffee.
After Phuket, the Northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, the former Lanna capital, is the next most popular tourist destination in Thailand. Famed for its fantastic food, historic temples, atmospheric markets, terrific shopping, and ethical elephant experiences and trekking opportunities in the surrounding mountains, Chiang Mai is one of the world’s best coffee destinations.
You’ll love Chiang Mai if you’re the kind of traveller who packs an AeroPress and good coffee is important to you when you travel. Chiang Mai has a coffee scene to rival that of Melbourne — Australia’s coffee capital has more than 2,000 cafes, the highest number of cafes per person in the world, in a country where a cafe is never far away and the coffee is generally excellent.
Many of Chiang Mai’s best cafés are owned by Thai baristas who trained in Australia and are schooled in the Australian-style of coffee making and coffee roasting. Passionate about sourcing quality single-origin coffee beans, supporting responsible coffee growers in their country, and in most cases roasting their own beans, the best Chiang Mai coffee shops see coffee-making as a craft.
We first covered the best Chiang Mai cafes for stories on the city and Chiang Mai’s emerging cafe scene way back in 2013-14 for food and travel magazines. When I recently compiled a list of the best Chiang Mai coffee shops for a coffee-loving traveller, I realised that the cafes that sparked Chiang Mai’s coffee revolution remain the city’s best. I also realised that I’d never shared that list here. Better late than never!
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Best Chiang Mai Cafes Are the Pioneering Third Wave Cafes and Coffee Roasters
Once upon a time, travellers trundled through the jungle on the breezy overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai for the ancient temples, delicious Northern Thai food, arts and crafts markets, elephants, and hill-tribe treks. Terence and I went for exactly the same reasons on our first trip to Thailand in 2005.
Travellers would trudge around Chiang Mai’s walled old city in the searing heat, sliding off their flip-flops and tying a sarong around their sun-tanned legs, to slip into yet another mosaic-covered pagoda to photograph the umpteenth golden Buddha for which the northern Thai capital has long been famous.
In between temples, they’d slurp bowls of creamy khao soi, Chiang Mai’s spiced coconut noodle soup, for which it’s also famous, and in the evenings they’d bargain for hill tribe handicrafts at the night bazaar. When they’d had their fill of gold leaf and Buddha images, they’d book an elephant walk or trek and take to the lush surrounding mountains for a day or three.
Now travellers, local and foreign alike, are heading to Chiang Mai for another reason: the superb coffee and vibrant cafe scene. They’re not punctuating sights and activities with a cafe or two. They’re squeezing in Chiang Mai’s attractions between their ristrettos and lattes.
No longer are they armed with highlighted-Lonely Planet guidebooks, they have lists of cafés that do the best pour-overs pinned to Google maps, which they’ll review on TikTok – after they’ve shared a video of the barista preparing their coffees, and Instagrammed the latte art.
The city’s increasingly youthful local population — Chiang Mai is a university town and a popular destination for artsy young Bangkokians seeking a tree-change — also loves Chiang Mai’s outstanding coffee and excellent cafes. In Chiang Mai, coffee is more than a kick-start to the day. Locals drop in to their favourite cafes throughout the day and linger. The lower price of coffee in Thailand helps.
But while coffee-loving tourists and increasingly-discerning locals are responsible for the sheer number of cafes, having helped to raise the bar when it comes to both the quality of the coffee and design of coffee houses, some of Chiang Mai’s best cafes are the pioneering first third wave coffee shops that kicked off Chiang Mai’s heady coffee scene.
Best Chiang Mai Cafes
The best Chiang Mai cafes are the pioneering third wave cafes that kickstarted Chiang Mai’s coffee revolution.
Akha Ama Cafes
The Akha Ama cafes, the first of which opened in 2010, are operated as part of the social enterprise launched by founder Lee Ayu Chuepa — one of the young Thai entrepreneurs responsible for igniting Chiang Mai’s coffee revolution — with the aim of pulling his Akha hill tribe community out of poverty.
Lee was the first person in his village to study at university and it was during his first job after graduating, working for an NGO, that he saw the potential of growing coffee beans in the hills around his village near Chiang Rai, and worked with the community to establish organic coffee farms.
The citrusy organic Arabica beans used in the Akha Ama cafés are sustainably grown in the village coffee plantations and have been internationally recognised for their quality, including receiving certification by the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe.
There are now three Akha Ama cafes in Chiang Mai — and two in Japan! — including our favourite on Rachadamnoen Road, which is super handy if you’re staying in the Old City and temple-hopping. Make sure to buy a bag of Akha Ama beans, the perfect Chiang Mai souvenir. Akha Ama Cafes: Akha Ama Phrasingh, 175 Rachadamnoen Rd and 9/1 Hassadhisawee Rd, Chiang Mai.
Ponganes Coffee Roasters
When Sydney-trained ‘Pong’ opened his cafe Ponganes in 2010, he was roasting beans singlehandedly and was the first Chiang Mai cafe to import a sophisticated coffee roasting machine. We were there the day it arrived.
Now called Ponganes Coffee Roasters and focusing on roasting, Pong and his team roast single origin coffee beans sourced from small, fair trade coffee farms around Chiang Mai and beyond – everywhere from Ethiopia to Costa Rica.
However, it’s the local beans that make the perfect souvenir from Chiang Mai for coffee lovers. Staff can advise you what to buy based on your taste in coffee.
If you’re a fan of a lighter-style of coffee that still some body to it, hope they have beans from Sopa’s Estate from Chiang Mai’s Omkoi district in stock. Coffee producer Sopha has worked very closely with farmers in the village to elevate their berry quality to a level that has seen it named the best at coffee auctions.
Or if you prefer to drink your espresso coffee short and strong, ask if they have some Catimor beans roasting from Lica Coffee Estate in Chiang Mai’s Mae Daet Noi district. The beans boast notes of wild honey, dark fruits and vanilla.
This is thanks partly to the honey process favoured by Arabica producers in the region, where the skin and pulp are removed, but the honey (more correctly called ‘mucilage’) remains.
If they don’t, staff can advise you want to take home, and naturally you can also try before you buy. Ponganese Coffee Roasters, 133/5 Ratchapakhinai Rd, Tambon Si Phum, Amphoe Mueang Chiang Mai,
Ristr8to Original
Like many of Chiang Mai’s pioneering third wave baristas, coffee roasters and café owners, multi-award-winning barista and latte art champion Arnon ‘Tong’ Thitiprasert, who opened Ristr8to in 2011, trained in Australia.
Tong spent five years working for leading Australian coffee roasting companies including Campos and Toby’s Estate, before opening his own coffee bar on beautiful Cronulla Beach, one of Sydney’s most glorious stretches of sand.
During his time in Australia, Tong won his first of many awards and titles, 2003 World Barista Champion and 2007 World Latte Art Champion, before returning to Thailand to establish what many coffee experts consider to be one of Chiang Mai’s best cafes for seriously good Australian-style coffee.
While Ristr8to has a ‘gourmet menu’ with an array of imaginative coffees, I recommend starting with a classic Italian ristretto, from which the café takes its name. A double shot ristretto was standard for ristretto orders when Tong launched the original cafe.
A ristretto is made from the first 15-20ml extraction of syrupy coffee, which for lovers of older-style Italian coffee has the heady aromas, full body, rich caramel flavour, and perfect acidity, unlike an espresso which can often be too bitter.
Coffee aficionados will definitely want to order a Doppio Ristretto (a double), which is the best form for appreciating the distinctive tastes of single origin.
If you’re not a serious coffee drinker, then opt for something with a crema so you can snap some award-winning latte art. Ristr8to Original, 15/3 Nimmanahaeminda Road, Tambon Su Thep, Amphoe Mueang, Chiang Mai.
Please do let us know if you get to any of the best Chiang Mai cafes, as we’d love to know what you think of them. We’d also love to get your tips to your favourite Chiang Mai coffee shops.
