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Five and a half hours by road from Chiang Mai, then another two or three bumping along dirt tracks through the mountains. No electricity, no running water and not one bar of phone signal. That’s the trip to Pasemuta, a small village in Mae Tuen, and the beans grown up here end up in flat whites some 1,000km south on Koh Phangan.
Robin Vos, founder of Bubba’s Coffee Roasters, Koh Phangan, heads north to see his growers every year. He meets farmer Chang Plao in 2016 at the Farmer Village section of Bangkok’s Thailand Coffee Festival, where producers pour samples of their own harvest. Chang Plao is there with his wife and daughter, dressed in traditional clothing. ‘He was incredibly kind, and the coffee was very flavourful,’ says Robin. The pair keep in touch until Chang Plao invites him up to see the farm.
Phuket locals know how it goes when an island gets reduced to one nightlife strip. Koh Phangan has the same problem with the Full Moon Party. Spend a morning here, though, and you meet yoga teachers, divers, DJs, long-term expats and Thai families grabbing breakfast before work. Plenty of them start the day at Bubba’s.
Robin first visits the island in 2006, aged 15, on holiday with his parents. At 21 he moves to Melbourne and takes a job in coffee, picking up the city’s brunch habit. Back on Koh Phangan two years later, he notices the gap. ‘There was no eggs benedict or avocado toast,’ he says. So in 2015 he opens his own place. The name comes from his baby nephew, who can’t pronounce Robin and calls him Bubba instead. The family adopts it, and so does the café.
A roastery opens in 2018 at Haad Yao on the west coast, and Robin starts buying directly from farms up north. Green beans grown in Thailand cost more than those from big exporters abroad, and most of the country’s crop gets drunk at home, so it rarely shows up overseas. ‘These are not distant suppliers we never meet,’ he says.
A decade ago most growers stick to Catimor and the classic washed, honey and natural methods. Now a younger generation of Thai farmers experiments with new varieties and processing, often working alongside roasters such as Brave Roasters. So Robin pays less attention to regions and more to individual plots and the people who roast what they grow.
Today Bubba’s runs three cafés. The original sits in Baan Tai, the roastery café in Haad Yao and the newest spot in Thong Sala, a few minutes’ walk from the ferry pier. Expect a busy, air-conditioned room, sourdough from local bakers, cheese from Chiang Mai and a hand-poured V60 brewed with single origins from the estates he works with. Bags of Pasemuta Natural sit on the shelf if you want to take some home.
From Phuket, it’s a one-hour Bangkok Airways flight to Samui and then a short ferry to Thong Sala. Order a flat white near the pier and see the island for yourself. As Robin puts it, ‘We want people to understand that it is much more than just a party island.’
Bubba’s Coffee Roasters has cafés in Baan Tai, Haad Yao and Thong Sala on Koh Phangan. All three open daily, 7am-5pm. For menus and more information, head to the official website.