Nye

Paksong Lao Coffee

Photos from my Laos Trip.

I love coffee and would have loved to visit a coffee plantation, especially the one in Paksong Laos. Paksong is located in Southern Laos at the Bolaven Plateau in the Champasak province, only 1 hour from Pakse. Below is a map of Paksong for my personal reference, and also for those that are interested in visiting.


Also a map from the Bolaven Plateau, 4 is Pakse, 6 is Paksong, and 5 is Tat Lo.

According to teacoffeeasia.com, in the past 20 years Lao coffee has gone through a series of transitions. These two decades have seen more changes in the ways Lao coffee is grown and roasted than in the preceding 80 years.

The coffee history of Laos started over 100 years ago, when the French, the colonial masters of Indochina, were experimenting with various crops in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Coffee quickly became popular among Vietnamese and Lao farmers: those were the days of robusta glory, and robusta was the least demanding and the most productive cash crop after opium.

I find it interesting of the roasting technique, some Lao coffee are roasted locally, “with sugar and a drop of Cognac in a steel drum revolving over open fire. This roasting technique survived wars and revolutions, as did the century-old French machinery. As a result, on any given morning in Vientiane, or elsewhere in Laos, you can make a choice between a cup of black coffee, a cup of coffee with condensed milk, or a variety of iced coffee drinks, all of them strong, most often very sweet, giving you all the energy in the world if you are not too concerned about your sugar levels.” This is definitely a sweet treat, something for me to look forward to.


Making coffee Lao-style at Pasaneyom Coffee Shop, Luang Prabang, photo by RealThai.

I found a Paksong, the Lao Coffee Capital website that has interesting information about the area, and also has a coffee workshop that is worth checking out.

Updated 2/21/2009: The two photos below are provided by www.Paksong.info.

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I also love the coffee flowers, clusters of flowers grow at the base of the leaves, they are white flowers with a sweet jasmine or orange-like fragrance, I could imagine what it‘d smell like at the coffee plantation during their blossoms.

Coffee beans are also beautiful.

Photos from my Laos Trip.

If you’re in Laos and a coffee lover, trying Lao coffee is a must, I know I would.

29 comments

  2. Once more you are sharing very interesting photos and information about production of daily food ( coffee ), that we often doesn´t know much about until it comes to the shops. I think you are very good at explaining.

  3. Hi giiid, I’m glad that you like the post, and I wasn’t sure if I did a good job because this is more of a personal references (I‘m learning as I‘m blogging kind of thing,) and Laos export a very small percentage in comparison to other countries that also grow coffee crops such as Brazil, one of the largest coffee exporting nation, then there are Columbia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, India, Philippine, Vietnam, Thailand, just to name a few.

  4. I also love coffee, the smell makes me happy too. Visiting a coffee plantation sound like fun.

    The coffee blossoms are pretty, they remind me of honeysuckle flowers. Great pictures and info. 🙂

    One of these days, I will have to get myself some cafe Lao.

  5. Salat, this is on my to-do list if I’m in the area, and I’ve heard so much about Lao coffee that I have to try it for myself. The coffee flowers are beautiful but short-lived and wither after a few days, you’ve to be in the area to see it but thank goodness there are pictures to share, or otherwise some of us might not know what they look like.

    • Hi Coffee, thank you so much for the coffee flowers, they are beautiful and I posted right below your website information. I also moved your comment from ‘About’ page to this post, thanks again. 🙂

  10. Nye, I wonder if some of coffee from Laos made it to North America markets? I should do some research if there some Starbucks coffee from Laos. Dao coffee from Laos is pretty good.

    • Hi seeharhed, I’m not sure but I think small stores carry them, you just have to look for them, I would think there would be more in CA than anywhere in the States. It was hard for me to bring back Lao coffee, a lot of hassle and delay due to my 2 bags of coffee, at one point I asked the guy in Kunming China if he wants to keep it, he just smiled, I can’t say he understood me.

      I do love Lao coffee, the way that they fix it in Laos is so rich, I’d have a diabetes if I drink like that everyday, and I did drink Lao coffee everyday when we were there, some place would give you hot tea to wash it down, kind of nice.

      • Nye Ginger!

        Where did they served you coffee with hot tea?
        I had it in Pakse but they didn’t serve it that way in Vientiane. I am wondering if this is only popular in the South.

        • Dallas, I had it in Paksan, and when I went to Luang Prabang we had to ask for the hot tea, I guess we kind of got spoiled by the people in Paksan, then everywhere else we went, we had to ask for hot tea except for Pakse, must be the Southern hospitality. 🙂

      • Nye, yes lao style of serving coffee is super sweet. I got used it, after about 2 weeks at the coffee shop with my grandpa. Every morning, he would wake me up and ask me to join him at the coffee shop. I love spending time with grandpa and I miss him. Makes me wants to go back to Laos sooner.

        After few days, I had him figured out. It is not like he wants me to pay for his coffee. He wants to show off to his buddies at coffee shop that one of his nephew is visiting.

        • seeharhed, as for me it was just my dad and I at the coffee shop and we met some locals that were there every morning. Some knew that we were visiting my aunts but thought that we were from Pakse, and one man even told my dad that my aunt has an oldest brother in America and asked if he ever visited his oldest brother, my dad just smiled. Then at the end of our stay, one of my cousins joined us at the coffee shop, and he told everyone that my dad is the oldest brother from America. I kind of feel bad and thought that it would have been better if they still think that we were from Pakse.

          • A cup of Starbucks coffee in my hand reading this article, life is good!
            They look at me as I am crazy when order coffee in Laos, because my coffee is no sugar or cream…
            If one day I go back to live in Laos, Paksong would be my place for having cool weather.

            • San – The road and bridges to Paksong need to be upgrade or fixed. Those pothole on the road and big hole on the bridge is hazardous for anyone with a small car. I would love to live there too and come down to Pakse once in a while. Vientiane is just too crowded for me.

              • Dallas, it’d be ideal to have a pickup truck. I think it’d be a big move for most of us, I do like the simple life and would definitely farm if I were to live there, but that’s only in my dream.

                • For me a motorcycle is good, less than $700 I got me a brand new Kolao bike, very afficient machine can go even places that truck can’t go, my last trip, I put on that bike more than 10,000kms and no problem.

                  • san, that’s a lot of mileage, you must have stayed in Laos for a long time, I only put in my car about half of that in a year. I noticed many people use motorbike, and the hotel that we stayed in Vientiane also have some for rental.

            • san, Paksong is real nice, next to Luang Prabang it is an ideal place to live in Laos. Coffee in Laos is very rich, I drank it with the condensed milk that they filled up to half the cup, I guess I didn’t want to change things but it was too sweet for me, good thing that they serve hot tea with that to wash it down.

              • Nye- I like to invite you for a taste of my favorit coffee ” The cowboy coffee” very potent that you put the horse shoe in it and the horseshoe will float!

                • san, I’ve never heard of the cowboy coffee and had to look it up. That is some strong coffee, not sure if I could handle it, I don’t normally drink my coffee black. I guess drinking Lao coffee without the cream would be compatible to the cowboy coffee then.

  13. I love to try Lao coffee but don’t know where to buy and how much it is.

    I hope you don’t mind to give me the details.

    • Hi Anne, I got mine from Laos, and not sure who you can get this from. You might have a better luck contacting these people at Jhai Coffee, hopefully they’ll have a list of their distributors that you can purchase Lao coffee from.

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