There's some new kids on the block in specialty coffee.
With global demand for great specialty coffee growing year after year, it's not surprising that more and more countries are taking coffee farming and production a little more seriously.
Here are our top 3 picks for the most exciting origins to watch out for over the next few years.
China
In the South West Corner of China is the countries mountainous Yunnan province.
I took this photo back in 2018, a little North of the main coffee growing areas and just outside of Lijang. It's not the best quality, but it gives you an idea of the terrain.
Right on the edge of Yunnan, butting up against the border with Myanmar, are the 4 main coffee growing areas in the Yunnan region.
Baoshan, Dehong, Lincang and Pu'er produce almost all of the coffee grown in China.
The market for quality coffee inside China domestically has seen nothing short of rampaging growth over recent years.
Worth just over $2 billion USD in 2023 and forecast to grow to 2.26 billion by 2028, the demand for coffee in China isn't slowing down.
Spurred by this domestic demand and the rising international interest, there's some serious efforts being made within Yunnan to increase both production capacity and quality.
According to China Briefing:
"...in August 2022, several departments from Yunnan’s local government issued Measures for Promoting the Improvement of the Rate of Fine Coffee Products and the Rate of Deep Processing (Measures). The goal is to increase the production rate of high-quality beans in the region by 30 percent and the rate of intensive and deep processing of coffee by 80 percent – within the next two years – as part of efforts to transform Yunnan into an important area for high-quality global coffee production." - source.
China, and more specifically the Yunnan region, is one of our top ones to watch over the coming years.
Myanmar
Just across the boarder from Yunnan in neighbouring Myanmar, there's a similar realization happening, albeit with a few less resources to put behind it.
We wrote about Myanmar recently in our Myanmar coffee origin guide.
Obviously it's a country with more than its fair share of political and social struggles.
Between political and social unrest, military dictatorships and one of the longest running civil wars in the world, the specialty coffee industry's development and growth over the last couple of decades largely passed Myanmar by.
Coffee has been grown commercially here for the best part of the last 150 years, but there's never been any real concerted effort to improve quality.
So much so, that up until the last few years, it's been rare to see Myanmar coffee being sold anywhere outside of Myanmar or its close neighbouring countries.
But in recent years, that's started to change.
When the country opened up to the outside world in 2014, coffee professionals have been eager to help push innovation and coffee quality throughout Myanmar's main coffee growing regions.
The rate of change here in recent years is pretty much unparalleled anywhere else in the world, and we're now starting to see some great coffees come out of Mandalay and Shan State (where most of the countries coffee is grown).
Both washed and natural coffees here tend to be very clean.
Thailand
Robusta and low quality Arabicas have been grown in the lowlands in southern Thailand for a long time.
But further up north, in the hillier Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai regions, there's a movement under way.
Dubbed by the Thai King as the "Royal Project", there's been a huge push to transform the countries wild north from a leading producer of opium poppies, to other crops, like coffee!
Over the last few decades, Royal Project has spurred the development of the countries specialty coffee program.
There are small micro mills popping up across the north, all producing highly traceable lots of increasing quality season after season.
There's a lot of young coffee farmers here who are keen to experiment and improve, and it's paying off.
With the Thai government placing high tariffs on imported coffee and a huge demand for high quality specialty coffee in major cities like Bangkok, the incentives for these young farmers to keep pushing coffee quality higher are huge.
They also have a lot of great heirloom Bourbon and Typica varietals growing there thanks to the original Royal Project that are producing some great cup scores recently.
All of this combined means that Thailand is another origin well worth watching, and you're likely to see Thai coffees popping up in specialty coffee roasters offerings more and more.