What's Wrong With This Coffee? - Laos 2014

The famed table for wanderers

Erin

A story for all you coffee lovers now, and one that will have you purchasing a ticket and rushing off to Laos!

We had been in Luang Prabang for a couple of days by this point and I’d been thoroughly enjoying the free tea, coffee and banana that was offered by the guesthouse we stayed in. I’d mention the guesthouse name, but it’s already too popular for its own good, so keep it quiet I shall.

The matriarch of the guesthouse had been stocking a coffee known as Dao. It was a Laotian instant coffee. To those who don’t usually have instant coffee, don’t knock it ‘til you try it. It can be incredibly delicious if it’s done correctly.

Laos, as you may be surprised to know, is a producer of some seriously delicious  coffee. So delicious in fact that it puts popular brands in the west to shame, as you shall see.

I went down to the table, previously mentioned in a post about Laos - the beacon for wanderers table - and made myself a coffee. I didn’t pay any attention to the type of coffee I used, but went about my business, sat down at the table, took out my phone and started perusing Facebook and the like. I waited for the coffee to cool and then took the first sip, usually effervescent, especially in the morning.

Except that morning I nearly spat it out. Something was dreadfully wrong. The coffee was horrible. Disgusting even. It tasted like warmed up, liquid cardboard. It was disappointing to say the least, it did taste gross, kind of like burned, over roasted coffee.

“What’s wrong with this coffee?” I thought. I went inside immediately and looked at the coffee available in the little box I’d taken it from. Sure enough, it wasn’t Dao.

It was fucking Nescafe.

So remember kids, Laotian coffee makes coffee that is normally considered to be pretty decent back home taste like re-roasted coffee filtered through damp cardboard. Seek out the Dao. You won’t be disappointed.