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c Origin

and control production? How the marketing will be imple- started his first coffee shop the original concept was to use Illy’s
mented? Who will be in charge to make sure that quality is not coffee and tea. After a while Javier realized that there is some
jeopardized. Farmers I spoke to want higher price for their potentials in specialty coffee market with proper equipments,
specialty coffee due to intensive labor involved to produce high correct ratios of coffee and water, extraction, execution and
quality coffee, and they feel like international organizations and presentation, and that coffee is no longer commodity but like
even US and European buyers take advantage of them. They are any other agricultural product varies by seasonality and requires
not reluctant to sell their coffee for $4 per kg and would like to more in understanding flavor, terroir, and bring the best out of
have more compensation in order to sustain themselves for all it. So, journey into specialty transformation of his coffee shop
efforts and labor they put to make coffee special. They want to started. He started learning roasting with some mistakes and
see themselves being motivated, financially stable to provide trials until he mastered his skill. New “third wave” movement
their families and stay on float during off season. underwent facelift of his specialty coffee shop, where manual
pour over method, V60 was introduced to customers , something
SPECIALTY COFFEE MARKET OF MYANMAR you do not see anywhere else in Yangon. Compare to other cof-
fee producing regions where import of coffees from other regions
Specialty coffee market of Myanmar is new and slowly is prohibited, Myanmar is more flexible when it comes to it.
developing but most specialty coffee shop owners I spoke to Coffee shops have an opportunity to import coffees from other
mentioned one thing to me that local consuming power demands producing regions, like Brazil, Costa Rica, Kenya, Ethiopia and
dark roast rather than light because the habit and cultural eti- sell them in domestic market. But the most shocking part of all
quette of consuming coffee drink is rooted in old tradition. But, this, is the difficulty in finding Myanmar coffee in specialty cof-
nevertheless, specialty coffee scene is moving forward. I visited fee shops around Yangon. Amy VanNocker of Myanmar Coffee
Easy Coffee owned by young entrepreneurs from Singapore, Group said that besides high quality coffee being exported to
Javier and Melissa Phua. They run their own roastery, Gentleman other countries, Myanmar coffee is expensive for local coffee
Coffee Roasters and two coffee shops in Yangon. Javier said that shop owners to purchase and they shift to more less expensive
previously he was in finance in Singapore and used to come coffees from other countries. She also underlined the fact that
often to Myanmar, and idea was to move to the country for locals coffee from Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya sound more
and start new business. He embarked into cof- exotic and attractive even if its bad quality
fee business without having any knowledge comparing with coffee from Myanmar.
about coffee, quality, roasting and demand. But with the leadership of Sithar Cof-
But he just wanted to leave crazy and bus- fee and Myanmar Coffee Group new plan
tling, tiring life of Singapore. When he was developed to keep high quality coffee
of Myanmar within the local market for
consumption in 50/50 range where custom-
ers (local or visitors) would also benefit in
trying and understanding Myanmar coffee as demand
is much higher now according to Javier Phua. Easy coffee is
The art of people is a true mirror settled in nice and quiet residential area populated mostly by
expats where you could meet people from UK, US, other Euro-
of their mind pean countries who made Myanmar their home. With an effort
of Winrock Group, Javier was able to get Q class exam and fi-
nally became Q grader which helps him a lot when he travels to
North to judge cupping competition of Myanmar’s best coffee.
I had incredible opportunity to taste the coffee from 2016
cupping competition winner that was brewed for me by Me-
lissa Phua using V60. It was old coffee but it stood for its great
flavor and gave me the first glimpse of how Myanmar coffee
tastes. It was very juicy with delicate acidity, slight bitterness
more like grapefruit, with plum and cranberries as the most
dominant flavors. It was WOW moment to know you just dis-
covered what you were looking for.
Next specialty coffee shop on the map was Coffee Circles
located on Dhammazedi Road and owned by two broth-
ers. Zaw-Phone, one of the brothers who owns the
shop was in Vietnam judging Barista Competi-
tion by the time I came to Coffee Circles.
We finally made an arrangement to meet