Cafés & brunch in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the coffee capital of Thailand, and that is a deliberate outcome rather than a trend. From the late 1960s the Royal Project introduced arabica to the Northern hills as a substitute crop for opium poppy, working with Hmong, Karen and Akha communities across Doi Chang, Doi Tung and the surrounding highlands. Sixty years later those hills produce most of Thailand's specialty coffee, and it is grown, processed, roasted and drunk within a couple of hours' drive of the city.

What that means for a visitor is that "single origin" here is a supply chain rather than a marketing word. A café in Nimman can plausibly name the farm, and the roaster is frequently the same business. It also means prices are low by any specialty-coffee standard, and that the café density in this city is genuinely extraordinary.

The brunch layer grew out of the same long-stay population that supports the coffee — garden cafés on the city's edges, all-day breakfast rooms in the old town, and the mountain-view places up towards Doi Suthep and Mae Rim that are as much an outing as a meal. This category also collects the roti and street-dessert end of the city's sweet cooking, which is an evening business rather than a morning one.

How to use this list

Ask where the beans are from. In most of the world this is an affectation. Here it will get you a specific hill and often a specific farm, and it is the fastest way to find the serious roasters.

Garden cafés are a drive. Several of the best-rated places in this category are in Mae Rim or up the mountain — thirty to forty minutes out, and worth planning around rather than dropping into.

Roti is not breakfast. The carts appear in the evening. If you are looking for the banana-and-condensed-milk version, come back after dinner.