THE SANÈHA COFFEE ROASTER

chiang mai has quietly become one of southeast asia's most serious coffee cities, built on access to northern thai highland beans and a local roasting culture that keeps getting more technically ambitious. hang dong, the district south of the city proper, sits a little outside the usual tourist drag, which tends to mean the places that do well there are doing so on substance. the sanèha coffee roaster, out on sanpakwan 31, is one of those places. if you make the trip down amphoe hang dong, you'll find a roaster that its regulars return to with a consistency that isn't casual loyalty. the reputation here has accumulated slowly, the way it does when a place isn't leaning on foot traffic. worth arriving in the morning, before the day gets away from you.