On long weekends, the road from Bangkok to Hua Hin resembles a faulty production line. City dwellers racing to beat the rush, often end up cooled by car air conditioning instead of ocean winds. Once they eventually arrive, what awaits them is sun, sea and superb coffee. That weekend-bump helps keep many small businesses afloat, fostering a market for people with discerning tastes.
Three hours south of Bangkok, Hua Hin is home to a large expat population, and a growing number of creatives looking for more space and better air quality. With one of the longest beaches in Thailand, the shoreline is crowded with hotels and seafood restaurants. The small downtown strip is packed with lively markets, night-food stalls, bars, and boutiques. With over 10 million visitors per year, the demand is there.
Hua Hin has a well-established specialty coffee scene. Perhaps the proximity to Bangkok, or the fact that many foreigners call it home, means that they receive regular customers throughout the year—not just seasonal blips. Having spent months exploring the coffee scene, the vibe here is very inclusive. Owners visit each other’s coffee shops on their days off, and heartily recommend you to do the same.
Maybe it’s the sea air, but it seems like a real coffee community.
Collins Coffee Bar
Coffee shop by day, cocktail bar by night, Collins have cornered both ends of the market. With hand-picked beans from their partner-cafe Samadool (which you can read about in our Bangkok guide), beautifully prepared espresso, carefully hand-poured filter coffee and small treats to temper the caffeine rush. The interiors are sleek and built for mingling, making the transition to a bar effortless. Outside is a small patio, but the sun in these parts leaves it empty most days.
A relative newcomer to the Hua Hin coffee scene, they bring with them the knowledge and assurance of honing their chops abroad. As is the case with many Thai coffee professionals, their skills were perfected in Australia. Collins describes itself as an “Aussie Style Cafe”, and it honestly wouldn’t look out of place in St Kilda. Our visit coincided with the release of a Limited Edition washed coffee from Ecuador which had delicate floral and citrus notes. The iced Americano had that balance of acidity and brightness, without forming a pucker-lip sourness. This is high quality coffee, brewed right.
Gallery Drip
Owners Teerayut Kladnil and Pornpimon Zaelim are bonafide coffee lovers. With new subscription bags arriving monthly via Kaffebox, it gives Kladnil a never-ending opportunity to experiment. Filter coffees are prepared on conical brewers, using a modded Comandante grinder (with a motor), whilst an espresso machine takes care of the standard orders. They have a strong iced drink focused menu including coconut matcha, cloudy lemon coffee (citrus and palm sugar are locally sourced) and the iced Bobbie, a shout-out to their pet dog.
Gallery Drip relocated from across the street, to a standalone house with a garden. The move gives them an outdoor areas for pets to run around, and a shaded area under the trees for al fresco dining. The food menu here is extensive, and the cafe is busy during lunch hours. Both the owners are food-obsessed, and since they’re not open for dinner, they tipped us to try the seafood at Fah Muey, which was crowded with local Thais, and absolutely delicious.
Chiffon Cafe
Chiffon is the go-to cafe for baristas in town. On days off you can find them hanging out in the small space, discussing brewing methods and roast profiles. The atmosphere is quirky, with a throwback to the 1990’s Beavis & Butthead MTV generation. Predominantly serving take-away coffees, they are famous for their iced americano which is brewed using light-roast beans to give it a fruity kick.
Known for their wide selection of iced matcha and frappucino drinks, this is a popular stop for a slice of cake, and a flavored coffee. Their pastry menu is extensive and if you’re celebrating a birthday, you can put in an order in advance for a cake. They naturally offer chiffon cake, and the pannacotta are highly praised by locals. Should you need beans, they sell a few bags from Terroir which is a venture of Brew Boy.
SRNA
By volume alone, SRNA is one of the most popular coffee shops in Hua Hin. A strict “Take-away only” spot, they roast their own beans, with processing ranging from washed and naturals, to honey and anaerobic. Since you’re in Thailand, we recommend you go for one of the locally produced washed coffees. The quality of Thai coffee has improved dramatically in the last decade.
SRNA is also Hua Hin’s go-to spot for matcha. Take-away cups come stamped with the slogan: “More Beach, More Coffee, More Matcha, Less Worry,” which perfectly sums up their ethos. Though they offer the standard lattes, infusions and frozen milkshakes, they stand out by including ceremonial-grade Nishio Matcha. Their vegan cold foam drink has become a favourite for the plant-based crowd.
Behind the scenes, they rock a Mahlkönig grinder and La Marzocco GS3 espresso machine.
Drip Rim Lay
Within touching distance of the ocean, Drip Rim Lay is the only beach cafe on the list. Perched in front of the Veranda Lodge, the small wooden hut has one of the most extensive filter coffee selections in town. Dozens of aluminum bottles sit weathering in the salty air, all roasted in-house. They carry beans from almost every coffee producing country, and prices range from affordable, locally grown coffee, to the more premium imported beans.
Espresso drinks are extracted on manual machines, filters on V60, and the staff are happy to recommend something based on your tastes. Accessing the cafe, you can shortcut through the car park if you arrive by public transport, or walk through the pool area at Veranda Lodge. The chairs and tables under a few shade-giving trees give you what you came to Hua Hin for: unlimited views of the sea.
The Barn Coffee Lab
Not to be confused with the Berlin coffee giants, this is a specialty roaster a block from the famous Hua Hin Night Market. Popular with the expat crowd, the cafe is a great place for a newcomer to make friends. The coffee is roasted at Barn HQ in the province of Ratchaburi, 30 kilometers from Bangkok. Offering both light and dark roasted profiles, you could easily spend a week tasting through all the beans at The Barn.
Sweet-toothed customers can order Caneles, Madeleines, and other treats, which are made by The Barn Patisserie. The interiors are filled with coffee paraphernalia, and the owner is passionate and generous with his advice. We had a clean Kenyan pour-over, and a Thai Yellow Bourbon espresso that was floral and brown-sugar sweet.
If you want to add a few more stops to your Hua Hin coffee crawl, then here are some highly recommended places to visit:
RONIN CAPSULE – Home of a Thai artist family, this amazing gem is only open for a few weeks a year, which is why we didn’t include it in the main article. However, if you are in town during opening hours, they serve exceptional coffee and the art gallery is magical.
VELO CAFE – With two locations, they roast beans under the “Rock & Roast” moniker, and serve a “canned-in-house” ice-coffee.
COFFEE LIVE & ROAST – Q Grader, sourcing some of the best Thai beans, this little cafe’s location means only the intrepid hunt it down.
SILPA – Coffee shop, co-orking space, and wine bar, the ultra cool interiors make it popular for groups. They serve coffee from some exciting local Thai roasters.
PAKKATI COFFEE STUDIO – Located in an old house, this coffee studio sells a large selection of local and international beans.
Benjamin Sand is a freelance journalist and the creator of The Mouth. Read more Benjamin Sand for Sprudge.
