I wrote a bit about Lanna Coffee Co. in my review of their House blend, a relatively dark offering of Thai Arabica beans. I rather enjoyed that coffee and I was pretty interested to see how it compares and contrasts to their lighter roasted Artisan blend. Lanna seems to sell their coffee only by subscription, as far as I can tell, and you can score a bag of this coffee for about $15.
There’s fairly limited information available on Lanna’s website about this coffee itself, but I can only presume that the blend for the House and Artisan coffees are the same and just the roast level differs. I don’t know that for certain, but that’s my guess. Visually, the Artisan blend is certainly roasted more lightly than the House was, although it was nicely developed judging by the color of the grounds.
Somewhat surprisingly I liked the House blend, overall, a bit better. The Artisan blend started off being a bit overly bitter and not having much else going for it, but it really improved as it cooled down. I actually liked it more and more the cooler it got! Makes me wonder if this would be a good candidate for cold brew.
In any case, as this Artisan blend cooled off, the bitterness decreased significantly and came into balance with the rest of the coffee. The sweetness improved and got chocolatey, with a bit of roastiness and lots of nuttiness. There were tiny hints of apple-like acidity on the fringes of this coffee, but this is definitely not a coffee that you’re going to drink because you want a lot of brightness.
I was pretty happy with both of these coffees from Lanna. They aren’t exciting or groundbreaking, but they are well-roasted and consistent. I would lean more toward the House blend just because it did better in more ranges of temperature and, for what I consider a pretty dark roast, it had nice flavors. The Artisan coffee is certainly roasted more lightly, however I’m not sure if the Thai beans are super interesting in and of themselves, so playing up the roast characteristics like the House blend does may be exactly what this coffee needs. It wasn’t bad, but it’s definitely a coffee I would have to let cool down before enjoying.