Meet this wild, single-producer, SL28 Anaerobic Natural coffee from Myanmar
Every Coffee Has a Story…
You may not have heard of coffee from Myanmar before — it’s a relatively new growing region for specialty coffee. This marks our second release from the area. As specialty coffee knowledge expands, innovative harvesting techniques have been widely encouraged. At the same time, climate change continues to impact traditional coffee regions, creating space for new ones like Myanmar to emerge and thrive.
Specialty coffee growing in Myanmar began when the government launched a crop substitution program to replace poppy plants — used in the production of black market drugs — with safer, sustainable crops like coffee. To help local farmers learn how to plant, grow, harvest, and process coffee, the Myanmar government invited Costa Rican coffee growers to share their expertise.
When those Costa Rican farmers arrived, they brought with them coffee seeds — both native and foreign to Costa Rica. Because Costa Rica produces such a wide range of coffee varieties, Myanmar now cultivates many of the same, including SLs, Catuai, Catimor, and more.
Years later, USAID joined the effort to promote Myanmar coffee. They helped build a multi-million-dollar wet and dry processing facility in Mandalay. This facility serves multiple purposes: it operates as an immaculate processing mill, grades the farmers’ coffees, offers training programs, and hosts meetings to support and promote their crops.
Getting to Know the Farm
This particular coffee comes from a single farm — the Shwe Yi Mon Estate in Say Ta Lone Village, Pyin Oo Lwin Township, located in the Mandalay Region. The estate is home to several ongoing agricultural experiments, including testing different spacing between shade tree species, fertilizer applications, solar dryer domes, and a drip irrigation system.
The estate owner, U Ye Myint, was born in Mandalay and earned a master’s degree in Botany in 1993. With over 20 years of experience in agriculture, his passion for the field and for coffee led him to found both the Myanmar Coffee Association and the Mandalay Coffee Group. His journey — from academic roots to leading government-supported agricultural initiatives — is truly remarkable.
The estate primarily produces natural (dry process) coffee, with a smaller amount of washed coffee. For this particular lot, fully ripe cherries are harvested and brought to the receiving area for sorting. The selected cherries are then transferred to the solar domes, where they’re turned hourly on raised beds. After 18 to 21 days of drying, the coffee reaches its target moisture level of 12%.
Photos provided by Shwe Yi Mon Estate
Flavor Above All
This coffee offers a sweet and rich cup all around — bursting with dark berry notes that give it a syrupy consistency, balanced by a silky mouthfeel that keeps it from feeling too heavy.
We also taste loganberry — a real fruit primarily grown in the Pacific Northwest, especially in Oregon and Washington. It’s a natural hybrid of blackberries and raspberries, and this coffee carries that same vibrant sweetness. It’s also reminiscent of Loganberry Soda, a syrupy, sweet soft drink found in Western New York. Alongside that, we pick up notes of mulled or aged port wine, and a touch of sweet caramel.
All in all, this Myanmar coffee is rich yet approachable. Its balance of sweetness, acidity, and texture makes for a complex but easy-to-enjoy cup — one you won’t want to miss.
We’re ecstatic to feature this coffee all the way from Myanmar. Its innovative farming practices and dedication to development play a key role in bringing this remarkable lot to DOCR. This is the first Myanmar coffee to appear on our pour-over menu, so stop by one of our cafes for a specially brewed cup just for you!
The coffee is also available in-store on our retail shelves and online.
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About the writer: Emma LaVoie is the Education Manager for Dessert Oasis Coffee Roasters. She's the brains behind this blog and lit a fire under our team to follow suit. You can almost always find Emma reading a book with a coffee in hand. If you're interested in reaching out to Emma, shoot her an email: emma@dessertoasiscoffee.com. She'd be happy to geek out over coffee with you. (Seriously, don't hesitate to reach out — she'll love it.)