Chiang Mai is saturated with coffee shops leaking out creamy iced lattes. You can't walk a block around the Nimmanhaemin Route area, a hip neighborhood packed with both Thai and expat residents, without bumping into a java-serving establishment. Amongst the greenish mermaid conglomerate and local shops, Ristr8to stands out for its accolade-winning owner and barista, and succulent, signature hot and cold coffee.

Arnon Thitiprasert, Ristr8to's owner, has won the Thailand National Latte Art Championship three years in a row. In 2015 and 2016, he represented Thailand at the World Latte Art Title, placing fifth and 11th respectively. He also participated in the 2011 World Latte Art Championship, placing 6th overall. Just Thitiprasert fabricated the best of these performances at the 2017 World Latte Fine art Championship in Budapest, Hungary, where he took home the top prize, becoming the 2017 World Latte Fine art Champion.

Perhaps information technology was a matter of "practice makes perfect'—Thitiprasert has spent much of the last few months practicing his pours for customers at the Ristr8to Lab, one of Ristr8to's 3 locations in Chiang Mai. A beverage he's poured hundreds of times is called "The Satan Latte," which comes in a cup in line with the World Latte Art Championship'south regulation size and shape. In club to retain a proper coffee flavour despite the added milk for the artistic add-on of latte art, Ristr8to baristas add together an extra shot of ristretto to the drink. Thitiprasert says the Satan Latte is one of his most pop drinks.

I sabbatum downwardly to speak with Thitiprasert at Ristr8to Lab in the middle of this training procedure—neither of us knew that he'd movement on to win the big effect. He brewed me a traditional long blackness—doppio ristretto over warm water (but not boiling)—and fabricated himself a Satan Latte so that I could see his latte art in action.

We sat exterior, where the music was a bit quieter and evening chatter and falling sun provided a sense of peace. Inside the store, loud rock music makes it feel more like a bar than a traditional java shop—it's a welcome break from the crooning, low-volume vocals that typically come out of Thai buffet speakers.

Thitiprasert crafting a latte

Thitiprasert explained that he got his start in the coffee manufacture when he moved to Sydney, Australia to improve his English. He got a job as a barista to pay the bills, and just then happened to work alongside some accomplished latte artists along the style. He had ever enjoyed art and found coffee every bit a style to apply it—it took fourth dimension, all the same, to acquire a taste for the drinkable and fine-melody his craft. He worked in diverse shops effectually Sydney and ran his ain for a few years earlier deciding to return to Thailand. His reason was simple. "Thailand is home," Thitiprasert said.

I asked about why Thitiprasert chose Chiang Mai to open Ristr8o rather than a location in southern Thailand, where he originally lived. He explained that he hoped more than Thai people would capeesh hot coffee, then he wanted to open a hot coffee shop in i of the colder locations in Thailand.

Thitiprasert also wanted to exist in a city where he thought the coffee manufacture could grow, and given Chiang Mai's rate of urban development, creative population, and close proximity to the coffee farms of Northern Thailand, the only region in the country where Arabica grows, information technology seemed like the perfect city to ready upwards store. In 2011, Thitiprasert opened the original Ristr8to. Ristr8to Lab, geared toward the more than experimental coffee drinker, and Doppio Ristr8to, the company's 3rd location, would come up later.

Ristr8to serves both single-origin coffees and blends comprised of beans from Thailand, Colombia, and Mexico. The single-origin coffee rotates monthly, and in the most-term will highlight Thailand, Colombia, Guatemala, and Kenya.

Every year, Thitiprasert takes staff members on a trip to a different country to study coffee culture. Because of these travels, the Ristr8to menu includes drinks influenced by places around the world including Melbourne'due south Magic, a flat white, and the Gibraltar. There are likewise unique drinks like the Cigar8to and Grandmother Mocha, as well as alcoholic offerings—"Java in Good Spirit" on the carte, named afterward the World Coffee in Skilful Spirits Championship.

As for Ristr8to's name, Thitiprasert explained that he wanted to put the number eight into information technology considering Arabica coffee has 44 chromosomes, therefore doppio ristretto must logically—or possibly illogically—have double that. Its significance is why every carte du jour item's price has the number viii therein, and Ristr8to open at 8:08 in the morning, and close at xi:08 in the evening.

Ristr8to—indeed the entire progressive coffee scene in Chiang Mai—appears to be doing well. At the time of opening, Thitiprasert says that many days the shop simply sold eight cups of coffee. Now each shop sells hundreds. The city is becoming a destination for coffee lovers, and now with a Globe Latte Fine art Champion among its ranks, that esteem is just going to grow. "Information technology's well-nigh increased knowledge," Thitiprasert tells me. "Beingness part of the civilization and support[ing] other shops is everything."

In tribute to Arnan Thitiprasert's vision at Ristr8to Chiang Mai, this commodity contains exactly 888 words.

Ristr8to has multiple locations around Chiang Mai. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Edie Wilson is a freelance announcer. This is Edie Wilson'due south get-go feature for Sprudge.