Thomas Ameloot Thomas Ameloot

Wish Upon a Coffee

This coffee from Thai producer Wish is so lovely and was hand carried from Thailand by our Master of Roasting Ceremony, Stevyn.

Wish Upon a Coffee: The SOFT Farm Story | CoffeeTRON B-Log
CoffeeTRON B-Log · Origin Stories

Wish Upon a Coffee

How one forest-saving farmer in Chiang Mai became our favorite plot twist

OMKOI, CHIANG MAI, THAILAND · PUBLISHED BY COLABOPS / COFFEETRON · 2025

Here's the thing about great coffee: it doesn't just taste like cranberry and cacao nibs. It tastes like someone cared, deeply, about a mountain. That's the Wish Junprasert story — and we've got the receipts.

Meet Wish. Yes, That's His Name. Yes, It's Perfect.

Wish Junprasert runs a farm in Omkoi, a remote corner of Chiang Mai's southwestern highlands that most people wouldn't find on a map unless they were really, truly looking. We found it because we were really, truly looking.

We've been working with Wish for three years now through Q Project Thailand — a multi-million dollar initiative co-founded with CQI (Coffee Quality Institute) and Bolliger & Company to put Thai specialty coffee on the international map where it rightfully belongs. Wish wasn't just a beneficiary of the program. He was the kind of student who makes you remember why you started teaching in the first place.

Q Project Thailand CQI Certified SCA Education CoLabOps Partner

In his own words from the Q Project Thailand website, Wish shared that the program gave him knowledge and experience he wanted to pass on to other farmers — not just pocket it for competitive advantage. A man with coffee, a forest, and a lot of heart. Our kind of human.

SOFT: The Farm With the Best Acronym in Coffee

Wish's farm goes by a name that sounds gentle but means serious business: Save Omkoi Forest & Traditional Coffee. SOFT. The coffee plantations here aren't just growing beans — they're actively maintaining the fertility of the soil and the health of the surrounding watershed forests. Which means: every cup you drink is doing something.

Why this matters (and not in a boring way) SOFT's mission is to provide a vital mechanism to conserve watershed forests in the Omkoi region. Coffee grown in forest-integrated systems helps maintain biodiversity, reduce erosion, and keep water sources clean for downstream communities. Your morning cup is doing conservation work. We're not saying you should feel smug about it, but... you're allowed a little smug.

The farm sits in the remote southwestern area of Chiang Mai at elevation — high enough that the cherries develop slowly, stress a little in the best way possible, and pack in flavor complexity that flat-land farming simply cannot replicate. These are happy, stressed cherries. The best kind.

"A passionate learner with a heart of gold, a beautiful farm, and great coffee."
— CoffeeTRON on Wish Junprasert

What's Actually In the Cup (The Fun Part)

We offer Wish's coffee in two roast expressions, because one was simply not enough and we are not people who settle.

The Adventurer (Light Roast)

Cranberry
Cacao nibs
Natural process
Fruit-forward brightness
For the brave and curious

The Professor (Medium Roast)

Rounder, deeper
Balanced body
Still Thai-terroir driven
For the scholarly sipper
Big brain energy

The light roast — the one we call The Adventurer — is roasted to preserve the fruity characteristics that develop naturally during processing. That cranberry note isn't a flavoring or a trick. It's the land, the altitude, the process, and Wish's hands, translated into something your taste buds can argue about.

We also offer both lots together in The Deal — our Micro-Wish bundle, two coffees, one mission, $10 off if you're paying attention. It's the kind of deal that makes us feel good and you feel smart.

The Bigger Picture: Thailand's Coffee Moment

Here's something the specialty coffee world is slowly waking up to: Thailand grows excellent coffee. Like, genuinely excellent. For too long it was dismissed — Robusta country, tourist coffee, whatever. That story is being rewritten, and Q Project Thailand is one of the most significant forces doing the rewriting.

The project — launched in 2023 and running through 2027 — has trained over 72 farmers and counting, connecting them with international green buyers and quality evaluation systems. Our own Thomas Ameloot has been part of this as a CQI Instructor, and also served as International Head Judge and Head Roaster for the TCE 2024 Thailand Green Coffee Competition — organizing judging panels and cupping over 170 samples to spotlight the best of what Thai producers are growing.

We co-founded this work. We've been in those cuppings, on those farms, on those planes. And Wish's coffee is exactly the reason why.

So What Do You Do With All This Information?

You drink the coffee, obviously. But maybe you also sit with the fact that your cup connects a forest in Omkoi to a farm family with a dream to a training program that's changing an industry to a roastery in Hamtramck, Detroit, Michigan that thinks coffee is fantastical and means it.

That's a lot of chain of custody for a Tuesday morning. We think Wish would approve.

Get the Wish Coffees

Available now in light roast, medium roast, or save $10 with The Deal bundle — both lots, natural and washed.

Get The Deal — Save $10 Browse the Full Shop
CoffeeTRON × CoLabOps · Hamtramck, Detroit, Michigan · colabops.com ·
Read More