About Us
Steve Feldschneider: Founder and Roast Master
Steve started Lao Mountain Coffee in 2001 with a simple, locally made roaster working out of his home. He has dedicated the last several years to the art of roasting coffee and building one of SE Asia's premier coffee businesses.
Ketamphone Feldschneider
Ket is the Vientiane mangering director and business account liaison. She has spent the last several years as managing domestic operation and building a strong International account network.
Specialty Coffee
We have the great privilege of using only Lao grown beans from the Bolaven Plateau in the south, a fertile, high elevation volcanic plateau perfect for specialty grade coffee. All of our Arabica coffee beans come from elevations between 1200-1300m. Robusta coffee beans come from elevation between 1000-1200m.
We source our coffee beans from farmers that makes a pure Arabica Typica coffee - a coffee variety that dates back to the 1850's botanical gardens established by French colonists in Vietnam. This ancient varietal is difficult to grow and produces a small harvest, but has a uniquely elegant and smooth cupping quality.
We work directly with farmers and farmer groups to insure that the beans are processed according to specialty coffee standards - ripe, fresh cherries, disciplined processing and professional grading and sorting. We sample all of our beans before we buy them to assure quality and consistency, and for the best beans, we pay the highest prices in Laos.
Artisanal Roasting We roast our coffee in small batches to monitor quality and customize our roasts and blends. Our varied inventory of beans reflects the diversity of processing styles, altitude of the trees and type of coffee bean. We have a choice of among 20 different beans, from a wet process Arabica Typica grown at 1300m, to a natural process Arabica Catimore grown at 1200m.
We are also the only roaster in Laos and one of the few in the world that offers a high elevation wet process Robusta alone and in blends. This coffee bean has a uniquely smooth and powerful body and sweetness.
Fair Trade/Organic/Right Thing Fairness
Lao Mountain Coffee is a former member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) and currently a member of Fair Trade Lao(FTL).All our coffee is All Natural(Organic) but not certified.We only purchase our green beans for roasting from LMCFPG that are Fair Trade and Organic. Over the years we have developed a close, family type relationship with a specific set of farmer villages.