Sinouk Coffee & Residence
Location: Downtown Pakxe
Straight opposite the Parisiene & Tourist Office
http://www.sinouk-cafe.com/
http://www.residence-sisouk.com/
Sisouk Sisombat and his wife Siseng built the house in the 1950s and most of their 11 children were born there.
Sisouk Sisombat was President of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and menber of parliament for Pakse, Champasak Province, from 1958 until 1973 and from 1992 to 1995.
Until 1995, the year he passed away, he worked passionately and with constant energy for the development of his country and Pakse, hometown.
During the last few years, the house in Paksé was a bit sad without his presence, and that’s why his children and wife decided to renovate the family house and turn it into a hotel.
They put their heart into this project and hope you’ll feel at home during your stay at Residence Sisou
The new renovated aircon coffee shop
Sinouk Coffee
The Coffee table
Sinouk Coffee started in 1994 & is one of the best known coffee producers in Laos.
Coffee on the Bolaven Plateau.....some Lao coffee history..
The first coffee on the Bolaven plateau was planted by the French in the 1920s. They recognized that the Bolaven soil was extremely rich - millions of years ago there had been a volcanic eruption in the south, that caused soils to contain rich minerals idea for coffee production.
This first type of coffee planted by the French was Arabica Bourbon Typica; & it rapidly became the main crop in the area, especially after the construction of a research center near Paksong in 1930 (Ban Lak 42).
However by WWII most of it had been destroyed by rust.
Not long after Robusta was introduced, but no great development happened until the end of the Indochina wars, when around 1975 Cuban and East German experts reintroduced Arabica, but of the Catuai and Catura varieties.
State owned farms, they struggled along slowly; however in the 90s the farms were dismantled & sold off to the workers who are still the small holders of today.
In 1992 another strain of Arabica – rust resistant Catimor - was introduced most Arabica Lao coffee is the Catimor variety.
In 2012 there were 70,000 hectares under coffee cultivation.
Bolaven coffee is now becoming world renowned & 2013 was a record year, with almost 30,000 tonnes of green coffee beans exported.
