TL;DR
Every term you'll hear at a Pattaya specialty cafe, defined in one or two sentences. Use this glossary before your first visit and you'll understand the conversation by the second.
Coffee drinks.
- Espresso.
- A 25–30 ml shot of coffee, pulled under high pressure from very finely ground beans. Pattaya specialty cafes use 9 bar pressure and a 25–30 second extraction window. The shot has three layers — crema (foam on top), body (middle), and heart (bottom).
- Americano.
- An espresso diluted with hot water. Roughly the same caffeine as espresso but a longer drink. Specialty cafes pour the water under the espresso shot to preserve the crema.
- Flat white.
- A double espresso with steamed milk and a thin (~5 mm) microfoam layer on top. Australian/New Zealand convention; smaller and stronger than a latte. The default "specialty milk drink" in Pattaya.
- Latte.
- A double espresso with more steamed milk and a thicker foam layer than a flat white. Larger volume. Sweeter, less coffee-forward.
- Cortado.
- A double espresso with an equal amount of warm (not foamed) milk. Spanish origin. Small and intense.
- Cold brew.
- Coffee steeped in cold water for 12–24 hours, then filtered. Lower acidity than hot brew, sweeter mouthfeel. Often served on ice, sometimes nitro-charged. Different from "iced coffee" (which is hot-brewed and cooled).
- Nitro.
- Cold brew infused with nitrogen gas. Comes out of the tap with a Guinness-like creamy texture. Nitan's Berry Bliss is the headline nitro in town.
Filter methods.
- V60.
- A cone-shaped pour-over dripper (60-degree angle) made by Hario. The Pattaya specialty default. Produces a clean, bright cup. Uses a paper filter.
- Chemex.
- An hourglass-shaped pour-over made of glass. Thicker paper filter than V60; even cleaner cup but takes longer.
- Kalita Wave.
- A flat-bottomed pour-over dripper with three holes. Easier to brew consistently than V60 because the flat bed reduces channelling.
- AeroPress.
- A plastic immersion-and-press device. Fast, forgiving, travel-friendly. Some cafes brew with it on the slow bar.
- French press.
- A glass cylinder with a metal mesh plunger. Full-immersion brew. Heavier body than paper-filtered methods. Rare in specialty cafes today; more common in hotels.
- Siphon (vacuum pot).
- A two-chamber glass brewer that uses vapour pressure to push water up through coffee, then a vacuum to pull it back down. Theatrical, slow, increasingly rare. Nitan runs them on the slow bar.
Bean and roast terms.
- Single origin.
- Coffee from one farm, region, or country. Tastes distinctly of its place. The opposite of a blend.
- Blend.
- Coffee combining beans from multiple origins, usually for espresso. Designed for stable extraction and consistent taste profile.
- Washed (wet process).
- Coffee cherries are de-pulped and the bean is fermented in water before drying. Produces clean, bright, acidic cups. Most Latin American coffee.
- Natural (dry process).
- Whole cherries are dried with the fruit intact. The bean absorbs fruity, fermented notes. Often blueberry-forward. Ethiopian and some Brazilian.
- Honey process.
- The bean is dried with some fruit pulp still attached. Between washed and natural. Caramel and stone-fruit notes common.
- Light roast.
- Beans roasted to first crack and not much further. Higher acidity, brighter, more origin-specific flavour. Specialty default.
- Medium roast.
- Past first crack, balanced acidity and body. The Pattaya specialty house default for espresso.
- Dark roast.
- Past or into second crack. Bolder, smokier, less origin character. Backstreet House's dark-roast bar serves these.
- Crema.
- The reddish-brown foam on top of an espresso shot. Made of emulsified oils and CO₂. A sign of fresh beans and good extraction.
- Bloom.
- The first 30 seconds of a pour-over, where water hits the grounds and CO₂ escapes (the grounds visibly puff up). Skipping the bloom = under-extracted cup.
Industry terms.
- Specialty / third-wave.
- Coffee scored 80+ on the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) 100-point scale. "Third-wave" is the cultural movement around treating coffee as a craft product with traceable origins, like wine. Pattaya's specialty cafes operate in this tradition.
- Slow bar.
- The pour-over / manual brew bar at a cafe. Distinct from the espresso bar. Slow because each cup takes 4–6 minutes.
- Speed bar.
- The espresso bar. Fast — pulls in 25–30 seconds. Sunset Coffee Roasters labels both bars explicitly.
- Owner-roaster.
- A cafe where the owner also roasts the beans on premises. The most direct control over the coffee program. Pattaya has at least four serious ones.
Read next: How to Order Coffee in Pattaya · Pattaya's Coffee Scene Explained