Seattle Is About to Get Its First-Ever Thai Coffee Shop
In drizzly February 2025, Emily Sirisup decided she wanted to take a trip. She's been in Seattle since she was a baby and grew up surrounded by the service industry; her parents both worked in Thai restaurants and she spent six years as a barista at Capitol Hill's bustling Starbucks Reserve Roastery. Feeling an urge to explore her roots, she went with her partner Cole Arneson to her parents' home country of Thailand. She followed an itinerary that reflected her deep love of coffee, meeting coffee growers in the northern province of Chiang Rai, including the team at award-winning Alexta Coffee Roasters.
The couple left with a vision: to bring Thai coffee culture in Seattle. Nudibranch Coffee — an homage to the fluorescent sea slugs native to the Northwest and pronounced new-dih-brank — will open this summer. The business will roast and sell coffees from Thailand, distributing online and in local grocery stores. There's a Kickstarter set up to help secure Nudibranch's first cafe space in North Seattle, too. The hope is to open that space in fall 2025.
That cafe, if it opens, will be a rare outpost of Thai coffee culture in the U.S. There are no Thai coffee roasters or coffee shops in Seattle, and Thai-grown coffee is a rarity in this country. (Coffee has been grown in Thailand for centuries; production ramped up when northern farmers were encouraged by the government to grow coffee beans rather than opium in the 1970s.) Due to the heat in Thailand, cooling coffee drinks blended with fruit are common. Orange juice with espresso, for instance, will be a mainstay at Nudibranch. Butterfly pea matcha, mochas made with the malted chocolate power Milo, and oliang (coffee brewed in brown sugar) will all serve as standard bearers, too.
Sirisup and Arneson's beans will be roasted by Kuma Coffee, a Seattle roaster. The business's first roast, simply called the Single Origin Chiang Rai, boasts notes of apricot and plum with a clean finish. Sirisung anticipates sourdough bread made by friends who are local Thai bakers on the food side of the menu. The business's permanent location will also host latte art classes, hang local art, and serve fare from guest chefs.
Nudibranch is a direct-purchasing coffee operation, which is often touted as much healthier for the supply chain than relying on negotiators and tertiary importers. The beans are grown by the seven-person Alexta team. The coffees are shade-grown and organic. This is the first time that group's beans have been served in the U.S. 'Emily has done really well with all those farmers in that region,' Arneson says. 'That whole community is not really connected to the U.S. in any sort of major way.'
Sirisup and Arneson say there's a lot of room for their business to grow. The company's first batch of green beans arrived in May, and were roasted by Kuma in early June.
While at Starbucks, Sirisup helped organize the Starbucks Workers United union. She says that experience helped her learn about the kind of cafe she'd like to run: one where the coffee is connected to its origins. 'We're Thai-inspired coffee,' Sirisup says. 'But we want to make it relevant to the Pacific Northwest, as well.'
Nudibranch Coffee will open its first permanent location in October 2025. Follow the Kickstarter for updates. See More: Coming Attractions
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