Size S Coffee + Bakery

A lovely cappuccino with some long-lasting latte art at Size S Coffee + Bakery in Bangkok.I wasn’t in Bangkok for long at the end of April, plus I was limited by a bad back, all of which meant I didn’t get around as much as I’d have liked. However, I was very impressed with what little I did see of Bangkok’s diffuse and diverse speciality coffee scene, including Size S Coffee + Bakery, a chance discovery at the end of the same road as my hotel. Despite that, I needed a tip off from to Lan Din Coffee, having already walked past Size S without noticing it!

Size S Coffee + Bakery does what the name suggests, although it’s also a roastery as well as a coffee shop and bakery, all of which comes in an unfeasibly small package. That said, it acts like it’s a big coffee shop, with a blend and single-origin on espresso and up to five single-origin filters, all roasted at the back of the shop (which is also where all the cakes are baked). There’s also a small breakfast and lunch menu if you’re hungry.

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Brian’s Travel Spot: Flying from Bangkok (With a Bad Back)

My ride back to the UK, another British Airways Boeing 777-200, on the stand at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.If you’ve been following the latest series on Brian’s Travel Spot, you’ll know that I spent the last two weeks of April in Thailand, departing on the Sunday of the London Coffee Festival. The first instalment of this Travel Spot covered my flight over with British Airways. I spent a week in Bangkok, before catching the sleeper to Chiang Mai, where I spent another week exploring its awesome speciality coffee scene. I returned on the sleeper to spend three days in Bangkok, with the two train trips forming the second and third instalments (written and published while I was out in Thailand). Meanwhile, today’s Travel Spot, the fourth and final instalment in the series, covers my return flight on Tuesday 1st May.

What I’ve underplayed in all the posts so far is the state of my back. When I flew out, my back was cranky, but basically okay. It got worse during my time in Bangkok, but was still basically okay. However, while I was in Chiang Mai, it got really bad, forcing me to take the sleeper back. By the time I was due to fly home, I could hardly sit down, leaving me dreading the 13 hour flight…

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Brian’s Travel Spot: Flying to Bangkok

My ride to Bangkok, a British Airways 777-200, sitting at the gate at Heathrow Terminal 5.My travel schedule for the first four months of the year has been pretty hectic, verging on the brutal, although it was partly self-inflicted. This kicked off with two month-long visits to the USA, starting with a trip to Miami and Phoenix and followed by another that saw me travel from New England to Arizona by train.

Since then it’s calmed down a bit, so I thought that before I jet off on my next adventure (a week today I should have just arrived in Japan) I really ought to finish writing up the previous one. This saw me spend three days at the London Coffee Festival, head home on the Saturday evening and then turn around on Sunday to fly out to Thailand for the first time.

This instalment of Brian’s Travel Spot covers my flight over with British Airways. I then spent a week in Bangkok, before catching the sleeper up to Chiang Mai, where I spent another week exploring the awesome speciality coffee scene there. I returned to Bangkok, again on the sleeper, spent three days in the capital, then flew back, again with British Airways, which forms the fourth and final part of this Travel Spot.

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Rocket S.12

The Rocket sign from outside Rocket S.12Rocket is a small chain of upmarket all-day brunch spots in Bangkok, serving some excellent coffee from the local Phil Coffee Co. This branch, Rocket S.12, is in the Silom district, east of the river, an interesting area of modern skyscrapers, interspersed with older, colonial-style buildings, where major, traffic-filled arteries, are interwoven with quiet, narrow lanes, all cut through by the concrete pillars of the elevated railway, making it a relatively easy destination to get to. I am, by the way, indebted to Lan Din Coffee for the heads-up about Rocket.

Rocket occupies a square space with a very modern/Nordic feel to it, all light woods and with a tiled floor. It shares the building with the restaurant next door (there is an open, connecting doorway at the back) but the two are separate businesses. There’s a very western-themed all-day brunch menu, backed up by a house-blend and decaf on espresso, plus five single-origins on pour-over, using a mixture of home-grown Thai coffee and various familiar origins from around the world. It’s also one of the few coffee shops that I came across in Thailand that takes credit cards, useful if it’s your last day and you’re short on cash!

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Gallery Drip Coffee

The sign from Gallery Drip Coffee in the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre, showing four pour-over cones.When it comes to speciality coffee in Bangkok, one of the pioneers, and one of the few I’d heard about before I reached the city, was Gallery Drip Coffee, recommended by the ever-reliable Simon from Fancy a Cuppa? and featured in his excellent book, Crossing Paths, Crossing Borders. Located inside the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre, Gallery Drip Coffee only serves pour-over coffee (the clue is in the name), a style directly inspired by Japanese coffee culture.

It occupies a weirdly-shaped space inside the atrium of the Centre, with a long counter facing the door, which is where most of the action takes place. There are multiple single-origins on offer, seven while I was there, three of which were from Thailand and the rest from around the world, all roasted in-house. These are made using the V60, while there is also a house-blend of Thai coffee which is made using the Melitta filter and served with steamed milk to provide a latte substitute for those who like their coffee milky. Finally, if you want something sweet to go with your coffee, there’s a wide selection of cheesecakes and their ilk in a cooler cabinet at the end of the counter.

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Lan Din Coffee

My espresso, in a classic cup on a lovely saucer, made using a blend of coffee from Chiang Mai, and served in Lan Din Coffee, Bangkok.I spent the first five days of my time in Thailand trapped in hotels with bad coffee and no chance to explore the coffee scene, before heading off to Chiang Mai for a week. However, I’d allowed myself three days on my return to Bangkok to explore the speciality coffee scene before flying back to the UK. After the joys of Chiang Mai, with its abundance of excellent coffee shops, I discovered that Bangkok also has an excellent speciality coffee scene, albeit one that is a little more spread out and takes a little more finding.

I’d already heard about Lan Din Coffee when the owner, Nico, got in touch on social media with some recommendations. Conveniently located around the corner from my new hotel in the Sathorn district (I wonder how that happened?) I made a beeline for Lan Din as soon as I got off the sleeper from Chiang Mai on Saturday morning. A delightful spot, it serves a primarily espresso-based menu using a blend of coffee from (ironically) Chiang Mai, although there is a secret pour-over option if you ask nicely, as well as a range of cakes and pastries, freshly baked behind the counter every day.

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Brian’s Travel Spot: The Chiang Mai Sleeper, Special Express #13

My carriage, number 5, on the sleeper service from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.Welcome to the latest instalment of Brian’s Travel Spot, which is, I appreciate, posted somewhat out of order, since I’ve not finished telling you about my previous American adventures. However, I’m sitting on the Chiang Mai sleeper as I write this, not long after dawn, and we’ve just begun our ascent into the mountains, so I thought this was the perfect time to publish this.

I flew into Bangkok on Monday morning (having left Heathrow on Sunday afternoon) and spent the rest of the week in western hotels, cocooned in meeting rooms and air-conditioning, rarely being let out for long enough to see anything of the city, although I will have a weekend there when I get back from Chiang Mai. What I can tell you, from the odd times I ventured out, is that it was hot (~35⁰C most days) and incredibly humid, with the river, which I was staying by, providing a welcome breeze.

After five days of this, I escaped and made my way to Hua Lamphong station in the centre of Bangkok to catch the Chiang Mai sleeper, 13 hours on a train (the “special express” no less) to the heart of Thailand’s mountain country to the north.

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