Siamaya (fusion of Siam, the old name of Thailand, and Maya, the ancient population famous, among other things, for eating chocolate) is a Chiang Mai company that was founded, back in 2017, by two foreigners, Neil Ransom and Kristian Levinsen, and two local residents, Tangkwa and Bow Wannapat, with the idea to produce and market quality chocolate.
The catalyst for this initiative was the work of agricultural professor Sahn from Maejo university in Chiang Mai that had been teaching farmers in Chiang Mai valley how to grow high-quality cocoa beans. Chocolate cultivation in Thailand was unheard of until 20-30 years ago. Now it is a reality and Samaya is an artisan company handcrafting each bar starting from the beans. It is a story that has so many parallels with their Vietnamese counterpart Marou.
During my time in Chiang Mai in early 2020 I really came to love this chocolate and I visited both their new shop in the Old City (I was there on the first week of operations) and I took their factory tour.
Shop and cafe in the Old City
The new flagship shop underwent a soft opening in February 2020 and it couldn’t be more centrally located in the Old City: it is just a stone-throw away from the Three Kings monument. The store underwent a major remodeling shortly after; pictures are from the original set-up.
The main attraction in the store of course is their bars. Along with classic dark and milk chocolate they have bars using Thai ingredients such as Thai Tea, bullet chili, coconut milk, and even durian. In collaboration with Chaseki, they also launched a high-grade matcha bar. Their line up is completed by cacao nibs, powder, and coated nuts.
In the store they also sell mini-bars (23 grams) ideal for a tasting collection.
They also offer cold and hot chocolate drinks.
I tried their cold chocolate drink with cacao that was massive. However the cacao did not fully fused with the drink. I was advised that the hot chocolate is more satisfying. They have plan to expand their cafe offering.
One important feature of their approach is that they offer a free tasting of the different flavors.
A 75-gram bar costs 180 THB, very reasonable for this kind of artisan product. The matcha bar costs a little bit more at 200 THB.
The dink was also very reasonably priced at 65 THB (just 2 USD).
Where in Chiang Mai:
127/7 Prapokkloa Rd.
Website: https://siamayachocolate.com.
Factory visit
On another occasion, I also visited their factory outlet and the adjicent factory.
Their outlet is really their office, but they have all of their bars lined up and available for purchase. Also tasting is possible.
The matcha and durian bars are award-winners.
The factory tour that I attended was led by Kris and was fascinating. It began with some basics about cocoa beans.
Then we followed Kris inside their factory (really an artisan workshop) where all the processes take place. We were shown the machines and the chocolate at various stages of production.
The tour lasted around 1 hour and I booked it with a message on their Facebook page. The normal cost at that time was 800 THB per person.
Where in Chiang Mai:
See tripadvsor page. Details of the tour may have changed since my visit.