We visit anonymously, twice minimum, pay for everything ourselves, score on four dimensions, and accept no money for placement. If we break any of these, the guide is worthless. So we don't.
01Anonymous visits, always.
No press visits. No introductions. No "we're writing about you." We walk in like every other customer, order what an actual customer would order, pay what an actual customer would pay, and leave. Twice minimum. At different times of day. Ideally with different baristas working the bar.
The reason isn't paranoia — it's that the moment a cafe knows we're auditing, the audit is over. Beans come fresher, the dialled-in barista takes the shot, the music turns down, and we stop measuring the cafe. We measure the performance.
02Paid bills, no exceptions.
Every cup, every croissant, every bottle of water on this site was paid for at the menu price by an editor with their own card or cash. No comp drinks. No "on the house". No "for the editor". No press passes. No PR-arranged tastings. No affiliate links.
When a cafe insists on comping a drink — and a few have — we leave the menu price in cash on the counter and decline politely. The bill goes in the file. The file is auditable.
03Four-dimension rating, scored 0 to 12 each.
Every cafe in the Pattaya Coffee 30 is rated on the same four dimensions, weighted equally, totalled to 48. Here is the rubric:
Craft
How well is the coffee made? Espresso extraction quality. Pour-over technique. Milk steaming. Water temperature. Grind consistency. The mechanical and sensory craft of cup making.
Consistency
Does the cup taste the same on a Tuesday morning and a Saturday afternoon? Two different baristas, same drink — within tasting tolerance? Operational discipline is what separates cafes that punch above their setup from cafes that get lucky on the audit visit.
Value
Price for what you get. A great pour-over at ฿110 scores higher than the same pour-over at ฿180. We are not anti-premium pricing — we are pro-honest pricing. Beach-Road specialty at Bangkok-suburb prices is a value flag.
Return frequency
Would the editors come back when not auditing? This is the highest-signal dimension we measure. If we are paying our own bills and still ordering coffee here, that beats any ranking metric.
04No money changes hands. Not now, not later.
We do not sell:
- Placement on the ranking
- Inclusion in the directory
- "Featured" upsells
- Sponsored entries
- Affiliate links to cafes or roasters
- Editorial favouritism in any form
Cafe owners have offered each of these. We have declined every one. The ranking moves only when the coffee moves. That is the only economic model this site has.
The moment a guide can be bought, it stops being a guide. It becomes a directory of who paid the most. We're not building that.
05Conflicts of interest.
The editors do not own, work for, consult to, or hold financial interest in any Pattaya cafe, roaster, importer, or coffee equipment business. We do not write paid reviews elsewhere. We do not accept gifted equipment. If any of this changes, we will disclose it on this page and on the affected cafe's entry within seven days.
06Corrections.
Coffee programs change. Owners sell. Baristas leave. A cafe rated 47/48 in May can drop to 39/48 by November. We re-audit each cafe in the Pattaya Coffee 30 at the start of every season and republish the ranking.
If you spot an error — wrong address, wrong hours, wrong dish name, wrong price — email info@pattaya-coffee.com. We correct quickly and note material changes on the affected entry. A full corrections log will be published at the end of every issue.
07Privacy.
This site does not run third-party advertising trackers. We do not sell visitor data. The newsletter signup, when it ships, will use a privacy-first provider and store nothing beyond email address and timestamp. No retargeting, no behavioral profiling, no third-party pixels.
08What we are not.
We are not a comprehensive directory of every coffee shop in Pattaya. We are not a chain review site. We are not paid travel media. We are not a barista certification authority. We are not Sprudge. We are not the Specialty Coffee Association of Thailand. We are not affiliated with the Tourism Authority of Thailand. We are not paid by anyone.
We are five people who care about coffee and live in Pattaya, paying our own way through every cafe we audit, and writing what we find.
Last updated: 18 May 2026, Issue 01.
Next scheduled review: Start of Issue 02 (audit completion).
Questions about these standards: info@pattaya-coffee.com