Cafe Amazon is a Thai coffee chain with over 2400 branches scattered about Thailand. They are owned by the huge oil company, PTT with each of their Petrol stations having its own branch.
The main complaint I have about coffee shops in general in Thailand is that their opening hours are very short, often 8am until 5pm but at least this particular branch opens at 7pm and closes at 8pm. This branch at Hua Thanon, just down the road from me on Koh Samui and right opposite the Guan Yu shrine has one other huge thing going for it. It’s amazing location!
Just try to imagine it with beautiful blue skies and crystal clear waters or a beautiful moonlit night with the fairylights on!
The wife and I managed a couple of hours off one day this week and after a quick trip to the supermarket, decided to call in on the way back for a coffee. The rain was banging down and there was even a slight breeze. This is November and is definitely the worst weather month on Koh Samui. It rains most days.
So, despite the wife not being a coffee drinker, Amazon do a range of iced teas and frappes which she loves, and we’d often call in when we were on the road commuting between Saumi and Bangkok last year, getting a free drink per month from her phone contract probably means more than the taste to her!
Admittedly a rather cliched interior design these days but it works for me!
Whatever the branch, they always have really nice well-kept gardens. They are modern and simple and are always clean. The service is always efficient and the staff polite.
However. Even though I have often mentioned that I’m not much of a connoisseur when it comes to coffee, one cappuccino is very much like another to me, in Amazon, the coffee is awful. Perhaps awful isn't the correct word to use. It's just bland and non-descript and doesn't really taste of anything. I only order hot coffee, in this case a cappuccino but it was just like drinking warm, slightly flavoured milk. My other big complaint is the size of the drinks. They’re always so small but then again, not expensive. A standard sized hot drink comes in at about 50Baht (£1.10 GBP, $1.40 USD) so it's very reasonably priced, especially compared to Starbucks but this doesn't make up for the fact, the coffee is dreadful.
As well as the cappuccino, we ordered a green slushy thing, a blueberry cheese pie and some chocolate brownies.
Not really very inspiring, is it? Please excuse the wife's toes!
The wife, as always loved her green slushy thing and the brownies weren’t bad, but the blueberry cheesecake pie was a bit poor, mostly consisting of blueberry jam and crust.
For the digital gonads on the island, the internet speeds here are very quick and with no one hassling you to keep buying and the drinks being so cheap, Amazons are one of the goto places to sit in front of your MacBook and hustle but with a view (better when the sun is out!) like this, it would be easy to get distracted!
There was also a little restaurant at the back that may be worth a try one evening.
I still say that coffee shops are more about the environment and how they make you feel than the coffee, but there are always exceptions. For me at least, Amazon is that exception!
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