Nepal's coffee scene is unbelievable
In Nepal for a quick work trip and am astounded at the burgeoning coffee culture and the quality of the beans. I had assumed it might be hard to find good coffee given the prevalence of tea, but I was wrong. There are coffee shops on seemingly every street corner in Kathmandu with an astounding number of barista training centers. Many baristas at even the smallest coffee shops are trained in a variety of methods.
Usually when traveling or working in lower-income countries, I've come to expect low quality coffee because all of the high-quality beans are exported-- this does not seem to be the case here. All of the coffee shops I have been to have high quality local beans, which in turn seems to have encouraged the local cafe scene.
The beans themselves are delicious, comparable to high-quality Ethiopian beans in taste. It seems that many producers are also experimenting with anaerobic production, yielding a really delicious, fruity coffee.