All Posts

From fermentation experiments inspired by specialty coffee to the rise of global inclusions, emotional micro-celebrations, and the quiet luxury of a well-designed wrapper, craft chocolate in 2026 is the most interesting it has ever been. Something is happening in the world of craft chocolate, and it goes beyond flavour. The category is being reshaped by a convergence of forces: rising cocoa prices creating financial pressure on makers, post-pandemic consumers with sharper pal

Every February, Easy Weddings publishes the largest view we have of the Australian wedding market: more than 4,200 couples, 540 businesses, and the behavioural data behind hundreds of thousands of real bookings. The 2026 edition just landed, and for couples weighing up a winery wedding, the signal inside it is unusually clear. Budgets are tighter. Guest lists are smaller. Rustic is fading. Classic is back. And the venues winning attention are the ones that deliver an end-to-e

The part of a grapevine that most determines its survival in a tropical climate is the part nobody sees. Above the soil at   Skugga Estate in Mae On, Chiang Mai , the vines carry the genetics of classic European wine grape varieties. Shiraz, with its thick dark skins and spice potential. Pokdum, Thailand's native hybrid, with its tri-species resilience. These are the varieties that will define the character of the wine. But their ability to survive Mae On's heat, humidity, mo

In the historically prestigious wine regions of Bordeaux, Barolo, and the Napa Valley, dry farming is considered the pinnacle of quality viticulture. By relying exclusively on ambient rainfall, the vine is forced to drive its roots deep into the earth to access moisture stored from winter rains. That mild water stress naturally restricts canopy growth and concentrates flavour, colour, and structure in the fruit. Attempting dry farming in northern Thailand is not merely risky.

When wine lovers talk about terroir, the conversation usually drifts toward legendary European soils: the chalky limestone of Burgundy, the ancient gravel beds of Bordeaux, the Galestro clay of Tuscany. For centuries, the global wine industry operated under the assumption that premium viticulture required those specific temperate soils and a climate that guaranteed a freezing, dormant winter. The Mae On district of Chiang Mai is none of those things, and that is precisely wha

Farming in the Thai highlands is a constant negotiation with extremes. In the Mae On district of Chiang Mai, the sun radiates with fierce intensity for most of the year, the annual monsoon dramatically reshapes the landscape over five months, and the surrounding forest pulses with the biological activity of a year-round tropical ecosystem. When a grapevine is introduced into this environment, it goes into metabolic overdrive. Growing premium grapes here demands that almost ev

Tropical viticulture, growing premium wine grapes in a hot, humid climate near the equator, is one of the most technically demanding disciplines in modern winemaking. Read a classic textbook on the subject and it will tell you it cannot be done. Traditional European vines require four distinct seasons: a freezing winter for dormancy, a mild spring to wake up, a warm summer to grow, and a cool autumn to ripen the fruit. Mae On has none of that. Northern Thailand's agricultural

The central challenge of making white wine in a tropical climate is invisible. It happens inside the berry, in the weeks before harvest, as heat dismantles the biochemical balance that determines whether a wine has life in the glass or simply collapses into sweetness. At   Skugga Estate in Mae On, Chiang Mai , the answer to that challenge is Colombard: a variety with an unusual genetic heritage, a track record in heat, and a natural resistance to the acid loss that makes trop

Shiraz is one of the world's most recognisable red wine grapes, celebrated for its depth, spice, and structural power. It is also, by conventional wisdom, a grape that belongs in warm but temperate climates, places like the Rhône Valley, the Barossa, and McLaren Vale, where predictable seasons and cool winters give the vine a clear biological rhythm. Mae On, Chiang Mai has no cool winters and no predictable seasons in any European sense. What it has is 410 metres of elevation

The Pokdum grape is Thailand's most important wine variety, and almost nobody outside the country has heard of it. That is changing. Historically, the global wine industry was geographically locked into temperate climatic belts between 30° and 50° latitude, where cold winters allow vines to rest and store energy. Regions lacking a distinct thermal winter were considered incapable of sustaining commercial wine grape cultivation. Thailand sits entirely within the intertropical

The function room is finished. Not declining — finished. The beige carpet, the fluorescent strip lighting, the round tables with branded notepads and a jug of water that nobody refills: these are the artefacts of a corporate culture that no longer reflects how the best organisations think about their people, their strategy, or their time. The global offsite retreat market  reached USD 21.8 billion in 2024 and is forecast to grow at 8.3 percent annually through to 2033. That g

Elopement used to mean running away. A couple disappearing without telling anyone, a rushed ceremony in a registry office, a secret kept from parents who would have disapproved. That is not what elopement means anymore. Modern elopement is a deliberate choice. Two people deciding that the wedding industry's default settings — the 120-person guest list, the three-course plated dinner for people you see twice a year, the venue that has hosted 400 weddings that all look like eac

For Singaporean couples, the idea of a dream outdoor wedding collides with reality fast. Think 32 degrees, humidity you can swim through, foundation surrendering by the second vow, and a groom quietly questioning every life choice inside his three-piece suit. This is exactly why couples look north. Chiang Mai, in the highlands of northern Thailand, offers something Singapore physically cannot: a real cool season. Crisp air. Blue skies. Evenings that drop to 15 degrees and sta

Most chocolate sold in Thailand — including most of the chocolate sold in premium packaging at Bangkok airport — is made from imported cacao from West Africa or South America, industrially processed to a global standard. Skugga Estate in the highlands of Mae On, Chiang Mai, grows its own cacao in volcanic highland soil, ferments and dries it on site, roasts it in the Chocolate Lab, and produces finished single-origin bars without the cacao ever leaving the property. For Briti

Tuscany has been the answer to the British destination wedding question for so long that it has stopped feeling like a choice and started feeling like a default. The rolling hills. The cypress trees. The agriturismo with the stone walls and the terracotta roof tiles and the Chianti in carafes. The photographs that look beautiful and also look exactly like the photographs from the three other Tuscan weddings your guests attended in the same summer. The couples who are moving a

There is a global shift underway in how people choose to drink. Tripadvisor's Trendcast 2026 , built from millions of bookings and reviews, tracks the emergence of what it calls Investigative Drinking -- a trend away from branded hotel bars and recognisable labels toward hyper-regional, artisan-at-source experiences. Travelers are going to Oaxaca to taste agave derivatives most people have never heard of. They are visiting family distilleries in rural South Africa for old-vi

Every Chiang Mai guide covers the same ground. The Old City and its temples. Doi Suthep on the mountain above the valley. The Night Bazaar. The Sunday Walking Street. Doi Inthanon to the south. The elephant sanctuaries to the north. These are correct recommendations. They are correct because the things they describe are genuinely worth doing. They are also correct in the way that a restaurant's most popular dish is correct: reliable, well-executed, and increasingly familiar t

A Thailand marriage legally registered at a Thai district office is recognised under Australian law. Both countries are signatories to the Convention on the Celebration and Recognition of the Validity of Marriages. You can marry among vines in the mountains outside Chiang Mai, register the marriage at the local Amphur, bring the authenticated certificate home, and it stands. The process is documented, established, and used by Australian couples every year. Most couples who ha

Three hours. That is the flight time from Singapore Changi to Chiang Mai International Airport on a direct Scoot service. It lands a team in one of the most distinctive natural and cultural environments in Southeast Asia — cool highland air, working farms, forested hills — for less time than it takes to sit through a Monday morning of back-to-back calls. Chiang Mai solves a problem that Bali, Bintan, and Batam do not: it feels like a genuine departure. The landscape is differ

Every Chiang Mai travel guide produces the same list. Doi Suthep temple. The Elephant Nature Park. Doi Inthanon national park. Mae Kampong village. The San Kamphaeng Hot Springs. These are all genuinely good. Doi Suthep is extraordinary. The Elephant Nature Park is one of the most ethically serious wildlife experiences in Southeast Asia. Doi Inthanon on a clear morning, with the mist in the valleys below the summit, is a memory that stays. But they are the list. They are what