What Does Yunnan Huaguoshan Taste Like? How to Brew Yunnan Coffee

Manufacturer: Dazhen Coffee FrontStreet Coffee
Ingredients: 100% Typica
Grind to order
Shelf life: 20 days
Net weight: 10g
Packaging: Bulk
Brand: Coffee Workshop
Series: Flower Fruit Mountain
Organic: No
Taste: Mellow and rich
Coffee bean state: Roasted beans
Sugar content: Sugar-free
Origin: China
Roast level: Medium roast

Flower Fruit Mountain

Country: China
Altitude: 1200 meters
Region: Yunnan
Roast level: Medium roast
Processing method: Washed
Variety: Typica
Flavor: Floral notes, melon sweetness, black tea finish

Primary Growing Regions

Arabica coffee grows best on mountainous terrain between 800 and 1800 meters. Too high and the taste turns sour, too low and it turns bitter. Most Arabica is planted in dry, hot valley areas at around 1100 meters, which produces moderate acidity with a rich, mellow aroma. Many parts of Yunnan offer environments well suited to Arabica, and they yield beans of exceptional quality.

The main growing areas are spread across Lincang, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbanna, Dehong, and other prefectures. Baoshan has an average temperature of 21.5°C, reaching as high as 40.4°C, and is essentially frost-free all year, which makes it widely recognized as the best Arabica growing region. The Arabica cultivated here is known both at home and abroad for being rich without bitterness and fragrant without intensity, with small but uniform beans, a rich mellow aroma, and fruity notes. Tasting experts from international coffee organizations have judged Yunnan coffee to be in the same category as Colombian washed Arabica, placing it among the world's high-quality coffees.

Variety

Typica, the classic high-quality variety, is the main variety in this batch. Typica originated in southeastern Ethiopia and Sudan and is the most widely cultivated coffee variety in the Western Hemisphere. The plants are relatively robust but do not tolerate strong light, and they yield more heavily in Hawaii. The terminal leaves of Typica are copper-colored, which has earned it the name "red-topped coffee."

Brewing Method

Hand-poured Yunnan Flower Fruit Mountain. 15g of coffee, medium grind, ground on a Fuji ghost tooth burr grinder at setting #4, V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait for the water level to drop by half before continuing, pouring slowly to a total of 225g. Avoid the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Growth Period

Yunnan Arabica coffee bears fruit at 3-4 years of age.

Coffee is a short-day plant with multiple flowering periods and a concentrated flowering peak. Arabica in Yunnan flowers from February to July, with peak flowering from March to May. Flowering is greatly influenced by climate, particularly rainfall and temperature. Coffee flowers have a short life, lasting only 2-3 days. Arabica typically begins to bloom between 3-5 AM and reaches full bloom between 5-7 AM.

Coffee fruit development takes a relatively long time. Arabica fruit needs 8-10 months to mature and usually ripens between October and December of the same year. Rainfall has a significant effect on fruit development, and climate conditions directly influence the fruit.

Yunnan Arabica Coffee

Yunnan Arabica belongs to the Rubiaceae family, genus Coffea. The growing areas are mainly spread across Lincang, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbanna, Dehong, and other prefectures. Arabica coffee originated in Ethiopia or on the Arabian Peninsula.

Flavor description: Rich without bitterness, fragrant without intensity, with floral notes, melon sweetness in the mid-palate, and a black tea finish.

Baoshan Arabica, a specialty of Yunnan's Baoshan Lujiang region, is a national geographical indication product and one of the finest coffees in China and even globally. The beans are uniform and full, with a fresh aroma, rich fragrance, and mellow taste. Because it is rich without being intense, it can be compared to the world-famous Blue Mountain. It enjoys a global reputation for its unique, excellent quality: in the late 1950s it was rated first grade on the London market and earned the name "Lujiang No. 1," and at the 1980 National Coffee Conference it was recognized as the "Crown of National Coffee."

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For an introduction to Chinese Arabica, FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan small-lot coffee is the natural first step. It comes from the Baoshan region and is washed and given a medium roast, which brings out a certain caramel character while preserving some acidity, so the terroir of Yunnan comes through clearly. Washing removes the mucilage layer through fermentation and rinsing before drying, which lets the coffee show the flavor profile characteristic of the region. The cup is gentle, with nutty and chocolate sweetness and a light plum acidity, and its friendly price has made it the first taste of Yunnan coffee for a great many drinkers.

If you want a clearer, more defined Yunnan coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's 2013 Natural Typica is the step up. In 2013 FrontStreet Coffee built its own estate and planted a block of Typica, choosing it both because it is one of the oldest coffee varieties, carrying pure Arabica genetics, with an elegant, clean flavor long regarded as a specialty variety, and because the very first coffee trees planted in Yunnan were Typica, brought in by a French missionary; the aim was to recover the original flavor of the place. Made from fully ripe red cherries only and given a natural process, then a medium roast for better balance and more pronounced sweet-and-sour notes, it shows dark berry character along with caramel sweetness, chocolate, and a hint of dried apricot, with a black tea aftertaste.

And to taste Yunnan in an espresso, FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend pairs Yunnan small-lot coffee with Brazilian Cerrado. The Brazilian side supplies mixed nut aromas and a balanced body, while the Yunnan side plays the chocolate and citrus role. The result is an Americano with a balance of sweet, sour, and bitter and a nutty, brown-sugar sweetness, and a latte with the smooth texture of almond and cream, which makes it very approachable for beginners.