Yunnan Coffee Production, Yunnan Coffee History - What Are the Flavor Characteristics of Yunnan Small Bean Coffee?

In recent years, FrontStreet Coffee has observed that with the rise of coffee culture in China, Yunnan coffee has gradually entered the circle of coffee enthusiasts. Although Yunnan coffee's reputation is far from that of premium, high-priced coffees like Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Indonesia Mandheling, or Panama Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee believes it's an excellent choice for its high cost-performance ratio. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee has launched seven daily coffee beans, hoping to help newcomers quickly get acquainted with this growing region. Among these, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the small-grain coffee from Baoshan, Yunnan is the most representative, allowing people to experience Yunnan's coffee flavors.

Yunnan Coffee History

According to relevant materials reviewed by FrontStreet Coffee, a French missionary named Alfred Liard brought a batch of coffee seeds from Vietnam to Zhukula Village, Binchuan County, Dali City, Yunnan in 1902, planting the first coffee tree. The coffee plants propagated from these seeds still have over 30 trees flowering and fruiting in Binchuan County today.

With the country's development, in the spring of 1952, scientific personnel from the Yunnan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences distributed 80kg of coffee seeds to farmers in Lujiangba, Baoshan for trial planting. They discovered excellent adaptability and superior quality, and since then, Yunnan coffee cultivation has continued to develop and expand. Later, in 1988, Nestlé established a joint venture in China, creating a coffee agronomy service department that cultivated coffee seeds suitable for local soil conditions and climate, provided technical advice to local coffee farmers to improve the yield and quality of Yunnan coffee beans, and purchased coffee beans according to the US spot market prices at that time. This initiative also led to Yunnan coffee's rise.

Today, Yunnan has developed into China's largest coffee-growing province, with coffee production accounting for over 98% of the country's total. From 2019 to 2021, Yunnan's coffee planting area was 1.57 million mu, 1.5 million mu, and 1.39 million mu respectively, with raw coffee bean production reaching 145,000 tons, 135,100 tons, and 140,300 tons respectively, demonstrating Yunnan's important position in the domestic coffee market. As of the end of 2024, Yunnan's coffee planting area was 1.193 million mu with a production of 150,000 tons, ranking 13th globally. In 2024, Yunnan exported 32,500 tons of coffee, a year-on-year increase of 358%. Besides Nestlé, well-known coffee chain brands like Starbucks and Maxwell House have also entered the Yunnan coffee market.

Yunnan Coffee Growing Regions

The western and southern parts of Yunnan Province are located in tropical regions between 15°N and the Tropic of Cancer, with most areas at elevations of 1000-2000m. The terrain is mainly mountainous and sloped with significant variations. Combined with fertile soil, abundant sunlight, plentiful rainfall, and large temperature differences between day and night, these unique natural conditions create the distinctive character of Yunnan small-grain coffee: rich but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, with slight fruit notes.

Yunnan coffee cultivation is mainly distributed across four growing regions: Baoshan, Pu'er, Dehong, and Lincang, with the total planting area and production accounting for over 85% of the province. These regions are also the main distribution areas for Yunnan small-grain variety coffee cultivation.

Dehong

In 1951, the Luxi County Cotton Experiment Station in Dehong Prefecture first introduced coffee seeds from the China-Myanmar border and implemented a coffee production cultivation project on 6 mu of land, marking the beginning of large-scale coffee tree cultivation. Therefore, Dehong earned the title "Hometown of Chinese Coffee." Dehong's natural conditions are exceptionally advantageous, making it one of the earliest coffee-growing areas in Yunnan Province. Additionally, Dehong hosts China's largest coffee seed gene bank—the Ministry of Agriculture's Ruili Coffee Germplasm Resource Garden, one of the first nine tropical crop germplasm resource gardens authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Baoshan

Coffee cultivation in Baoshan began in the mid-1950s, with the first coffee seedling introduced by the late patriotic overseas Chinese Mr. Liang Jinshan from Southeast Asia. Baoshan small-grain coffee was designated as a national geographical indication product by China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine in 2010.

Baoshan's average temperature is around 21.3°C, reaching a maximum of 40.4°C, with basically no frost throughout the year, making it recognized as the best region for growing small-grain coffee. With the expansion of international trade, Baoshan's Lujiangba small-grain coffee has gained recognition from domestic and international coffee experts, who once described Baoshan small-grain coffee as "rich but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, with mellow aroma; rich in oils, with strong fruit acidity and lasting sweet aftertaste; this is a superior grade of coffee."

Lincang

Named for its proximity to the Lancang River, Lincang is located in southwestern Yunnan, bordering Myanmar to the west. The terrain here is complex, with elevations above 1000 meters, an average annual temperature of 17.3°C, and no distinct four seasons but rather divided into dry and rainy seasons. The rainy season begins in June each year, lasting 3-4 months, with large temperature differences between day and night, making it very suitable for growing high-altitude tropical plants like coffee.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee also took a fancy to this "treasure land" of Lincang, establishing its own coffee plantation to grow Typica varieties, producing the first batch of self-produced Yunnan coffee beans in 2020—the FrontStreet Coffee 2013 coffee beans that everyone sees today.

FrontStreet Coffee: FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Coffee Beans
Region: Lincang, Yunnan
Estate: FrontStreet Coffee Estate
Elevation: 1300 meters
Variety: Typica
Processing: Natural Processing

Small-Grain Coffee Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee believes that friends who have初步了解过咖啡豆品种 (preliminarily understood coffee bean varieties) must know about the Arabica variety. Among the three major varieties (Arabica, Robusta, and Liberica), Arabica coffee beans have the smallest particles, which is why we often refer to small-grain coffee as the Arabica variety. Yunnan coffee is named for cultivating Typica varieties, which is also the oldest coffee variety in Yunnan. However, because Typica has weak disease resistance and cannot achieve mass production, cultivation began to shift to other high-yield, high-disease-resistance varieties—Catimor. Yunnan initially introduced the leaf rust-resistant S288, and later introduced the higher-yielding Catimor, a hybrid of Timor and Caturra. Today, most coffee trees planted in Yunnan are Catimor varieties, with only a few Typica varieties remaining.

Because Catimor carries one-quarter Robusta genes, it produces larger yields and is easier to cultivate. Initially, its cupping performance was relatively average, with rather monotonous flavors compared to the pure aroma of the ancient Typica variety. However, in recent years, with improvements in cultivation management and green coffee processing technology, Yunnan Catimor has shown excellent performance in the international coffee market. Its nutty and black tea aromas, along with plum-like sweet and sour notes, have become increasingly popular among the public. As a representative of Yunnan coffee flavors, FrontStreet Coffee selected Baoshan's Catimor, allowing everyone to experience nutty aromas, brown sugar sweetness, soft plum acidity, and a black tea aftertaste at the lowest price. This coffee uses washed processing because FrontStreet Coffee believes washing better presents the flavor characteristics of the Yunnan region.

FrontStreet Coffee: Yunnan Small-Grain Coffee
Region: Baoshan, China
Elevation: 1200m
Variety: Catimor
Processing: Washed Processing

Brewing Recommendations

So how should one brew this Yunnan small-grain coffee bean to make it taste good? Since Yunnan coffee's flavor doesn't emphasize acidity but focuses on nutty notes, FrontStreet Coffee chose medium roast for this coffee to preserve the Yunnan beans' herbal aroma and soft acidity. To avoid over-extraction, 91°C water temperature is recommended, using a V60 pour-over filter.

Filter: V60
Water Temperature: 91°C
Grind Size: 80% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Coffee Dose: 15 grams

FrontStreet Coffee has found that some friends don't have coffee grinders at home. Don't worry—FrontStreet Coffee provides grinding services. However, since coffee beans release aroma more easily after grinding and the flavor period shortens, FrontStreet Coffee still recommends having your own grinding tools to grind fresh before brewing if you want to enjoy better-flavored coffee. (The flavor period refers to the optimal period when coffee presents its best flavors after 3-7 days of degassing following roasting, after which flavors diminish over time. The optimal flavor period is generally 4-30 days after roasting. Coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee are typically freshly roasted within 5 days, so they're basically at their optimal flavor period when received.)

Pour the ground coffee into the filter, where you can smell the beans' herbal and nutty aroma. First, bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour 95g of water from the center outward in circular motions. Pay attention to maintaining a fine water flow throughout. When the coffee bed drops to half the filter's height, continue pouring in circular motions with 100g of water until the coffee liquid finishes filtering, taking approximately 2 minutes (±10 seconds).

When this Yunnan small-grain daily coffee is brewed, the entry presents nutty and brown sugar sweetness. As the temperature decreases, you can taste the plum acidity, followed by a black tea aftertaste in the finish, with an overall soft profile.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473