Varietal Characteristics of Yunnan Arabica Coffee Beans and How to Brew Them - Pour-Over Brewing Guide for Yunnan Coffee

Yunnan's rolling and towering mountains are renowned for tea cultivation. With the rapid growth of China's coffee market, the dense forests of Yunnan now emit rich coffee aromas. More and more coffee enthusiasts are visiting FrontStreet Coffee stores to inquire about Yunnan small-bean coffee. As people increasingly pursue refined coffee flavors, they've begun to notice Yunnan coffee bean varieties and wonder why this situation has developed.

Coffee, as an agricultural crop, is restricted by its growing environment. It's not surprising that many coffee-growing regions are concentrated in what FrontStreet Coffee has consistently discussed as the golden coffee cultivation belt, and Yunnan Province's coffee-growing regions happen to be located near the Tropic of Cancer. For China's land, tea is the native addiction, while coffee is an imported product.

Historical Development of Coffee in China

China's earliest coffee cultivation history can be traced back to 1877, when the Qing government had indigenous people of the Ryukyu Islands plant a series of economic crops to civilize them, including coffee as an economic crop. Subsequently, in the 30th year of the Guangxu era (1904), a French Catholic missionary was dispatched by the church to build a church in Zhukula Village and plant coffee for his own consumption.

With the founding of New China, large-scale coffee production began, with Yunnan coffee beans primarily used for export to the Soviet Union to offset debt.

The Rise and Challenges of Coffee Varieties

In the 1970s, severe coffee leaf rust swept through Yunnan. Due to the elegant flavor but poor disease resistance of the Typica variety, batch after batch of Arabica coffee trees fell to the disease. To address this emergency, local agricultural institutions introduced the Catimor variety for promotion and cultivation. Catimor, with its high resistance to coffee leaf rust, triumphed over other varieties in this "massacre" and became the main force of Yunnan coffee varieties.

At the end of the 1980s, cooperation between the United Nations Development Programme, the Yunnan government, the World Bank, and Nestlé increased investment in training local farmers for coffee cultivation and production, modernizing Yunnan's coffee industry. In the 1990s, high coffee prices prompted more farmers to resume planting Catimor coffee beans, with most of the produced beans being purchased by foreign companies like Nestlé. Subsequently, Catimor once occupied 90% of Yunnan's coffee production.

Yunnan small-bean coffee gets its name from Typica, as Typica variety coffee beans are small in size, hence the name "small bean." However, the Catimor variety not only has high yield and strong disease resistance, but also became highly sought-after for its profitability.

The Flavor Challenge of Catimor

However, an unavoidable fact is that Catimor is a hybrid of the Timor and Caturra varieties. Catimor thus inherited some Robusta genes from the Timor variety, giving it resistance to a series of coffee diseases such as coffee berry disease and coffee leaf rust, but also inheriting some undesirable Robusta flavors.

For the Catimor variety, due to the Robusta gene component, it may exhibit earthy, fishy flavors. Taiwanese specialty coffee master Han Huaizong once described it as having a "devil-like aftertaste." Meanwhile, this coffee master also explained that specialty coffee is seventy percent dependent on variety and thirty percent on environment.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Journey

While studying coffee-related knowledge, FrontStreet Coffee has personally experienced the entire process from "seed to cup." As Yunnan is an important specialty coffee-producing region in China, FrontStreet Coffee naturally had to personally go there to pursue Yunnan's magnificent terroir flavors.

Famous coffee-producing regions in Yunnan such as Dehong, Baoshan, Pu'er, and Xishuangbanna each have their own characteristics. Every Yunnan small-bean coffee enthusiast has their own ranking of Yunnan coffee-producing regions, while FrontStreet Coffee chose to establish its own coffee estate in Lincang, Yunnan.

Within FrontStreet Coffee's estate, there is a planting altitude of over 1,000 meters, annual temperatures around 17°C, distinct wet and dry seasons, and ample sunlight. This provides excellent growing conditions for FrontStreet Coffee to plant Typica coffee trees on this land. Meanwhile, to compare the differences between various Yunnan varieties, FrontStreet Coffee has trial-planted other Arabica coffee varieties in its own estate, such as Bourbon.

From Harvest to Roast

Since FrontStreet Coffee's estate began small-scale harvests in 2021, to maximize the coffee's flavor expression, FrontStreet Coffee has used all harvested red coffee cherries for natural processing. Bright red coffee fruits are evenly spread on raised beds and regularly turned. While drying evenly, as much sugar as possible from the coffee fruits slowly permeates into the green coffee beans, making FrontStreet Coffee's natural Typica aromatic, with solid mouthfeel and strong sweetness.

When FrontStreet Coffee's roasters developed the roasting curve for the natural Typica produced in their own estate, they used a medium roast degree to express its rich aromas.

With each new harvest season, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas take the lead as coffee pioneers to taste this "first sip," conducting cupping of the coffee beans. In the cupping, FrontStreet Coffee tasted soft berry fruit acidity, strong caramel sweetness, with creamy aftertaste, and finally a persistent black tea-like finish.

Brewing Recommendations

When FrontStreet Coffee releases a coffee bean, different roast degrees correspond to different grind levels. FrontStreet Coffee often receives questions from coffee enthusiasts about what grind setting to use on grinders. Because each machine's standards and maintenance conditions differ, the same setting presents different coarseness levels. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's grind recommendations are based on standard sieves. For Yunnan coffee beans, due to the darker roast degree, FrontStreet Coffee recommends a 75% sieve pass rate.

Dripper: Hario V60
Water Temperature: 88°C
Dose: 15 grams
Ratio: 1:15
Grind: 75% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve

In choosing the pouring method, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using three-stage pouring. FrontStreet Coffee has compared three-stage pouring with single-pour pouring and found that single-pour produces coffee with thinner mouthfeel, lighter flavor, and single-layered complexity. The three-stage pouring method can evenly extract various acidic, sweet, and flavorful substances over time, creating rich flavor layers.

Additionally, because FrontStreet Coffee ships freshly roasted coffee beans within 5 days, after 4-7 days of logistics transport and degassing, they reach their optimal tasting period. However, after coffee beans are roasted, they contain abundant carbon dioxide gas, which dissipates over time, making the coffee flavor smoother. Excessive gas can inhibit hot water from entering the coffee's internal structure to extract flavor compounds. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends performing a bloom step to promote gas release.

First pour 30 grams of hot water and bloom for 30 seconds, then pour fine water flow from the center point and slowly spiral to 125 grams. When the water level in the dripper drops to just about exposing the coffee bed, continue spiraling to 225 grams. Extraction time is approximately 2 minutes.

It should be noted that during the third stage of pouring, you should start with fine water flow from the center point and gently spiral slowly, avoiding washing away the side walls of the coffee grounds. Otherwise, water will flow through easier paths to the serving pot, ultimately leading to lighter flavor and heavier "watery" sensation.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public 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