Yunnan Premium Small Bean Coffee Flavor Profile: Brewing Parameters for Water-to-Coffee Ratio and Temperature

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The recently released film "Go Home" themed around Yunnan coffee has drawn everyone's attention to Yunnan coffee, elevating its popularity to another level. So what does Yunnan coffee taste like? Today, FrontStreet Coffee will share some insights about Yunnan coffee.

Why has there been such emphasis on processing methods for Yunnan coffee beans in recent years?

In recent years, Yunnan's single-origin coffees have often appeared in major consumer markets using special processing methods. This is undoubtedly an effective way to quickly change the public's poor impression of Yunnan coffee. If you observe carefully, you'll notice that the coffee varieties used for various special processing methods are mostly Catimor, which everyone refers to as Yunnan small-bean coffee.

Catimor Coffee Variety

Catimor is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta species. Robusta has good resistance to leaf rust disease, rich oils, high yield, and is easy to cultivate. After hybridization with Arabica's Typica, Catimor acquired 25% Robusta genes. It improved leaf rust resistance while retaining rich oils and partly preserving the rich flavor of the original Typica variety. Today, Catimor is widely cultivated in Yunnan.

However, FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that a coffee that maintains consistently good flavor long-term depends on various factors including coffee variety, growing environment, and agricultural practices. Directly changing coffee flavor through agricultural end-processing only addresses symptoms, not root causes.

Therefore, while roasting coffee, FrontStreet Coffee continued advancing with ideas about specialty coffee cultivation. They also successively visited the Tropical Agricultural Science Research Institute (which has in-depth research on coffee cultivation and serves as the Ministry of Agriculture's coffee germplasm repository), and a few farmers growing specialty coffee. They clarified why Yunnan doesn't grow mainstream specialty varieties like Typica and Bourbon. Through a fortunate opportunity, they found suitable land at the Yunnan-Myanmar border and began FrontStreet Coffee's cultivation journey in Yunnan.

FrontStreet Coffee's Choice: Typica

The coffee seedlings chosen by FrontStreet Coffee are Typica. This is an ancient coffee variety with excellent flavor. As a pure-bred ancient Arabica species, it also has several weaknesses, such as low yield, weak vitality, and poor disease resistance. It is precisely for these reasons that more effort and resources are needed to cultivate good Typica, which is why Yunnan farmers prefer the high-yield, vigorous Catimor.

Typica Coffee Variety

Typica has distinct characteristics and is likely the most easily recognizable variety. These plants have a conical shape with a main vertical trunk that can reach up to 5 meters in height. This height means that, compared to other varieties, Typica has greater distances between branches and between nodes on the same branch.

The side branches form angles of 50 to 80 degrees with the vertical trunk. Neither the trunk nor branches are very robust. The leaves, fruits, and green beans are typically elongated. The tips of new leaf shoots are bronze-colored. Compared to other Arabica varieties, Typica leaves have smoother surfaces with fewer wavy edges. Typical Typica fruits turn bright red when ripe.

The bronze color of Typica's top leaves is one of its characteristics. The beans are relatively large, with a pointed oval or slender pointed shape, earning it the name "red-topped coffee." Typica coffee has its unique subtle, clean flavor and balanced characteristics, with high clarity in taste. However, its shortcomings include insufficient yield, altitude requirements, susceptibility to leaf rust disease, and weak pest and disease resistance.

Yunnan Coffee Growing Regions

Yunnan's coffee cultivation is mainly distributed in Lincang, Baoshan, and Pu'er. These areas have natural resources of low latitude, high altitude (1000-2000m), and significant day-night temperature differences, making Yunnan a golden growing area for producing high-quality Arabica (small-bean) coffee.

Pu'er

Pu'er coffee has a hundred-year history, with cultivation beginning in the late 19th century and industrial development starting in 1988. Today, the city's coffee planting area reaches 767,000 mu, making it the mainland's largest coffee-growing area in terms of planting area, highest yield, and best quality, as well as a coffee trade distribution center.

Lincang

Located in southwestern Yunnan Province, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing its southern part, Lincang borders Pu'er to the east, Dali to the north, Baoshan to the west, and Myanmar to the southwest. It gets its name from being near the Lancang River and is a brilliant pearl on China's southwestern border. Lincang has an average annual temperature between 16.8°C and 17.2°C, with distinct wet and dry seasons and sufficient sunlight.

Baoshan

Baoshan has an average temperature of 21.5°C, reaching up to 40.4°C at its highest, and is basically frost-free year-round, making it a recognized optimal area for small-bean coffee cultivation. The small-bean coffee cultivated here is famous both domestically and internationally for being rich but not bitter, fragrant but not strong, with small yet uniform beans, rich mellow aroma, and fruity notes. Yunnan Baoshan small-bean coffee has a long cultivation history and can be considered a national geographical indication product. FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan coffee growing area is also located here.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Coffee Offerings

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee

• Region: Baoshan, Yunnan
• Altitude: 1200m
• Variety: Catimor
• Processing: Washed

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Flower-Fruit Mountain

• Region: Baoshan, Yunnan
• Altitude: 1200m
• Variety: Typica
• Processing: Washed

Traditional Washed Processing of Yunnan Coffee

When FrontStreet Coffee visited Yunnan's growing areas during the planting season, they truly experienced what a rainy season means. Clear for a few minutes, then raining for half an hour. Due to the perennial rainy season and unstable climate, FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan coffee beans typically use the washed processing method.

The harvested cherries are put through a depulping machine to separate most of the fruit pulp from the coffee beans. The parchment beans are then guided to a clean water tank and soaked in water for fermentation to completely remove the remaining pulp layer. In the past (about five years ago), the washed method was often the first choice for processing high-quality coffee beans.

Through water processing, unripe and defective beans are selected out due to buoyancy differences, and the fermentation process is easier to control. Therefore, unlike sun-dried beans which may have off-flavors, washed beans present distinct fruit acidity, slightly stronger complexity, and cleaner cup characteristics (without any negative flavors like astringency or sharpness).

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee (Catimor): Yangjia 800N (300g batch size) - Heat at 190°C, flame 120, damper at 3; Return temperature at 1'40", when roaster temperature reaches 145°C, open damper to 4, flame unchanged; when temperature reaches 166°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, entering dehydration stage. When temperature reaches 188°C, adjust flame to 60°C, damper to 5; at 8'37", bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for the first crack sound, first crack starts at 9'00", damper unchanged, develop for 3 minutes after first crack, discharge at 198°C.

Yunnan Flower-Fruit Mountain (Typica): Yangjia 800N (300g batch size) - Heat to 200°C, damper at 3, adjust flame to 160 after 1 minute, return temperature at 1'32". Roast until 5'40" when beans turn yellow at 149°C, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration complete, flame unchanged, damper to 4; at 6 minutes, adjust flame to 140, at 7 minutes adjust flame to 120, at 8 minutes, bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for first crack sound, first crack starts at 8'37", adjust flame to 90, damper fully open to 5, at 9 minutes reduce flame to 20, first crack development for 2'00", discharge at 196°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls marked with 150ml and 200ml measurement lines. According to SCAA standards, water TDS is around 150ppm. Too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high TDS affects mouthfeel and causes under-extraction. Cupping water temperature is 94°C. Cupping grind size follows SCAA cupping standards, controlled at 70%-75% pass-through rate on a #20 standard sieve (0.85mm). Ratio: 11g coffee powder to 200ml hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, so the extracted concentration falls within the golden cup range of 1.15%-1.35%. Steeping time: 4 minutes.

Yunnan Flower-Fruit Mountain Coffee Cupping: Rich fruit aroma on entry, melon, herbal plant notes, smooth entry, mid-palate shows nuts, milk chocolate, finish has lively bright plum acidity, mouth-watering, good balance, medium body with fullness. From hot to warm temperatures, you can feel layers of sweet and sour, first sweet then sour, with apricot-peach and citrus-toned acidity, black tea finish with slight brown sugar notes.

Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee Cupping: Smooth entry, Asian herbal plant aroma, lively bright acidity, mouth-watering, soft acidity, mellow and well-balanced, rich layers, finish with black chocolate, honey, and distinct sugarcane flavors. After complete cooling, brown sugar notes emerge.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Guide

When brewing these two washed Yunnan coffees, FrontStreet Coffee recommends aiming for balance - neither over-emphasizing acidity nor excessively modifying the finish. Choose 15g coffee powder, recommend powder-to-water ratio of 1:15, or 1:16 for clearer flavor. Use a Kono dripper with 88°C brewing water temperature to achieve softer acidity. Grind to medium-fine/fine sugar size (80% pass-through rate on #20 sieve).

FrontStreet Coffee's Segmented Brewing Method: Use 30g water for 30-second bloom, then pour in small circular motions to 125g and segment. When water level drops to just expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When water level drops to just expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. Extraction time (counting from bloom start): 2'00".

Through this brewing method, Flower-Fruit Mountain Typica coffee beans will show distinct roasted nuts, soft acidity, overall balanced richness, solid black chocolate aroma, and slight orange peel notes. Small-bean Catimor coffee will present nutty aroma, herbal, chocolate, caramel notes, with a finish carrying light fruit acidity.

For more specialty coffee beans, add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473