What are the Quality, Flavor, and Variety Types of Yunnan Coffee? Is Yunnan Small-Grain Black Coffee Bitter or Acidic?

Amidst the current national trend, domestic products are rising. The coffee boom in Yunnan has also surged, with more people stepping into cafés and asking: "Do you have any Yunnan coffee beans that taste good? Do you have Yunnan small-bean coffee?" As people's pursuit of specialty coffee becomes increasingly refined, they are even beginning to pay attention to Yunnan coffee bean varieties. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce you to information about Yunnan coffee.

Ideal Growing Conditions

As everyone knows, crops need suitable growing environments to achieve wonderful flavors. Besides higher altitudes, climate is also an important factor. Many famous coffee-growing regions are mostly concentrated in the "coffee golden growing belt" between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

In China's vast land, Yunnan and Taiwan can meet this requirement, both being located in the "coffee golden growing belt" and having suitable altitudes. However, for China's land, tea is the native plant, while coffee is an imported product. The earliest documented record of coffee cultivation in China dates back to 1877, when Ding Richang, the governor of Fujian, drafted the "Regulations for Pacifying Indigenous Peoples and Opening Mountains," which mentioned encouraging the indigenous residents of the Ryukyu Islands to plant a series of economic crops to replace hunting and thereby civilize them. Coffee was among those crops.

Yunnan's Coffee Cultivation History

The earliest place to grow coffee in mainland China was Yunnan. Documents such as "Binzhou County Gazetteer" and "History of Catholicism in Yunnan" both mention that in the 30th year of the Guangxu reign (1904), French Catholic missionary田德能 was dispatched by the Dali diocese church, set foot on the land of Binchuan Prefecture, built a church in Zhukula Village, and planted the first coffee tree for his own consumption.

Today, Yunnan's coffee cultivation has experienced three waves:

First Wave: 1950s-1960s

The first wave began in the 1950s and 1960s, when many people didn't even know what coffee was, let alone its taste. At that time, coffee beans were used for export to the Soviet Union to repay loans. Yunnan Agricultural Reclamation cultivated coffee, and the national foreign trade department was responsible for acquisition. The main coffee farms at that time included: Baoshan Lujiang Farm, Xincheng Youth Farm, Dehong Zhefang Farm, Ruili Farm, Wanding Farm, Wenshan Babu Farm, and Tianbao Farm. The Yunnan coffee varieties at that time were locally bred Typica and Bourbon varieties.

As the loan repayment work ended, the foreign trade department no longer actively acquired Yunnan coffee beans. Meanwhile, due to the infection and spread of coffee diseases, large-scale coffee trees became diseased and even died. To prevent the spread of coffee tree diseases, massive cutting had to be done. The area planted with coffee trees shrank to less than 3,000 mu at once.

Second Wave: 1980s

The second wave began in the 1980s when the reform and opening-up policy was implemented. Nestlé strongly supported the development of Yunnan's coffee industry in 1988 and actively promoted the cultivation of Catimor varieties in Yunnan. Since Catimor's yield is three times that of Typica and it has strong disease resistance, farmers, who didn't have much understanding of coffee flavor, were more concerned about coffee acquisition prices and how many coffee fruits they could harvest. In Yunnan, Catimor replaced Typica's position and became the main force of Yunnan coffee bean varieties, even accounting for 90% of Yunnan's coffee production at one point.

Third Wave: Post-2000

The third development wave was after 2000, when China's booming economic development attracted the attention of many coffee brands, and the concept of specialty coffee was also brought to China. As people's enthusiasm for pursuing specialty coffee grew, the selection and cultivation work for Yunnan coffee actively developed. Currently, the journey of Yunnan coffee's specialization is still ongoing.

Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee and Catimor

Yunnan small-bean coffee gets its name from Typica coffee. Since Typica variety coffee beans are small in size, they are called small-bean. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, due to the high yield and strong disease resistance of Catimor coffee varieties, many coffee growers reluctantly cut down Typica trees and switched to growing Catimor. Currently, the planting area of Catimor varieties in Yunnan is still relatively large, and the variety of Yunnan small-bean coffee is Catimor.

The Catimor variety was developed in 1959 by the Portuguese Coffee Leaf Rust Research Center CIFC, as a hybrid of Timor coffee variety from Timor and Caturra variety. Inheriting the Robusta genes from Timor, Catimor has better resistance to coffee berry disease and coffee leaf rust, while also having some resistance to coffee pest diseases.

Facing the Catimor variety, Taiwanese specialty coffee master Han Huaizong once described it as: "devilish aftertaste." Due to the Robusta genes, Catimor variety coffee may have an earthy, fishy taste. Of course, with the improvement of coffee cultivation technology and processing methods, the flavor of Yunnan Catimor is also improving.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Estate

To pursue the taste of Yunnan terroir, FrontStreet Coffee established its own coffee estate in Lincang. Yunnan's Lincang coffee producing area is located in the southwestern part of Yunnan Province, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing its southern part, adjacent to Pu'er, Dali, and Baoshan, and bordering Myanmar to the southwest. It is a brilliant pearl on the southwestern border of our country. This area has an altitude of over 1,000 meters, annual temperatures around 17°C, distinct dry and wet seasons, and sufficient sunlight. This provides excellent growing conditions for FrontStreet Coffee to plant Typica coffee trees on this land.

The Typica coffee beans grown at FrontStreet Coffee's estate use natural processing method. Mature coffee cherries are spread completely and evenly on raised beds for sun drying, and are regularly turned to avoid uneven drying that produces unpleasant fermentation. Additionally, keeping the complete cherries allows more sugar substances from the coffee fruit to penetrate into the raw coffee beans, making FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans rich in aroma with stronger sweetness.

When FrontStreet Coffee's roaster received these natural-processed Typica coffee beans, considering the need to highlight their aroma and sweetness while emphasizing the taste of Yunnan small-bean coffee, a medium roast level was adopted.

Brewing Parameters

Dripper: Hario V60
Water temperature: 87°C
Dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: 75% passing through Chinese standard #20 sieve

Considering that FrontStreet Coffee ships coffee beans freshly roasted within 5 days, when received they have undergone a resting period of 4 to 7 days, the beans are relatively fresh, and the carbon dioxide gas in the beans is sufficient. To allow for more stable flavor extraction, FrontStreet Coffee suggests a 30-second bloom during brewing.

First pour 30 grams of hot water for a 30-second bloom, then inject with a fine water stream from the center and slowly spiral to 125 grams. When the water level in the dripper drops to just about to expose the coffee bed, continue spiraling to 225 grams. The total extraction time is approximately 2 minutes.

Tasting Notes

FrontStreet Coffee's estate natural Typica coffee has a heavy body with prominent sweet and sour notes, featuring citrus and berry tones with a hint of fermented wine aroma, caramel-like sweetness, creamy aftertaste, and black tea-like mouthfeel.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473