Stop Saying Yunnan Coffee Beans Are Disgusting - You're Not Drinking Premium Yunnan Coffee | Yunnan Coffee Origins

Yunnan coffee production accounts for 1% of global coffee production. Historically, there were three main waves of coffee introduction to Yunnan.

The first wave of Yunnan small-bean coffee was introduced by missionary Alfred Tienne de Saint-Phalle a century ago. At that time, due to the opening of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, he was able to enter inland Yunnan to preach and also brought coffee seedlings. The church was located in Zhugula Village, Binchuan County, Yunnan Province. Most of the coffee tree descendants scattered in the stone crevices around the church died in a cold disaster in the 1980s. The last tree planted by de Saint-Phalle himself was made into a root carving by Hougu Coffee a few years ago.

The second wave occurred in 1952, when scientific and technical personnel from the Mangshi branch of the Yunnan Agricultural Experimental Station brought back more than 70 kilograms of fresh fruit from Nongxian Village to trial plant in the Lujiang Dam of Baoshan City. They found that it showed good adaptability and excellent quality. From this, it continued to develop and grow. Coffee farmers generally refer to this batch as the old variety, which is what we call Typica.

The third wave was in the late 1980s, when Nestlé began introducing the Catimor variety in the Simao region of Yunnan (now Pu'er City). From then on, China's coffee planting area began to increase year by year, and quality improved significantly through continuous exploration. The planting areas are mainly distributed in Lincang, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbanna, Dehong, and Nujiang.

Yunnan's Coffee Production Regions

The entire province has formed three major production areas: Baoshan, Dehong, and Pu'er, while also promoting the development of the coffee industry in tropical regions such as Lincang, Honghe, Nujiang, Lijiang, and Wenshan. Among them, in 2009, Pu'er City had a planting area of 178,000 mu, with 113,000 mu in production and 14,318 tons of green coffee beans; Baoshan City had a planting area of 128,900 mu with 12,627 tons of green coffee beans; Dehong Prefecture had a planting area of 107,000 mu, with 47,800 mu in production and 7,500 tons of green coffee beans; Lincang had a planting area of 25,400 mu with more than 3,100 tons of green coffee beans; Xishuangbanna, Nujiang, Wenshan, Honghe and other regions had a planting area of more than 20,000 mu with about 3,000 tons of green coffee beans.

In 1992, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assisted the Chinese government in establishing China's first modern coffee factory. Since then, Yunnan coffee has continuously improved and expanded. According to the latest data released by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Agriculture, Yunnan's coffee production reached 136,000 tons in 2017, accounting for more than 95% of the country's total coffee production. In addition to Nestlé, well-known coffee chain brands such as Starbucks and Maxwell House have also entered the Yunnan coffee market.

What is Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee?

Traditionally speaking, only the second wave of Typica and Bourbon varieties can be strictly called "small-bean coffee." Today, however, small-bean coffee more often refers to the widely planted Catimor. Catimor is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta, with one-quarter Robusta genes. The main reason for developing this variety is its resistance to leaf rust and high yield properties that the old varieties lack, which better met the coffee farmers' pursuit of high yields at that time.

In the past, Yunnan coffee farmers did not accumulate much mature experience in coffee cultivation. They planted Catimor at lower altitudes and used rough processing methods, resulting in mediocre coffee quality that often carried negative bitterness. Most of it was purchased for commercial instant coffee. With the popularization of specialty coffee culture in China, many coffee professionals and researchers began to invest in the cultivation of Yunnan's growing regions, continuously improving coffee quality in areas such as coffee pest and disease control, shade trees, soil and water conservation, planting altitude, as well as fresh fruit picking and processing methods. Today, Yunnan Catimor coffee produced using professional methods can also exhibit good aroma and cleanliness.

If you want to taste the "flavor of Yunnan," FrontStreet Coffee recommends a washed Catimor coffee from the Baoshan region, available in 100-gram small packages. FrontStreet Coffee finds that this Yunnan daily coffee bean has a relatively balanced taste, with a bit of nutty flavor and some plum fruit aroma, as well as brown sugar-like sweetness, making it overall quite mild.

Is There Still Typica Variety Coffee in Yunnan?

Although Catimor varieties dominate in Yunnan's growing regions today, there are still some growers willing to persist in planting the ancient, high-quality Typica variety. For example, a coffee bean produced by FrontStreet Coffee itself is selected from the better-reputed Typica variety, processed using natural methods, and named "FrontStreet Coffee 2013."

The most notable characteristic of the Typica variety is that the top young leaves呈现 bronze color, hence it's also called "red-top coffee." Its trunk is slender, branches are very thin, and branches are slightly inclined, with lateral branches forming a 50-70° angle with the vertical stem. The plant height is about 5 meters, making it not very conducive to manual harvesting. Typica coffee beans are relatively large and long, with both ends pointed and slightly curled, somewhat like an egg. Typica coffee beans often have citrus acidity with a sweet aftertaste, and are praised by many as elegant and clear coffee beans. Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is of the Typica variety.

After harvesting, FrontStreet Coffee's Typica coffee cherries are immediately processed using natural methods to preserve the coffee's freshness. FrontStreet Coffee first conducts sorting, with flotation being one of the common sorting methods. The sorted coffee cherries are then sun-dried. FrontStreet Coffee arranges personnel to turn them regularly to avoid uneven heating of the coffee cherries, which could lead to over-fermentation. When the coffee cherries dehydrate from bright red to dark purple and reach the target moisture content, they can be sent for hulling and roasting. Natural processed Typica exhibits fuller fermentation flavors than washed processing, with prominent sweetness, carrying aromas of caramel, berries, and black tea.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations

For daily store production, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use pour-over extraction methods, hoping to present the coffee's natural aroma to everyone. Pour-over black coffee is not only the daily extraction method used by FrontStreet Coffee's baristas but also a simple method that many coffee enthusiasts can operate at home. FrontStreet Coffee considers that Yunnan Typica coffee tends toward a balanced and moderate taste, meaning it shouldn't have excessive acidity or heavy bitterness. FrontStreet Coffee prefers using a V60 dripper with medium-fine grind size and medium water temperature for extraction.

Brewing Parameters:

Dripper: Hario V60
Coffee amount: 15g
Water temperature: 90 degrees Celsius
Grind size: 75% pass-through rate on #20 sieve
Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

Three-stage pouring: Use twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome and let it bloom for 30 seconds. Then use a small water stream to pour from inside to outside in circles until reaching 125g for the first segment. Wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper, then continue with the same fine water stream to pour the third segment to 225g. Remove the dripper once all the coffee liquid has filtered through, with a total time of about 2 minutes.

Flavor of FrontStreet Coffee's 2013 Natural Typica: Caramel, nuts, chocolate, fermentation notes, berries, black tea, and sugarcane. Medium-high body, clean taste, black tea aftertaste, with rich and varied layers.

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 :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473