Why Has Yunnan Arabica Coffee Been Reduced to Instant Coffee Raw Material? Because It's "Fake" Yunnan Arabica!

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Why Did Yunnan Coffee Become Instant Coffee Raw Material?

Yunnan coffee was initially cultivated with the Typica variety. Later, to repay debts to the Soviet Union, Yunnan extensively planted Typica coffee beans, which were uniformly purchased and transported to the Soviet region. Later, due to low domestic coffee demand, coffee farmers cut down their coffee trees one after another and switched to more economically valuable crops.

However, Yunnan is a treasure land for coffee cultivation. Not only is it located between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, but the region's altitude also meets the growth requirements of coffee trees. Thus, Nestlé Coffee targeted this treasure land and established a coffee agriculture department in 1992, specifically to guide and research the improvement and cultivation of Yunnan coffee. They introduced high-yield, disease-resistant Catimor varieties and purchased coffee according to US spot market prices.

In 1959, the Portuguese moved the Bourbon mutant Caturra from Brazil to East Timor, where it was crossbred with Timor hybrid (which has Robusta heritage). Surprisingly, they successfully cultivated Catimor, which has exceptional disease resistance and productivity. As leaf rust disease affected coffee-producing countries worldwide, with the assistance of international organizations, various producing countries vigorously promoted Catimor to resist leaf rust and increase productivity.

Catimor is not purely of Arabica heritage. It is a hybrid of Timor hybrid (Arabica and Robusta cross) and Caturra (Bourbon variety mutation), so Catimor has 25% Robusta heritage. Its Robusta heritage determines its flavor defects: insufficient aroma richness, overall bitter taste, and tendency to develop astringency and relatively stimulating musty flavors.

Currently, the commonly cultivated coffee varieties in Yunnan are Catimor and its improved varieties. This is what people commonly refer to as Yunnan small-bean coffee in the market. Now it appears that most of Yunnan's cultivation is Catimor. This variety is a hybrid between Caturra (a branch of the Bourbon series in Arabica) and Robusta lineage. The reason for cultivating this variety is that Catimor possesses Robusta genes, making it more disease-resistant than single old varieties, and it also has good yields. Compared to delicate old varieties with poor disease resistance and low yields, farmers naturally prefer to plant Catimor. Therefore, Yunnan has now seen a wave of Catimor popularity.

This is also why when people mention Yunnan coffee, they think of instant coffee raw materials. However, with the widespread popularization of specialty coffee culture and increased domestic consumer demand for coffee, Yunnan coffee has received government attention in recent years, and people have adopted more scientific approaches to coffee tree cultivation and coffee bean processing.

In FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series, the bean representing the Yunnan region selected by FrontStreet Coffee is a washed processed Catimor coffee bean from the Baoshan producing area in Yunnan. Through the washing process, the 18-36 hour fermentation in water tanks after depulping enhances this coffee bean's bright acidity and makes the overall coffee cleaner, allowing for a more intuitive experience of the coffee bean's quality and the flavor characteristics of the Yunnan region.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Coffee Brewing Parameters:

To preserve Yunnan coffee's sweet-sour sensation and tea-like characteristics, FrontStreet Coffee applies medium roasting. For brewing, you can use a V60 dripper with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, medium grind (approximately coarse sugar size/China No. 20 standard sieve 75% pass rate), and 88°C water temperature.

Adopt segmented extraction: use 2 times the coffee powder amount of water for blooming, that is, 30g water blooming for 30 seconds. The blooming process is necessary to allow the coffee powder to release internal carbon dioxide gas, thereby making the subsequent extraction more stable. Use a small water stream to pour in circles until 125g, then segment and continue pouring until 225g before stopping. After the water in the dripper finishes dripping, remove the dripper. Start timing from the beginning of pouring, with an extraction time of 2'00". Next, pick up the entire cup of coffee and shake it evenly, then pour it into cups for tasting.

FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee Flavor:

Herbal, nutty aroma, chocolate, caramel, with a finish featuring light fruit acidity.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473