Four Cats Coffee Origin Story_How is Yunnan Four Cats Coffee_Four Cats Yunnan Small Bean Coffee

Here is the story of an outsider who, within five years of entering the coffee trade, integrated Yunnan's online and offline coffee supply chain — spanning cultivation, fresh-cherry processing, primary processing, finished products, and export — into a diversified professional coffee enterprise. People in the industry call him the "dark horse" of Yunnan coffee.

Yunnan coffee has a long history. Its small-bean coffee is rich without being bitter, fragrant without being heavy, and carries a delicate fruit acidity that has earned wide praise across the industry. Statistics show that Yunnan's coffee cultivation now spans more than 1.5 million acres — 99% of China's total coffee area and output — concentrated mainly in Pu'er, Dehong, Lincang, and Baoshan. Yunnan coffee has drawn multinational giants such as Nestlé and Starbucks, and has become fertile ground for entrepreneurs.

That "dark horse" is Xu Zhengxiong of Lujiangba, the main coffee-growing area of Baoshan City, and his Hemei Coffee Company. In 2007, Xu Zhengxiong — then in the medical device business in Shenzhen — returned to his hometown and invested over 3 million yuan in a distillery, but the business never took off.

"My family has always had five or six acres of coffee, but I never really paid attention to it until a classmate approached me in 2010 about doing coffee business," Xu recalls. They approached the Dehong Hougu Group, decided to start by trading green beans, and borrowed 300,000 yuan from relatives to establish the Shuanghong Agricultural Products Planting Cooperative.

In 2010 coffee prices climbed steadily, peaking above 40 yuan per kilogram. During the 2010-2011 harvest season, Xu earned a net profit of over 3 million yuan in just three months.

For someone who "came to this career halfway," agriculture was an unknown variable. With nothing but enthusiasm, it is easy to become cannon fodder. Cultivation, harvesting, processing, sales — every step was unfamiliar and technically demanding, and the risks of traditional farming could not be avoided.

Looking back, the sky-high prices of the era masked Xu's inexperience. Pinching and sniffing a sample is the standard quality check when buying coffee cherries, but Xu admits he was simply "copying others" at the time.

"I had no experience in bean collection. I just imitated others — biting, rubbing, going through the motions. Everyone was scrambling for beans then; there was no time to think. Fortunately, prices were high, so every bean I bought could be resold," he says.

In January 2012, Xu founded Hemei Coffee Company. Compared with traditional farmers, the internet opened a window for agricultural entrepreneurs. Conventionally, a coffee company creates products first and then sells them through e-commerce and other channels; Xu instead used an e-commerce strategy to drive the entire enterprise.

In 2012 he received the "Provincial Governor's Entrepreneurship Award." Soon after, he met three partners who shared his passion for e-commerce, and the four joined forces to build Sizhi Cat Coffee Company, dedicated to online operations — the origin of the "Four Cats" brand.

Under the e-commerce plan, Xu immediately began building a coffee deep-processing complex in Baoshan. By March 2014, a fresh-cherry processing plant with a capacity of 50,000 tons was complete, alongside a roasting plant handling 1,000 tons of beans per year and a 2,000-ton three-in-one instant coffee powder factory. Instant powder production began that May; by August, monthly sales had exceeded 10,000 transactions — a remarkable pace.

To integrate sales and production seamlessly, Xu built an instant coffee factory in Kunming and moved the e-commerce team directly into it, creating a "front store, back factory" model: the moment products came off the line, they could be packed and shipped by logistics straight to consumers.

"Agricultural production cycles are long, so execution matters. Meanwhile, internet thinking has to align with the psychology and needs of target consumers. The average age at our e-commerce company is 27. Because our coffee buyers are young people, we mostly hire people born in the 1990s — their mindset is closer to the consumer's," says Xu.

"From seed to cup," cultivation management determines coffee quality. After the e-commerce breakthrough, Xu expanded in two directions: cultivation bases and offline experience.

Today Hemei Coffee runs a 5,000-acre high-altitude cultivation base in Liuku Town, Lushui County, and controls 20,000 acres of quality coffee base in Mangkuan Township through the Shuanghong Cooperative. Both bases have obtained International 4C Coffee Certification, and the company as a whole has passed ISO 9001 quality system certification.

The O2O model is being tested too. In Lijiang, Xu has opened 3 experience stores where drinks are made and beans roasted on-site. In Baoshan, he created a one-of-a-kind coffee shop decorated primarily with wine bottles — the city's first "wine bottle" cafe.

Xu believes that government support is only an auxiliary factor in entrepreneurship and can never replace one's own effort. "From founding to now, Hemei's total investment is about 50 million yuan, of which government support accounts for about 3 million yuan. The blacksmith's work depends on his own skill. If you rely solely on government support, you will never grow tall or go far," he says. Government, he adds, should strengthen public services for the industry and help enterprises go out into the market so brands can take root.

Enterprises, meanwhile, should pursue win-win outcomes with farmers rather than compete with them for margin. "When companies buy from farmers, paying more for better quality motivates growers and improves the beans we receive — a virtuous cycle. Malicious price suppression does the opposite," Xu says.

Talent remains one of the problems troubling him and many fellow entrepreneurs. "The bottleneck for Yunnan's agricultural e-commerce is the scarcity of skilled people. I hope the government can invite outside experts to train local e-commerce talent," he says.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the Four Cats story sparks your curiosity about Yunnan coffee, a good place to start is FrontStreet Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee from the Baoshan region. "Small bean" is simply the local name for arabica — the smallest-fruited of the three original coffee species. Yunnan arabica traces back to 1904, when the French missionary Tian Deneng brought Typica seeds from Vietnam and planted the first coffee tree in Zhugula Village, Binchuan County. Washed processed and medium roasted, FrontStreet's Baoshan lot shows soft nut and chocolate sweetness with a light plum acidity — an affordable first taste of Yunnan's terroir.

For a clearer, more expressive cup, step up to the FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan Natural Typica. FrontStreet planted its own estate in 2013 with Typica — one of the oldest and purest arabica varieties, and the very variety first brought into Yunnan — hoping to recapture the region's original "terroir flavor." Made only from fully ripe, all-red cherries and dried as a natural, this medium-roast Typica carries dark berry tones, caramel sweetness, chocolate, a hint of dried apricot, and a black-tea finish, with citrus, berry, and a faint fermented wine note alongside a creamier body.

For espresso drinkers, the FrontStreet Black Cocoa Blend pairs Yunnan small-bean coffee with Brazil Cerrado beans: Brazil supplies mixed-nut aromas and a balanced body, while Yunnan contributes chocolate and citrus character. The resulting Americano balances sweet, sour, and bitter with nut and brown-sugar notes, and lattes turn out silky with almond and cream — a comfortable entry point for beginners brewing Yunnan-flavored espresso.