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A Peaceful City and Warm Hospitality

Baoshan is a very quiet city, as Xiao Zheng introduced. The residents here like to take walks after dinner, then return home to wash up and sleep. So when night comes, it becomes even more silent. The first night I spent in Baoshan was very peaceful. I thank Brother Weng and Xiao Zheng for their arrangements—the hotel was very comfortable.

After breakfast the next day, we agreed to meet in the lobby. A German once told me that to understand a person's character, first look at whether they are punctual. To leave a good first impression, I went downstairs 10 minutes early. Little did I know that Brother Weng and Xiao Zheng arrived even earlier than me. I was moved by their sincerity and lamented what I had done to deserve such trouble from everyone. I just hoped to quickly see the Typica seedlings grow happily into trees in Baoshan, bearing fine native varieties that belong to our own people.

Meeting the Team

Xiao Yang, Xiao Zheng's assistant, is a very lovely girl from Tengchong. If you don't know her, based on her appearance alone, you might think she's a girl from Jiangnan—soft-spoken, kind and virtuous, diligent and serious in her work, truly Mr. Guo's capable assistant.

Her undergraduate major was tea culture. On the way to the production area, Xiao Zheng and Brother Weng teased her that she wasn't from those quick tea ceremony classes that deceive people in society, but had studied tea properly for four years and mastered it. The young girl's face instantly turned red. I told her that our Confucius said: what is a true career? A true career is when a person spends their entire lifetime doing one thing well!

Journey to Baoshan

Leaving the Baoshan urban area, the road winds through rolling hills with dense green vegetation and rich ethnic minority atmosphere. The mountain roads are rugged and winding, with sandy uphill buffer zones every few kilometers. Truck tires there must be sprayed with water, otherwise the sharp curves and steep slopes can easily cause blowouts or even brake failure, making it extremely dangerous.

Baoshan is located in western Yunnan Province, near the famous tourist city of Dali. The renowned Tengchong County belongs to Baoshan City and borders Myanmar, with a border line of 167.78 kilometers. The land area is 19,637 square kilometers, with numerous ethnic minorities, and it's a major overseas Chinese hometown in Yunnan Province. Baoshan has a long history and culture, beautiful natural scenery, and was a crucial point on the ancient Southern Silk Road.

First Stop: Xinzhai Coffee Company

After more than an hour, we first arrived at Xinzhai Coffee Company. There, I saw a familiar figure—the same PROBATONE 5 roaster as in the Berry Shop. After returning to Hangzhou from Baoshan, Sister Zheng Hui told me that the PROBATONE at Baoshan Xinzhai Coffee was the first roaster imported from Germany's PROBAT in all of China. I should have bowed before it at that time.

Director Xie was very warm and hospitable, allowing me to operate it. Although the model and capacity were the same as Berry's Probat, the heat source was different. Xinzhai Coffee's Probat uses gas discharge fire beneath the drum boiler for heating, while the new PROBATONE injects oxygen into the combustion chamber to send hot air into the furnace; in other words, the old PROBATONE is a semi-direct flame, semi-hot air roaster that heats coffee beans through heat conduction, thermal radiation, and convection, while the new PROBATONE is a full hot air roaster. However, the main heat transfer method is still heat conduction, after all, since beans spend little time in the air during roasting, mainly receiving and absorbing heat through the furnace wall and stirring rods.

Learning to Roast

Like someone with a C2 (automatic transmission) license driving a manual transmission car, I stumbled through my first batch. It was my first time using this machine, and I was already clumsy—quite nervous. There was a young man next to me who kept asking questions, which was extremely annoying. Little did I know that this annoying young man has now become my good friend and brother. His name is Zhang Ying, and he is the coffee department manager for Mr. Guo Xiaozheng.

During these days in Baoshan, I thank Xiao Yang and Zhang Ying for their care. Your detailed explanations and companionship made me feel very warm, but I have one request: please stop calling me "teacher"! I've only been in this profession for over three years, and my coffee knowledge and practice are particularly lacking. I need more energy, learning, and improving my self-awareness and perspective. When I reach 50 years old, if I'm still persistently learning about coffee then, you can call me teacher.

Roasting Challenges and Discoveries

Afterward, I roasted another batch of Yellow Catuai I brought myself and a batch of the freshest processed Baoshan Typica. I have to admit that there are too many variables during roasting. When roasting beans in Baoshan, the temperature rises very slowly. If following the curves obtained when roasting in Hangzhou, the beans wouldn't be properly roasted.

Additionally, many external factors mean that even with the same beans, same roaster, and same operator, the roasting results will be different. For example, Yunnan and Hangzhou have different geographical altitudes. Baoshan's high altitude means strong atmospheric pressure, which delays the first crack time but cannot stop the progress of the second crack, thus shortening the time gap between first and second cracks, affecting roasting control and the mastery of roast degree.

To solve this problem, the initial heat (flame power) and furnace temperature need to be increased, the return temperature point needs relative adjustment, and when the caramelization reaction begins, sustained heat is needed to accelerate the first crack. However, when the first crack becomes intense, the heat needs to be reduced, otherwise it will cause the Maillard reaction to occur prematurely.

The Excellence of Baoshan Typica

For delicious food, fresh ingredients are the most important factor, and the same is true for coffee. Freshly processed Baoshan Typica beans are crystal clear, showing a deep green color that can compete with Yellow Catuai. However, its Typica variety has already mutated, after all, it's living in a foreign land—just like how Chinese Americans (ABCs) look different from mainland Chinese, same principle.

Freshly roasted medium-roast Baoshan Typica coffee beans possess jasmine fragrance, citrus and osmanthus elegant aromas, fresh and delicate. Carefully tasting Baoshan Typica reveals a mellow, full-bodied, rich and smooth texture with a persistent sweet aftertaste. Although medium roasting leaves some alkaline organic acids on the inner side of the cell walls that our tongues can perceive as sour, Baoshan Typica's acidity isn't sharp but rather a light fruity acidity that is captivating.

Overall, Baoshan Typica is rich but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, with abundant oils (the key to a coffee bean's quality lies in its oil content), and a persistent sweet aftertaste—truly a superior product.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473