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Yunnan Baoshan Coffee Typica Variety: How to Brew Baoshan Arabica Beans Without Bitterness?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge and more information about coffee beans, please follow Coffee Workshop (official account: cafe_style). There seem to be few authoritative reports on the varieties of Baoshan coffee beans, and it's believed that even coffee farmers may not know them. Processing plants don't pay attention either, so tracing the most specific varieties is

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

Yunnan Coffee Planting History

Yunnan, as China's largest coffee producing region today, has attracted major coffee companies like Starbucks and Nestlé, who have recognized its enormous potential.

History can be traced back to 1892, over 100 years ago, when French missionary Father Tian Deneng planted the first coffee tree in Zhukula Village, Binchuan County, Dali City—this is generally traced as the earliest record of coffee being introduced to Yunnan. For the next 100 years, coffee trees did not grow extensively in this area until multinational companies entered Yunnan in the late 1980s, when this foreign product was replanted and utilized for export worldwide.

After 1930, the renowned overseas Chinese leader Mr. Liang Jinshan brought coffee to Pupiao and Luoming for cultivation, continuing until after the founding of New China. After 1952, under the guidance of expert Ma Guojin from the Baoshan Institute of Tropical Agriculture, large-scale coffee cultivation began in areas like Lujiang, with nearly 60 years of large-scale planting history to date.

By the end of 1997, the province's coffee planting area had reached 7,800 hectares. Currently, the province's planting area accounts for 70% of the national area, and production accounts for 83% of the national total. Whether in terms of planting area or coffee bean production, Yunnan coffee has established its dominant position within China.

Appendix: Major Historical Events of Yunnan Coffee

First Stage: In the 1880s, the Qing government was forced to sign treaties with France to end the Sino-French War and opened Mengzi (Mengzi County, Honghe Prefecture) as a treaty port. In 1889, the Mengzi Customs opened, beginning the prelude to exchange between the southwestern frontier and the outside world. Suddenly, foreign merchants gathered, and foreign companies arrived one after another.

Second Stage: In 1902, a French missionary with the Chinese name Tian Deneng brought coffee from Vietnam to a mountain village called Zhukula in Binchuan County, Dali, Yunnan Province for cultivation. To this day, descendants of those coffee plants still survive, with ancient coffee groves telling tales of a century past in the morning dew and evening glow.

Third Stage: In 1952, experts from the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences distributed 80kg of coffee seeds to farmers in Lujiangba, Baoshan, and several years later provided large-scale cultivation guidance, which led to the graceful coffee trees swaying along the Yunnan-Myanmar Road. Due to the huge demand from the Soviet Union, Yunnan's coffee cultivation experienced rapid development.

Fourth Stage: In 1988, Nestlé established a joint venture in China and began supporting local coffee industry development in Yunnan through initiatives like coffee cultivation projects, leading to another rise of Yunnan coffee. Since 1992, Nestlé established a Coffee Agriculture Department specifically to guide and research the improvement and cultivation of Yunnan coffee, purchasing coffee at prices based on the US spot market. To date, not only Nestlé, Maxwell House, Kraft, Starbucks, and other coffee giants are engaged in coffee business in Yunnan, but local coffee enterprises have also gradually developed and grown.

Yunnan Coffee Grading System

Although coffee has been cultivated in Yunnan for many years, overall it is still not mature enough. Its grading system is also quite disorganized.

1) Commonly Used International Grading Standards:

Grading is done according to coffee bean size, using round-hole grading sieves. International conventions for small-bean coffee range from grades 10-20, where the numbers represent sieve pore diameters as fractions with the number as the numerator and 64 as the denominator, measured in inches. For example: grade 14 refers to green coffee beans that can pass through a sieve with a 14/64-inch diameter or larger, while grade 19 refers to green coffee beans that can pass through a sieve with a 19/64-inch diameter or larger. (1 inch ≈ 2.54 centimeters)

2) Common Domestic Coffee Grading Standards:

Graded into five levels according to sieve pore sizes of 6.5, 6.0, 5.5, and 5.0 millimeters.

Grade 1: Above 6.5 millimeters, full and complete beans.

Grade 2: 6.0-6.4 millimeters, full, relatively uniform.

Grade 3: 5.3-5.9 millimeters, relatively full, slightly less uniform.

Grade 4: 5.0-5.4 millimeters, with incomplete beans, complete beans accounting for over 75%.

Grade 5: Below 5.0 millimeters, with incomplete beans, complete beans accounting for over 30%.

International Standards for Small Bean Coffee Defect Inspection:

Grading is based on the quantity of defects, often determined by counting how many defects are present in a certain amount of coffee beans. According to the identification methods for impurities and defective beans specified by the International Organization for Standardization, a 300-gram coffee bean sample is randomly selected and graded by calculating the impurities and defective beans.

(Source: http://www.yunnancoffee.org/ProductShow.asp?id=84)

Yunnan Coffee Growing Regions

The western and southern parts of Yunnan Province are located between 15°N latitude and the Tropic of Cancer. Most areas have elevations between 1000-2000 meters, with terrain dominated by mountains and slopes that vary greatly in elevation. The fertile soil, abundant sunlight, rich rainfall, and significant day-night temperature differences create the unique characteristics of Yunnan small-bean coffee—strong but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, with a slight fruitiness.

Coffee cultivation in Yunnan is mainly distributed in areas like Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, and Dehong. These regions possess natural resources of low latitude, high altitude, and significant day-night temperature differences, making Yunnan a golden cultivation area for producing high-quality Arabica (small-bean) coffee.

Pu'er

Although Pu'er City is world-famous for tea, its coffee cultivation area has reached 789,000 mu, with coffee bean production of 58,600 tons and a total output value of 2.469 billion yuan, making it the largest coffee cultivation base in Yunnan. Its climate, geography, and soil conditions are exceptionally suitable for coffee cultivation.

Pu'er coffee has a century-long history, beginning cultivation in the late 19th century and industrializing in 1988. Today, the city's coffee cultivation area reaches 767,000 mu, becoming the mainland's largest cultivation area, highest production, and best-quality coffee main producing region and coffee trade distribution center.

Pu'er City is honored as the "Coffee Capital of China." Besides being China's main coffee-producing region, Pu'er coffee is also exported to more than 30 countries and regions in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, creating a new "black gold" market.

Lincang

Lincang City is located in the southwestern part of Yunnan Province, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing its southern part. It borders Pu'er to the east, connects with Dali to the north, adjoins Baoshan to the west, and shares a border with Myanmar to the southwest. Named for its proximity to the Lancang River, it is a brilliant pearl on China's southwestern frontier. Lincang's average annual temperature ranges between 16.8°C and 17.2°C, with distinct wet and dry seasons and abundant sunlight.

Baoshan

Baoshan, Yunnan has a long history of cultivating small-bean coffee. Baoshan small-bean coffee can be considered a national geographical indication product and is one of the better quality coffees both nationally and globally.

The average temperature in Baoshan is 21.5°C, reaching up to 40.4°C, with basically no frost throughout the year, making it a recognized optimal cultivation area for small-bean coffee. The small-bean coffee cultivated here is famous both at home and abroad for being strong but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, with small, uniform beans, rich mellow aroma, and a fruity flavor.

Yunnan Coffee Processing Methods

In Yunnan, the main processing method is the washed method.

The harvested berries have most of their pulp separated from the coffee beans using a depulping machine, then the parchment beans are guided into a clean water tank, where they are soaked in water for fermentation to completely remove the remaining pulp layer. Through washed processing, unripe beans and defective beans are selected out due to buoyancy, and the fermentation process is easier to control. Therefore, unlike natural processed beans which may have off-flavors, washed coffee presents distinct fruit acidity, slightly stronger complexity, and cleaner cup characteristics.

Yunnan Varieties

Varieties

Typica and Bourbon, these two classic high-quality coffee varieties, are the main cultivated varieties in Yunnan. In 1991, the Catimor series was introduced from Kenya (stronger virus resistance, higher yield), belonging to variants of the Arabica species (also known as small-bean species). Due to the similar morphology and habits of these two varieties, they are often mixed in cultivation.

Growth Period

Yunnan small-bean coffee begins to bear fruit after 3-4 years of growth.

Coffee is a short-daylight plant. Coffee has the characteristic of multiple flowering phenomena and concentrated flowering periods. Small-bean coffee in Yunnan flowers from February to July, with peak flowering from March to May. Coffee flowering is greatly influenced by climate, especially rainfall and temperature. Coffee flowers have a short lifespan, lasting only 2-3 days. Small-bean coffee generally begins to open between 3-5 AM and reaches full bloom between 5-7 AM.

Coffee fruit development takes a relatively long time. Small-bean coffee fruit requires 8-10 months to mature, generally maturing between October and December of the same year. Rainfall has a significant impact on fruit development, and climate conditions directly affect fruit development.

The botanical name of small-bean coffee is Arabica species, which is a category of coffee with over 100 varieties.

Among them, Typica, Bourbon, and others are recognized worldwide as the best varieties in the Arabica species. What Baoshan locals usually refer to as "old varieties" are actually Typica and Bourbon.

The Yunnan beans commonly seen on the market are of the Catimor variety. Catimor has 1/4 Robusta genes, higher fruit yield, and is easier to cultivate. Cup testing of this year's Catimor AA reveals flavors of barley tea, licorice, chocolate, and caramel, with a deep and rich texture [coffee]. This is different from our Yunnan Huaguoshan Typica variety, which has caramel and brown sugar flavors and floral aroma [coffee]. Each has its own merits—only the coffee that suits you is the right choice [happy]

FrontStreet Coffee has also come to Yunnan to start our own coffee cultivation. The coffee seedlings we cultivated in nursery beds last year have now grown to 50 centimeters, and this year they can be transplanted to suitable mountains to continue developing. In the near future, we'll have coffee from our own cultivation to drink!

The 12,000 plants we cultivated this time are mainly Typica, Bourbon, and Yellow Bourbon. Typica and Bourbon, these two classic high-quality coffee varieties, are the main cultivated varieties in Yunnan coffee. In 1991, the Catimor series was also introduced from Kenya (stronger virus resistance, higher yield), belonging to variants of the Arabica species (also known as small-bean species). Due to the similar morphology and habits of Typica and Bourbon, they are often mixed in cultivation.