What are the representatives of Yunnan single origin? What are the flavor characteristics of the small bean Catimor variety?

In recent years, Yunnan coffee beans have frequently appeared in the specialty coffee market. Although the development history of Yunnan coffee is not very long, FrontStreet Coffee believes it holds infinite potential. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee has a dedicated estate for cultivating Yunnan coffee beans at the border between Yunnan and Myanmar. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss the characteristics of Yunnan coffee.

Yunnan Coffee Growing Conditions in China

Yunnan is located in southwestern China, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing its southern part. It features a mountainous plateau terrain, where mid-elevation areas of 1000-3500m account for nearly 90% of the province's total land area. Yunnan's climate belongs to the subtropical plateau monsoon type, with large daily temperature differences and abundant rainfall. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in previous articles, the growing environment for Arabica coffee varieties requires high altitudes and suitable temperature and precipitation to cultivate high-quality coffee fruits.

Today, the vast majority of coffee on the Chinese market comes from Yunnan. Yunnan coffee accounts for 98% of the national total, basically representing China's coffee cultivation industry.

Yunnan Coffee Growing Regions

The main cultivation areas for Yunnan small-grain coffee are in the southern and western parts, with Pu'er, Baoshan, Dehong, and Lincang being particularly famous. The Yunnan coffee cultivated by FrontStreet Coffee's estate comes from Baoshan, Yunnan. FrontStreet Coffee believes that coffee beans produced here have rich flavor without bitterness, fragrant but not intense, with distinct regional characteristics. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will briefly introduce the characteristics of these Yunnan coffee growing regions.

Dehong: Known as the "Hometown of Chinese Coffee." Coffee cultivation altitudes in Dehong Prefecture are all above 1000 meters, with 30,000 mu planted on mountainous areas above 1600 meters altitude. Additionally, Dehong Prefecture mainly uses organic fertilizers and organic pesticides for coffee cultivation, resulting in higher coffee quality, making it one of the world's rare high-quality coffee producing areas.

Baoshan: Coffee cultivation in Baoshan began in the mid-1950s, with the first coffee seedling introduced from Southeast Asia by the late patriotic overseas Chinese Mr. Liang Jinshan. In recent years, with the expansion of international trade, the small-grain coffee from Lujiangba has become renowned. European, American, and Arab countries, especially Britain, America, Egypt, and merchants from Hong Kong and Macau, consider it premium coffee, with demand exceeding supply. In December 2010, after review by the China National Quality Inspection Administration, it was decided to implement national geographical indication product protection for "Baoshan small-grain coffee."

Lincang: Unique geographical location and climate conditions have made Lincang a focus of attention for many coffee companies. They have successively established 200 mu and 100 mu high-quality coffee seedling bases in Mengding Town of Gengma Autonomous County and Xingfu Farm in Lincang city respectively, and have carried out coffee cultivation in Gengma, Zhenkang, Yun County, Cangyuan, and Yongde.

Pu'er: The tea township of Pu'er has a 150-year history of coffee cultivation. In the early 1990s, Pu'er city began to cultivate coffee development as an advantageous backbone industry for adjusting industrial structure and increasing farmers' income.

Yunnan Coffee Cultivation History

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, the history of Yunnan coffee developing into specialty coffee and being recognized by world coffee enthusiasts is not very long, but according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the history of coffee cultivation in Yunnan is quite ancient, mainly divided into four periods. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will talk about the cultivation history of Yunnan coffee beans.

First Phase: In the 1880s, the Qing government was forced to sign treaties with France ending the Sino-French War and opened Mengzi (Mengzi County, Honghe Prefecture) as a treaty port. In 1889, the Mengzi customs opened, kicking off the exchange between the southwestern border and foreign countries. Foreign merchants flocked in, and foreign companies followed one after another.

Second Phase: In 1902, a French missionary with the Chinese name Tian Deneng brought coffee from Vietnam to Zhukula, a mountain village in Binchuan County, Dali, Yunnan Province. To this day, descendants of those coffee plants still survive.

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

Fourth Phase: In 1988, Nestlé established a joint venture in China and began supporting local coffee industry development in Yunnan through launching coffee cultivation projects. Yunnan coffee rose again. Starting from 1992, Nestlé established a Coffee Agriculture Department dedicated to guiding and researching the improvement and cultivation of Yunnan coffee, and purchased coffee at prices according to 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.

It was after these four phases that Yunnan began to research coffee cultivation. Now, coffee farmers in Yunnan growing regions mainly cultivate small-grain coffee, so Yunnan coffee is also called Yunnan small-grain coffee. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the coffee varieties currently cultivated in Yunnan.

Yunnan Coffee Bean Varieties

Currently, the most widely cultivated variety in Yunnan is Catimor coffee beans, though there are also small amounts of Typica and Bourbon coffee beans cultivated in the Baoshan area. Although they all belong to the Arabica species in a broad sense, these varieties have significant differences in essence.

Typica

Typica is currently the oldest Arabica native variety in the coffee market, and almost all Arabica coffee bean varieties are derived from Typica. Typica has elegant flavor but weak constitution, low disease resistance, and is susceptible to leaf rust disease. Therefore, coffee bean production is low and cannot meet economic benefits. In recent years, Typica in Central and South America has gradually been replaced by Caturra and Catuai. So Typica has become increasingly rare. Although Typica has elegant flavor, it is not as popular as Bourbon.

FrontStreet Coffee's estate in Yunnan mainly cultivates Typica variety coffee trees because Typica coffee has its unique subtle and clean flavor, as well as balanced characteristics, with high taste cleanliness. Therefore, although Typica variety coffee trees are not easy to cultivate, FrontStreet Coffee wants coffee enthusiast friends to taste the best flavor that Yunnan coffee can present.

Bourbon

It is a sub-species mutated from Typica, belonging to the oldest existing coffee varieties along with Typica. When green fruits mature, they present bright red color. Compared to Typica, Bourbon leaves are wider and grow more densely. Although the fruit yield is higher than Typica, the harvest period is also 2 years, making it a low-yield variety. However, it has high-quality taste, with wine-like acidity and sweet aftertaste.

Catimor Coffee Variety

Catimor is a combination of Arabica and Robusta species. Robusta has good leaf rust resistance, rich oils, high yield, and is easy to cultivate. Therefore, after hybridizing with Arabica Typica, Catimor has 25% Robusta genes. It improved leaf rust resistance, retained rich oils, and also has some of the rich flavor of the original Typica variety.

Yunnan Coffee Processing Methods

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, many processing methods have been used for Yunnan coffee beans so far, but the Yunnan coffee beans produced by FrontStreet Coffee currently all use the washed processing method. Because the washed processing method is the one that can best reflect the most original flavor of coffee beans, it can also make the coffee bean flavor cleaner and brighter, reducing off-flavors. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee uses the washed processing method in handling coffee beans, aiming to let coffee enthusiast friends who come to FrontStreet Coffee shop taste the most authentic and original Yunnan coffee bean flavor.

Washed Processing Method Steps

1. First, coffee farmers will pour all harvested coffee fruits into water. This way, bad and defective coffee beans will float to the surface, while those sinking to the bottom are quality-approved coffee fruits. This operation greatly reduces the time wasted in individual selection.

2. Put the selected coffee fruits into a depulper to remove the outer skin and pulp. After removing these, the surface of the coffee fruits will still have a layer of mucilage sticking, so large amounts of clean water are needed to wash away the sticky substances on the coffee fruit surface.

3. Next, fermentation is used to completely remove the mucilage. This process takes about 18 hours. However, after fermentation is complete, fermentation bacteria adhere to the coffee fruit surface, so another wash with large amounts of clean water is needed. For this step, obtaining 1 kilogram of coffee beans requires consuming 40 to 50 kilograms of clean water. FrontStreet Coffee considers this a very large number, which is exactly why drought-prone countries cannot adopt the washed method.

4. The cleaned coffee beans can then be dried. Some areas will directly take them outdoors to air dry, while more developed growing regions will send them to processing plants to use machine drying, thereby reducing coffee moisture content to around 11%.

5. Finally, the dried coffee beans can be stored, packaged, and sold for export.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce to all coffee enthusiast friends the Yunnan coffees that FrontStreet Coffee currently offers.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Huaguoshan Coffee Beans

Country: China

Region: Baoshan, Yunnan

Altitude: 1450-1550m

Variety: Typica

Processing: Washed processing

Flavor: Citrus, nuts, plum, melon fragrance, brown sugar, black tea sensation

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Small-Grain Coffee Beans

Country: China

Region: Baoshan, Yunnan

Altitude: 1200m

Variety: Catimor

Processing: Washed processing

Flavor: Herbal, nutty fragrance, chocolate, caramel

Before launching any new coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee conducts roasting and brewing flavor tests to select the most excellent flavor profile, making it convenient for future brewing for coffee enthusiast friends who come to FrontStreet Coffee. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the roasting and brewing data for these two Yunnan coffee beans.

Frontsteet Yunnan Huaguoshan Coffee Roasting Recommendation

The beans have a moisture content of 10.9%, so the roasting plan is to start at 200°C, then use high heat and small air vent to speed up dehydration. After the dehydration stage ends, open medium air vent and medium heat to avoid too rushed Maillard reaction time. Develop for 3 minutes after first crack and then unload. Return temperature: 1'32", 92.5°C; Yellowing point: 5'40", 148.5°C; First crack: 8'59", 188.0°C; Develop for 3 minutes then unload: 12'00", 196°C.

Frontsteet Yunnan Small-Grain Coffee Roasting Recommendation

Enter beans at 190°C, heat 120, air vent at 3; Return temperature at 1'40", when furnace temperature reaches 145°C, open air vent to 4, heat unchanged; When furnace temperature reaches 166°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage. When furnace temperature reaches 188°C, adjust heat to 60°C, air vent to 5; At 8'37", bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toasted bread smell明显转为咖啡香, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'00" first crack begins, air vent unchanged. Develop for 3 minutes after first crack, unload at 198°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations for Two Yunnan Coffee Beans

Frontsteet recommends using V60 conical filter cup. The V60 has a large opening, and together with its unique spiral curved ribs, allows air to be more easily discharged, thereby improving extraction quality. The taste may not be thick enough, but its high concentration brings out Yunnan coffee's fruit acidity and distinct aroma, which is its major characteristic.

Filter cup: V60

Water temperature: 90-92°C

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: Medium-fine grind, that is, fine sugar thickness (VARIO 5O: China standard 20 mesh screen pass rate 57%)

Brewing method: Segmented extraction. Use 30g of water for blooming for 30 seconds. Use small water flow to pour in circles to 124g for segmentation. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 227g and stop pouring. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup. Extraction time is 2 minutes (timing starts from blooming).

Huaguoshan brewing flavor description: Rich but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, floral notes, mid-section with melon sweetness, ending with black tea sensation.

Small-grain coffee brewing flavor description: Smells of strong nutty aroma, herbal, chocolate, caramel, with a light fruit acidity in the aftertaste.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473