Introduction to Main Yunnan Coffee Growing Regions and Rankings: Which Brand is Best - Flavor Profile Characteristics of Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, Dehong Small-Bean Coffee

The Rise of Yunnan Coffee in the Specialty Coffee Scene

In the wave of specialty coffee, buyers for Yunnan coffee beans have clearly increased. In recent years, Yunnan coffee beans are no longer what they used to be. Whether in cultivation techniques, variety quality, or coffee flavor, there have been significant improvements. Therefore, Yunnan coffee is no longer synonymous with instant coffee and has become a dark horse charging onto the specialty coffee stage. So what does Yunnan coffee taste like now? And why is it receiving so much attention? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss the different developments Yunnan coffee beans have undergone over the years.

People are重新focusing on Yunnan coffee for several reasons: first, with national support, coffee farmers have adopted more scientific and systematic cultivation methods, improving coffee quality and yield; second, in recent years, more brands and baristas have brought Yunnan coffee into public view, which has greatly promoted its industrial development; third, modern consumers have embraced the "national pride" consumption model, leading many coffee brands to successively add Yunnan coffee beans to their menus.

The Historical Journey of Yunnan Coffee Cultivation

The cultivation of Yunnan coffee began over 100 years ago. In 1904, Father Tian, a Catholic missionary, came to Yibin, Yunnan via the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and established a church in Zhugula Village. Near the church, he planted Yunnan's first batch of coffee trees. According to records, this coffee tree was of the small-seed variety, which we now call Arabica coffee trees. Later genetic verification confirmed that this small-seed coffee tree was of the Typica variety. Although coffee trees were introduced, due to China's long history of tea culture, people were not interested in the appearance of coffee, so it was not widely cultivated by farmers.

In the spring of 1952, scientific personnel from the Mangshi branch of the Yunnan Agricultural Experimental Station brought back more than 70 kilograms of fresh fruit from Nongxian Village to Lujiangba in Baoshan City for trial planting. They found good adaptability and excellent quality, which led to continuous development and growth.

It wasn't until 1960 that the country, in order to repay Soviet loans, arranged for the cultivation of crops popular among the Soviet people, and coffee was one of them. Yunnan had always had the foundation for coffee cultivation, so farmers were required to start large-scale cultivation of coffee trees. After maturation, harvesting, and drying, they were uniformly purchased by the national foreign trade department and transported to the Soviet Union.

To increase Yunnan's coffee production, besides Dali, coffee cultivation areas were distributed in Baoshan, Xincheng, Dehong, Ruili, Wanding, Wenshan, and Tianbao, with the total coffee cultivation area reaching over 50,000 mu at its peak. However, after repaying the loans, relevant departments no longer purchased in large quantities, and domestic demand for coffee was very small. Additionally, the outbreak of leaf rust disease caused massive death of coffee trees, so farmers cut down coffee trees one after another, and Yunnan's coffee cultivation thus shrank to just over 2,000 mu.

It wasn't until Nestlé discovered Yunnan as a treasure land and distributed Catimor variety coffee trees that could better resist leaf rust disease that people started planting coffee trees again, continuously supplying them to Nestlé. However, because Catimor has Robusta variety genes, its flavor was not as desired and tasted unpleasant when drunk directly, so people's impression of Yunnan coffee remained associated with instant coffee.

It wasn't until the past decade that Yunnan coffee cultivation developed more scientifically, and techniques for processing coffee beans saw more innovation, thus providing more room for improvement in coffee flavor. Meanwhile, domestic demand for coffee continued to grow, so Yunnan coffee developed very rapidly, and its flavors became quite novel.

FrontStreet Coffee's Approach to Improving Yunnan Coffee Quality

Although processing methods offer much room for changing coffee flavor, FrontStreet Coffee believes that to truly make the public accept Yunnan coffee, changes must start from the root. The reason Yunnan coffee doesn't taste good is because the variety contains Robusta genes, which have very strong disease and pest resistance due to containing large amounts of chlorogenic acid, which is also the source of coffee's unpleasant bitterness.

To make Yunnan coffee taste good, changes must start with the cultivation varieties. Therefore, starting in 2013, FrontStreet Coffee rented a mountain in Lincang, Yunnan, and established the FrontStreet Coffee Estate, primarily cultivating the most traditional Typica coffee variety, along with small amounts of Bourbon variety. From a specialty coffee bean perspective, choosing high-altitude areas, selecting excellent coffee varieties, and green cultivation might be an attempt at healthy and sustainable development for the Yunnan coffee growing region.

Starting in 2018, FrontStreet Coffee Estate began to have harvests of "Frontsteet 2013 Yunnan Typica Coffee Beans." In the 2020/21 production season, Frontsteet harvested 200 kilograms of green coffee beans, which Frontsteet gave to new and old customers as gifts for tasting, receiving positive feedback from friends. Until the new 2021/22 production season, Frontsteet's Typica coffee bean harvest reached 600 kilograms, and currently, this coffee bean can be purchased at FrontStreet Coffee's physical store and Taobao store. Due to changes in coffee variety, "Frontsteet 2013 Yunnan Typica Coffee Beans" uses traditional natural processing, with flavor performance that is full and enticing, featuring plum, berry, brown sugar, black tea, and nutty notes.

Brewing Recommendations for Yunnan Coffee

To preserve the characteristics of Yunnan coffee's acidity, sweetness, and tea-like qualities, FrontStreet Coffee applies a medium roast. For brewing, you can use a V60 dripper with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, medium grind (approximately coarse sugar size/75% pass-through rate with China #20 standard sieve), and water temperature of 88-89°C.

Specific brewing technique: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom; second, pour in small circular motions to 125g, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before continuing to pour, then continue small circular pours to 225g. After all dripping is complete, the total extraction time should be around 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

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

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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