What are the Flavor and Taste Characteristics of Yunnan Small Bean Coffee? An Introduction to Yunnan Specialty Coffee Brand Rankings and Price Tiers

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Yunnan Small Bean Coffee

Yunnan small bean coffee has gained increasing attention in recent years, achieving remarkable results in both international competitions and coffee flavor evaluations. Yunnan coffee has garnered growing interest, and Chinese coffee has been rapidly developing with the support of Yunnan coffee.

What is Small Bean Coffee?

In our country, Yunnan small bean coffee is quite popular. Small bean coffee actually refers to the Arabica variety of coffee. In the past when coffee varieties were not yet finely categorized, Arabica was called small bean coffee because its fruit size is smaller compared to Robusta (medium bean variety) and Liberica (large bean variety).

Yunnan Coffee Growing Regions

Any Arabica variety grown in Yunnan can be called Yunnan small bean coffee. The main quality Yunnan coffee growing areas are distributed in regions between 1000-1500m altitude in Lincang, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbanna, Dehong, and Nujiang. The higher the altitude where coffee trees are planted, the significant day-night temperature differences at high altitudes allow coffee trees to grow slowly, storing more nutrients and forming more sugars and aromas, resulting in better flavor performance of coffee beans.

Yunnan's superior geographical conditions have enabled rapid development of the coffee industry. In 2014, both planting area and production accounted for over 99% of the national total. The average temperature in Baoshan Lujiangba is 21.5°C, reaching up to 40.4°C, with basically no frost throughout the year.

Yunnan Small Bean Coffee Varieties

Currently, the main variety planted in Yunnan is Catimor coffee beans, with small areas also growing Typica, Bourbon, and Geisha.

In the 1970s and 1980s, coffee leaf rust disease broke out in many Central and South American countries, seriously affecting coffee production. The Portuguese coffee research center CIFC, addressing the coffee leaf rust situation, hybridized Timor (which carries Robusta genes) with the Bourbon variety Caturra in 1959 to cultivate the disease-resistant and high-yielding Catimor. To solve the disaster caused by leaf rust disease, combined with the encouragement and promotion of coffee organizations, Central and South America began extensive planting in the 1980s.

In 1988, Nestlé recognized Yunnan as a treasure land and distributed Catimor variety coffee trees that could better resist leaf rust disease, so people started planting coffee trees again and have continued to supply them to Nestlé.

Because Catimor has Robusta variety genes, its flavor is not as desired and doesn't taste good when drunk directly, so people's impression of Yunnan coffee remained limited to instant coffee.

However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that a truly good Yunnan coffee can, under traditional natural/washed processing methods, exhibit the unique coffee flavors of the Yunnan growing region. To remove the inherently bad flavors of Yunnan coffee, changes must be made from the root variety level.

Therefore, in 2013, FrontStreet Coffee began planting Typica varieties and a small amount of Bourbon varieties in Yun Lincang for research and experimental planting, as well as for sale in FrontStreet Coffee's online and offline stores after harvest.

The reason for choosing the Typica variety is, firstly, because as one of the oldest coffee varieties, it possesses pure Arabica variety genes and has always been recognized as a specialty coffee variety due to its elegant and clean flavor; secondly, because the earliest coffee trees planted in the Yunnan region were also Typica varieties, brought by French missionaries.

Although FrontStreet Coffee plants Typica varieties, this doesn't mean Yunnan Catimor is bad. With the promotion of specialty coffee culture, Yunnan's Catimor coffee has now received more scientific cultivation and planting, and its coffee flavor and quality have been greatly improved.

Yunnan Small Bean Coffee Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee currently sells three Yunnan coffee beans: one is "Frontsteet 2013 Natural Typica Coffee Beans," one is "Selected Region Daily Bean - Yunnan Baoshan Washed Catimor Coffee Beans," and one is "Fully Red Cherry Natural - Catimor Coffee Beans from Baoshan Lujiangba Region."

These three coffee beans all have the unique coffee flavors of the Yunnan growing region: nut, caramel, and plum-like flavors. The difference between the three coffee beans is that "Frontsteet Natural Typica" will have a cleaner flavor, balanced sweet and bitter, with obvious aftertaste; "Fully Red Cherry Natural" will have berry sweetness and sourness while maintaining Yunnan region flavor characteristics; "Baoshan Washed Catimor" is FrontStreet Coffee's selected region coffee beans, allowing everyone to enjoy the charm of Yunnan coffee beans exhibiting regional flavor under traditional processing methods at the highest cost-performance ratio.

How to Brew Yunnan Small Bean Coffee for Great Taste?

FrontStreet Coffee recommends brewing these three Yunnan coffees with a focus on balance, neither overly emphasizing acidity nor excessively modifying the finish.

Therefore, a coffee dose of 15 grams is recommended, with a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, or 1:16 if you want clearer flavors. Use a V60 dripper, brewing water temperature of 88°C, aiming to make the acidity softer, with a medium-fine grind/fine sugar size (75% pass rate through #20 sieve).

Specific brewing method: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom; second, pour in small circles to 125g, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, then continue pouring in small circles to 225g. After complete drip filtration, the total extraction time should be about 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Important Notice :

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