Characteristics of Yunnan Arabica Coffee Beans - Flavor Profile of Yunnan Pour-Over Coffee

Yunnan small bean coffee, also known as "Arabica coffee" (Coffea arabica L.), had its main varieties in the 1950s in Baoshan City, Yunnan, including Typica, Bourbon, and S288. Among these, the oldest is the Typica variety, known for its pure and elegant flavor, but it has low yield and weak disease resistance, making it susceptible to blight. Consequently, Yunnan introduced the Catimor variety, which can be densely planted and has strong disease resistance, becoming the most widely cultivated coffee variety in the Yunnan region today. Therefore, when we often refer to "Yunnan small beans," we are actually referring more to Yunnan's Catimor coffee beans.

In 1959, Portuguese scientists developed and created a small coffee plant variety resistant to diseases and pests, which could also grow well in low-altitude areas and achieve high yields. This means Catimor was cultivated as a "commercial bean." Although Catimor has achieved commercial value to some extent, its cupping quality is often questioned, meaning it has flavor defects. Therefore, Catimor has been largely overlooked, with some producers even unwilling to label it as Catimor. So what causes these shortcomings in Catimor?

Catimor is a hybrid descendant of Caturra and Timor. Caturra is a natural mutation of the highly acclaimed Bourbon variety and is often a "regular guest" in various specialty coffee competitions. For example, among FrontStreet Coffee's house-roasted coffee beans, dozens are made using Caturra. Timor belongs to the natural cross-species of Robusta and Arabica, discovered in the early 1900s on Timor Island in Southeast Asia. Robusta is notoriously unappealing in flavor, characterized by heavy bitterness and intensity, but it possesses super-high disease resistance, is cold and heat tolerant, and has high yields. Therefore, Catimor also inherits some of these characteristics: higher survival rates, fruit-bearing rates, short maturity periods, naturally making it more favored by coffee farmers and producers.

The Evolution of Yunnan Coffee Quality

In the past, Yunnan coffee farmers had not accumulated much mature experience in coffee cultivation, planting Catimor at lower altitudes and using rough processing methods, resulting in mediocre coffee quality that was mostly acquired for commercial instant coffee. With the popularization of specialty coffee culture in China, many coffee professionals and researchers began investing in the cultivation processes of Yunnan's producing regions, continuously improving coffee quality in areas such as coffee pest and disease control, shade trees, soil and water conservation, planting altitude, and cherry harvesting and processing methods. Today, Yunnan Catimor coffee produced using professional techniques can also exhibit good aroma and cleanliness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Selection

When FrontStreet Coffee launched its FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan coffee daily bean, after multiple cupping comparisons, it selected washed Catimor coffee from the Baoshan producing region as the representative of FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan coffee, launched in 100-gram small packages, allowing everyone to taste the "Flavor of Yunnan." FrontStreet Coffee experienced a relatively balanced taste from this FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan daily bean, with a hint of nutty flavor and some plum fruit aroma, along with brown sugar-like sweetness, making it overall quite mild.

Most Yunnan coffee farmers face harsh conditions and do not possess expensive processing equipment, so the vast majority of Yunnan coffee beans commonly use natural processing methods, namely washed and natural sun-dried. FrontStreet Coffee chose washed Yunnan small beans because washed coffee beans have better cleanliness and can express the basic flavor profile of the producing region, which is also a natural processing method that FrontStreet Coffee particularly favors. Additionally, Yunnan has abundant water resources, and the harvest season easily encounters rainy weather, making it difficult to adopt sun-dried processing methods in large quantities.

If you prefer natural sun-dried Yunnan coffee, FrontStreet Coffee also has a FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan small bean coffee from the Yunnan Lincang producing region—FrontStreet Coffee 2013, which belongs to the elegant-flavored Typica variety, using natural sun-dried processing methods. Yunnan Lincang is influenced by the warm and humid air currents from the Indian Ocean and southwest monsoon, with unclear seasonal distinctions but distinct dry and rainy seasons. It has abundant rainfall, long sunshine hours, short frost periods, and some areas are frost-free year-round, with obvious three-dimensional climate, making it very suitable for Arabica coffee cultivation. FrontStreet Coffee specifically selected the most original Typica. Typica's flavor is rich and diverse, presenting various fruit acidity and delicate textures. It is a recognized high-quality variety, with the renowned FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain coffee and FrontStreet Coffee Hawaii Kona coffee both belonging to Typica.

Whenever November arrives, the coffee cherries planted by FrontStreet Coffee also ripen successively. FrontStreet Coffee arranges for workers to pick red coffee cherries one by one and spread the fresh cherries evenly under the sun to dry naturally, turning them irregularly to ensure even dehydration and avoid negative flavors from over-fermentation. Until the coffee beans dehydrate to a purplish-red color and reach the target moisture content, they are sent for hulling and roasting. FrontStreet Coffee's natural sun-dried Typica presents fuller fermented flavors, prominent sweetness, with aromas of caramel, berries, and black tea.

Brewing Recommendations

Some friends, after purchasing roasted FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan small bean coffee, don't know how to extract it. First, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the freshness of coffee beans is very important. Since roasted coffee beans have an optimal tasting period, if they pass the aroma peak, the flavors will be difficult to extract. The beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all freshly roasted within 5 days, with the purpose of hoping everyone can enjoy the most complete tasting period.

FrontStreet Coffee's Pour-over Parameters:

Dripper: Hario V60
Dose: 15g
Water Temperature: 90°C
Grind Size: 75% pass-through rate on #20 sieve
Water-to-Coffee Ratio: 1:15

Three-stage pouring: Use twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome for a 30-second bloom, then use a small water stream to pour in circles from inside to outside until 125g for the first stage. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine water stream to pour the third stage to 225g, until all coffee liquid has filtered through, then remove the dripper. The total time is about 2 minutes.

Flavor Profiles

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Small Bean Daily Bean Coffee Flavor: Smells of rich nutty aroma, with herbal, chocolate, and caramel notes upon entry, and a light fruit acidity in the aftertaste. Overall, the texture is balanced with good cleanliness.

FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Natural Sun-dried Typica Coffee Flavor: Dry powder presents aromas of caramel, nuts, and citrus. At high temperature, it shows chocolate, fermented sensation, and berries. As the temperature drops, plum acidity emerges, with black tea and sugarcane's sweet aftertaste. Medium-high body, clear texture, rich and varied layers.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473