Introduction to Yunnan Small Bean Coffee Varieties: Flavor and Taste Profile | Overview of Yunnan Premium Coffee Bean Growing Regions

With the continuous improvement of coffee cultivation and planting, as well as the increasing demands for coffee bean quality, Yunnan small-grain coffee beans, which were once considered only as raw material for instant coffee a decade ago, have gradually gained consumer recognition thanks to the efforts of researchers and growers.

Currently, coffee beans planted in the Yunnan region are all of the Arabica variety (also known as small fruit/small-grain coffee). Among them, Catimor is the most widely planted variety, followed by Typica. Some estates also plant small quantities of Bourbon and Geisha varieties. These Yunnan small-grain coffee cultivation areas are distributed in cities and prefectures such as Pu'er City, Lincang City, Baoshan City, Dehong Prefecture, Nujiang Prefecture, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Dali Prefecture, and Diqing Prefecture. Among them, Yunnan small-grain coffee beans produced in Dehong, Baoshan, Pu'er, and Lincang are the most famous.

These bean-producing areas are located in the western and southern parts of Yunnan Province, situated between 15° north latitude and the Tropic of Cancer. At the same time, most areas also possess the high altitudes required for coffee cultivation and production. The terrain is predominantly mountainous and sloped, with significant variations in elevation, fertile soil, sufficient sunlight, abundant rainfall, and large temperature differences between day and night.

Pu'er

The tea region of Pu'er has a 150-year history of coffee cultivation. In the early 1990s, Pu'er City began to develop coffee as a dominant industry for adjusting industrial structure and helping farmers increase their income and prosperity.

Due to the influence of the subtropical monsoon climate, most areas of Pu'er are frost-free year-round, with no severe cold in winter and no extreme heat in summer. The average annual temperature in Pu'er City ranges from 15 to 20.3 degrees Celsius, with an annual frost-free period of more than 315 days and annual rainfall between 1100 to 2780 millimeters.

Dehong

Dehong's climate resources are also exceptionally favorable. The entire prefecture is located near the Tropic of Cancer, at a low latitude, and influenced by the Indian Ocean southwest monsoon, belonging to the South Asian subtropical monsoon climate. Coffee is planted at altitudes above 1000 meters, with 30,000 mu planted on mountainous areas above 1600 meters altitude. The characteristics of no extreme heat in summer, abundant rainfall, simultaneous rain and heat periods, dry and cold seasons, small annual temperature differences, large daily temperature differences, short frost periods, and few frost days provide excellent growing and overwintering conditions for Arabica coffee trees at high altitudes.

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. Baoshan has a low-latitude mountainous subtropical monsoon climate. Due to its location at low latitude and high altitude, coffee is planted at elevations of 100-1500m. The climate environment, characterized by small annual temperature differences, large daily temperature differences, abundant precipitation, and distinct wet and dry seasons, has cultivated batch after batch of high-quality Yunnan small-grain coffee.

Lincang

Lincang City has a subtropical low-latitude plateau mountainous monsoon climate, mainly influenced by the warm and humid air currents from the Indian Ocean and southwest monsoon. The four seasons are not distinctly divided, but dry and rainy seasons are clearly separated, with abundant rainfall, long sunshine hours, and short frost periods. Coffee is planted at altitudes of 1000-1600m.

In 2013, FrontStreet Coffee recognized that high-quality coffee depends on variety, altitude, and climate. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee established its own coffee plantation estate on a mountain near the Myanmar border at an altitude of 1300m in Lincang, planting the most ancient Arabica variety—Typica.

The difference between Typica and Catimor varieties lies in the fact that Typica, as one of the most ancient coffee varieties, possesses pure Arabica variety genes. Its inherently elegant and clean flavor has always been recognized as a specialty coffee variety, though its drawback is low yield.

The Catimor variety, on the other hand, is a hybrid coffee variety of Arabica and Robusta. The advantage of this coffee bean variety is its high yield and low planting cost, but its flavor is slightly inferior, often carrying herbal notes. However, with advances in planting and processing techniques, the quality of Yunnan Catimor coffee beans has improved significantly compared to before.

However, true specialty coffee involves not just processing and quality—variety is also extremely important. FrontStreet Coffee hopes that by changing the variety at its root, everyone can enjoy Yunnan small-grain coffee beans with better flavor and higher quality. Currently, these self-planted Yunnan Typica coffee beans can be purchased at FrontStreet Coffee's flagship store and physical retail locations.

FrontStreet Coffee currently sells Yunnan coffee mainly from two coffee-producing regions: Lincang and Baoshan. These include self-planted "FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Natural Typica Coffee Beans," "Selected Regional Daily Bean - Yunnan Baoshan Washed Catimor Coffee Beans," and "Full Cherry Natural - Catimor Coffee Beans from Baoshan Lujiangba Region."

The flavor characteristics of Yunnan coffee feature nutty, caramel, and plum-like notes. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using drip brewing with a high ratio to extract, by reducing the coffee concentration, allowing different flavors to be expressed more clearly.

For brewing Yunnan coffee, we recommend using 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.

Use a three-pour technique to enhance the coffee's complexity: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom; second, pour in small circular motions until reaching 125g, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, then continue pouring in small circular motions until reaching 225g. After complete drip-through, the total extraction time should be approximately 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473