How Are Yunnan Small Bean Coffee Grades Classified? The Bloodline of Yunnan Catimor Coffee Isn't Pure Enough

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FrontStreet Coffee's Introduction to Yunnan Small Bean Coffee

Although coffee has been cultivated in Yunnan for many years, overall, it remains relatively immature. Its grading system is also quite disorganized.

1. Common International Grading Standards:

Coffee beans are graded by size using circular hole grading sieves. The international standard for small bean coffee ranges from grades 10-20, where the numbers represent sieve hole diameters as fractions with the number as the numerator and 64 as the denominator, measured in inches. For example: grade 14 refers to green coffee beans that can pass through a sieve with a hole diameter of 14/64 inches or larger, while grade 19 refers to beans that can pass through a sieve with a hole diameter of 19/64 inches or larger. (1 inch ≈ 2.54 centimeters)

2. Common Domestic Coffee Grading Standards:

Divided into five grades according to sieve hole sizes of 6.5mm, 6.0mm, 5.5mm, and 5.0mm.

Grade 1: Above 6.5mm, plump and complete grains.

Grade 2: 6.0-6.4mm, plump and relatively uniform.

Grade 3: 5.3-5.9mm, relatively plump, slightly lacking uniformity.

Grade 4: 5.0-5.4mm, with incomplete beans, complete beans accounting for over 75%.

Grade 5: Below 5.0mm, with incomplete beans, complete beans accounting for over 30%.

International Standards for Defect Inspection in Small Bean Coffee:

Grading is based on the number of defects, typically determined by counting how many defects are present in a specific quantity of coffee beans. According to the identification methods for impurities and defective beans stipulated by the International Organization for Standardization, a 300-gram sample of coffee beans is randomly selected to calculate impurities and defective beans for grading.

Catimor has long been recognized in the industry as "instant" coffee, and there's only one reason for this outcome. Catimor was introduced by Nestlé Company for large-scale cultivation in Yunnan, and since Nestlé focuses on instant coffee that requires quantity rather than quality, this led to the current situation. Additionally, the ignorance of coffee farmers played a significant role.

Catimor, a hybrid of Timor and Caturra, was developed in 1959 by the Portuguese Coffee Leaf Rust Research Center (CIFC). It began to be promoted in Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s, and the periodic coffee leaf rust crises in Central and South America further accelerated the application of Catimor.

Knowledge Point:

In 1892, French missionary Father Tian successfully cultivated coffee in a place called Zhukula in Yunnan. To this day, there are still 4 coffee trees there that are over 90 years old.

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