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Where Do the Best Coffee Beans in China Come From? Yunnan is China's Premier Coffee Growing Region

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Chinese Coffee Origins. Isn't Pu'er mainly known for tea? How does it also produce coffee? These are questions that more than one person has asked. Pu'er City in Yunnan, formerly known as Simao, is a city on Yunnan's border. People know Pu'er mostly because of Pu'er tea, and very few people

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Chinese Coffee Origins

"Isn't Pu'er mainly known for tea? How does it also produce coffee?" These are questions that more than one person has asked. Pu'er City in Yunnan, formerly known as Simao, is a city on China's borderland. People know Pu'er mostly because of Pu'er tea, but few know that it's also China's coffee capital. According to data, 98% of China's coffee comes from Yunnan Province, and Pu'er's coffee production accounts for half of all coffee production in Yunnan's cities and prefectures.

The history of coffee cultivation in Pu'er City dates back 150 years. It is said that the earliest coffee in Pu'er was introduced by French missionaries who traveled across the sea to Yunnan, with scattered planting in areas such as Lancang, Jiangcheng, Jingdong, Jinggu, and Menglian counties. Thus, on the mysterious and fertile borderland, coffee trees began to grow heavy with fruit. However, it wasn't until a century later that the local coffee industry truly developed. Starting in 1988, Pu'er's coffee began industrialized and large-scale cultivation.

Pu'er's coffee belongs to the small-grained coffee variety and was once rated as a Class I product by the International Coffee Organization (ICO), with quality similar to Colombian small-grained coffee. Pu'er coffee beans belong to the world-famous Arabica variety. Arabica is called "the gift God gave them" in many growing regions around the world, and its excellent flavor and aroma make it the only coffee variety among all native coffee species that can be consumed directly.

However, a friend engaged in the coffee industry in Pu'er told this reporter that Arabica coffee was able to settle in Pu'er and gain worldwide fame, primarily benefiting from the region's superior ecological environment. Pu'er is a place where the Tropic of Cancer passes through, featuring low latitude, medium altitude, and a highland climate zone dominated by a South Asian tropical mountainous humid monsoon climate. With a forest coverage rate of 67%, it is a golden zone for coffee cultivation worldwide.

According to data, in 2012, Pu'er City's coffee planting area reached 600,000 mu, achieving a coffee yield of 36,500 tons with an output value of 900 million yuan. The city has 70 registered coffee enterprises, including 12 with export qualifications; 62 professional cooperatives; and the coffee industry employs 30,000 households with over 100,000 people. Pu'er has become the coffee production area with the largest planting area, highest yield, and best quality in the country, as well as a major distribution center for coffee trade.

On December 10, 2012, the China Fruit Circulation Association named Pu'er as the "Coffee Capital of China." Arabica has found its true home in China.

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