Premium Yunnan Arabica Coffee Beans: Flavor Profile & Regional Characteristics | Yunnan Coffee Varieties and Prices

As coffee has become the daily beverage of choice for more young people, coffee shops can be found on streets and alleys everywhere. Today, when walking into a coffee shop, more and more people are discovering that coffee beans don't just come from foreign countries—there are places in mainland China where coffee beans are also grown.

The popular movie "Coffee or Tea?" has brought awareness to more Chinese people that China also has regions where specialty coffee is grown. Yunnan small-bean coffee, with its fragrant but not intense flavor and rich but not bitter taste, has become a signature product of Yunnan's coffee industry.

In reality, not all land in Yunnan's vast province is suitable for coffee cultivation. Yunnan's coffee-growing areas are concentrated more in the southwestern region. So, which coffee-producing regions in Yunnan are relatively well-known? Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce them to you one by one.

In 1904, a French missionary entered Yunnan from Vietnam to spread his faith and introduced coffee for cultivation. He brought coffee seeds into the valleys of Yunnan, more specifically to Zhukula Village in Binchuan County, Dali Prefecture. The high altitude, relatively mild climate, and fertile soil here provided an ideal environment for growing these challenging crops. Today, different varieties can be traced back to these first plants.

Currently, the main coffee-growing areas in the region are Pu'er, Baoshan, Dehong, and Lincang.

Pu'er

If you're a tea lover who enjoys Pu'er tea, you've definitely heard of this name, as the tea derives its name from the city of the same name. However, in recent years, Pu'er has not only been the tea capital of Yunnan but also the coffee capital. Most of the crops are in this region, producing the highest quality coffee beans throughout Yunnan. This place has proven itself to be an important distribution center as well.

Baoshan

The main variety of Yunnan coffee is Arabica, known locally as Yunnan small-bean coffee. Baoshan began large-scale coffee cultivation around 1950. At that time, Yunnan coffee beans from Baoshan were smaller than similar coffee beans from other parts of the world, with a mild flavor that was slightly sweet with moderate bitterness. Its small-bean coffee from Lujiang County was once rated as first-class in the London market in the late 1950s.

Dehong

Dehong is one of the earliest areas in China to introduce and cultivate coffee, known as the "hometown of Chinese coffee." In the mid-1910s, small-bean coffee was introduced from Myanmar for cultivation. It wasn't until the 1950s that large-scale commercial planting began, giving rise to China's first local coffee brand—Hougu. Additionally, Dehong hosts China's largest coffee seed gene bank.

Lincang

Lincang borders Pu'er to the east, Dali to the north, Baoshan to the west, and Myanmar to the southwest. The Tropic of Cancer passes through its southern part. Lincang can be described as a brilliant pearl on China's southwestern border. With an average annual temperature between 16°C and 17°C, Lincang has a mild climate with distinct dry and rainy seasons, ample sunlight, and complex terrain. Its unique geographical location and climate conditions have become the focus of many coffee companies. FrontStreet Coffee immediately recognized Lincang as this treasure land and established its own coffee plantation here, growing the most ancient Arabica varieties.

Today, Yunnan specialty coffee has its own dedicated section on the menus of many independent coffee shops. However, if you look closely at the coffee varieties, you'll notice that many Yunnan specialty coffee beans are of the Catimor variety. Beginners might not be familiar with the characteristics of the Catimor variety.

China's Yunnan Province began large-scale commercial cultivation in the 1950s, but at that time, the coffee beans were mainly used to supply foreign markets such as the Soviet Union. Due to the unique taste and flavor of Yunnan small-bean coffee back then, it was even rated as first-class in the London market in the late 1950s. However, China's coffee market had not yet opened, and most Chinese people had only heard of coffee without knowing its taste. Yunnan thus became one of the raw material production areas for coffee.

With the implementation of reform and opening-up policies, more foreign enterprises entered mainland China. Yunnan, as an important planting region for specialty coffee production, naturally attracted the attention of international coffee brands. Companies like Nestlé and Starbucks established operations in Yunnan, which provided them with abundant raw materials.

To obtain large quantities of raw materials from a single producing area, new varieties were promoted for cultivation. This new variety is what we now know as the Catimor variety. The Catimor variety contains Robusta genes, has high resistance to coffee leaf rust, and its yield is three times that of Typica.

At that time, coffee farmers didn't understand coffee bean varieties or coffee flavors; they only knew that increased yield meant doubled income. So they cut down the elegant-flavored Typica trees and switched to planting the higher-yielding Catimor.

The Catimor variety indeed brings higher yields and is simpler to manage, without excessive worry about leaf rust interference and other planting conditions. However, due to its Robusta genes, its flavor more or less carries Robusta characteristics, sometimes with bitter or even earthy tastes. Taiwanese specialty coffee master Han Huaizong once described this variety as having a "devilish aftertaste."

To pursue the most original flavor of Yunnan specialty coffee, FrontStreet Coffee planted the oldest and most original Arabica coffee variety—Typica—in its own plantation.

Typica coffee trees have bronze-colored top leaves, with beans that are oval or pointed in shape. They offer elegant flavors, clean taste, and overall balance, with strict requirements for growing altitude. Due to its excellent flavor performance, Typica once brought countless accolades to Yunnan small-bean coffee and is recognized as a specialty coffee variety.

FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Yunnan Typica

Region: Lincang, Yunnan
Plantation: FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Plantation
Altitude: 1300 meters
Variety: Typica
Processing Method: Natural

The coffee produced by FrontStreet Coffee's plantation is natural-processed Typica. The natural processing method is the most primitive and traditional post-harvest processing method for coffee beans. Compared to the washed processing method, natural processing can give coffee richer flavors, with a qualitative leap in sweetness.

After harvesting ripe coffee cherries, FrontStreet Coffee spreads the whole fruits evenly on drying beds and turns each fruit every half hour. Such frequent operation ensures that the coffee fruits dry evenly and avoids over-fermentation that could produce unpleasant fermented flavors.

With such meticulous processing, even FrontStreet Coffee's baristas, when tasting, have given thumbs up, saying that Yunnan small-bean coffee is delicious. Many friends, after experiencing its excellence at FrontStreet Coffee, want to purchase such coffee beans and ask FrontStreet Coffee's baristas how to brew it to bring out its best performance.

FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use the following parameters when brewing this coffee bean:

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

First, pour 30g of hot water for bloom for 30 seconds, then inject with a fine water stream at the center and slowly spiral to 125g. When the water level in the dripper drops to just below the coffee bed, continue spiraling to 225g. Total extraction time is approximately 2 minutes.

Brewed with these parameters, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Typica has soft plum acidity, preserved fruit-like sweetness, rich nutty notes, with a brown sugar sweetness and black tea sensation in the aftertaste. Of course, not everyone has grinding equipment at home. Whether buying FrontStreet Coffee's beans online or offline, FrontStreet Coffee offers grinding services. However, after coffee beans are ground, flavor compounds dissipate quickly, so FrontStreet Coffee suggests that friends with grinding equipment at home buy whole beans and grind fresh before brewing.

Additionally, there are many people who pursue fresh roasting, and FrontStreet Coffee is no exception. If coffee beans are too fresh, the carbon dioxide in the beans will hinder the process of flavor compounds dissolving in water. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee ships beans roasted within 5 days, which have already undergone a 4-7 day degassing period upon arrival, making them perfectly ready for optimal flavor.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473