Top 7 Coffee Origins in Asia: Is Civet Coffee an Asian Region Coffee?

I've always loved pour-over coffee, especially light roasts—but the beans I meet are usually African or from Central and South America. Asian coffee deserves more attention: China's Yunnan province and neighboring Taiwan produce beans in all sorts of varieties, and Yunnan coffee has been growing steadily more popular. Coffee lovers should give it a try. FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan beans, in fact, come from our own plantation. Here FrontStreet Coffee introduces Asia's coffee-producing regions, their main growing areas, and the character of Asian coffee.

In shopping malls and supermarkets you can buy every kind of coffee bean or drip bag, but each region differs in climate, variety, and processing. Knowing the local culture helps you appreciate local coffee—and these elements are precisely what shape the flavor.

Where Are Asian Coffee Beans Produced?

General characteristics of Asian coffee:

• Rich, heavy flavor
• Stronger sweetness
• Less acidity

The main coffee-producing regions of Asia:

India

Indian coffee is famous for "monsooning." Blown by humid monsoon air, the beans absorb moisture and swell, turning a golden color. Perhaps because of that humid processing, they carry a pungent musty, smoky smell unlike anything produced by conventional sun-dried or washed methods.

Indonesia

Indonesia uses semi-dry (wet-hulled) processing, and its varied cultivation methods give the coffee a truly unique character: deep black, full-bodied beans with a mellow aroma and richly layered flavor—fruit, floral, and earthy notes all present. The famous "Kopi Luwak" (civet coffee) is Indonesia's celebrated rarity: coffee cherries eaten and excreted by civets, with the undigested seeds expelled intact and collected for processing. Because proteins break down in the digestive tract, the coffee carries a distinctive aroma.

Vietnam

Vietnamese beans have a thick texture with modest aroma and acidity. The country is the world's second-largest coffee producer. Its territory is long and narrow: the temperate north grows Arabica, though in limited volume, while the tropical south is planted with Robusta (the "robust" bean). Robusta's flavor is ordinary, but it is easy to cultivate—and it dominates Vietnam's coffee exports.

Yemen

One of the world's three great coffees: Yemen Mocha Mattari. The beans are small and firm; ground, they release mature fruit flavors (red grape) and bittersweet dark chocolate, with a thick, mellow texture on the palate.

China

Yunnan Coffee Beans:

Typica: The most classic Arabica variety and the earliest original coffee species, from which many commercial improved varieties descend. It is recognized as a specialty variety of elegant flavor and excellent cup performance.

Bourbon: A variety derived from Typica, it shares Typica's rich aroma and excellent cup quality and is likewise regarded as one of Arabica's finest.

Catimor: Not a pure Arabica lineage—a hybrid of Timor and Bourbon. It lacks rich aroma and flavor and shows somewhat rough, grassy, earthy notes, but it resists disease and pests, is easy to manage, and yields heavily: up to 350kg of green beans per mu, double the yield of Typica and Bourbon. It has become the dominant cultivated variety in Yunnan's coffee zones.

Philippines

The traditional growing areas lie in the Cordillera Administrative Region and Calabarzon, where farmers sun-dry their coffee on raised beds. Wide variation in microclimate and conditions lets the country grow a whole series of varieties and offers rich opportunities for specialty coffee—but the islands are constantly battered by typhoons, which caps production.

Taiwan

Taiwanese coffee shows excellent aroma and a unique, gentle acidity, tasting mild and smooth after proper roasting. First introduced by the Japanese, it declined when they withdrew; only now, as various regions fuse traditional agriculture with tourism and leisure, is it reviving. Production remains limited, so prices are not cheap.

Regional Characteristics:

Western "Mountain-type" coffee: Floral and tea aromas with medium acidity, similar to high-altitude coffees of Central and South America—including Dongshi, Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan.

Southern "Plateau-type" coffee: Floral and chocolate flavors, neither acidic nor astringent, similar to Ethiopian highland coffees—mainly from the Dawu Mountain system in Pingtung.

Eastern "Coastal-type" coffee: Floral and spicy aromas with noticeable acidity, its character akin to island-type coffee origins.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Of all Asia's origins, Yunnan is the one you can taste most easily through FrontStreet Coffee. Yunnan's location on the world coffee belt—most of the province above 1,000 meters, with fertile hillside soils, abundant sun and rain, and big day-night temperature swings—gives its trees every advantage. The entry point is the FrontStreet Yunnan Baoshan small-bean coffee: washed and medium roasted, it shows soft nut and chocolate sweetness with a touch of plum acidity, the friendly first taste of Chinese specialty coffee.

For a deeper step, the FrontStreet 2013 Natural Typica comes from FrontStreet's own estate—the very plantation mentioned above. Only fully ripe red cherries are sun-dried, then roasted medium for balance: dark berry tones, caramel sweetness, chocolate and a hint of dried apricot, finishing on black tea. And if it's the famous Indonesian profile that drew you to Asia in the first place, the FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling—thrice hand-sorted and once machine-sorted, medium-dark roasted—delivers spice, caramel, cedar, and dark chocolate with the thick, earthy body Asian coffee is loved for, minus the civet-coffee price tag.