Which Yunnan Coffee Bean is the Best and What Variety Does it Belong to? Characteristics and Flavor Evaluation of Yunnan Coffee Beans vs. Vietnamese Coffee Beans

Yunnan Coffee: Varieties and Characteristics

Currently, the most famous coffee beans from Yunnan are what people commonly call small-bean Yunnan coffee beans, which belong to the Typica coffee variety. Since the Catimor coffee variety dominates the majority of Yunnan's coffee bean production due to its high yield, what people usually refer to as Yunnan small-bean coffee is actually Yunnan Catimor. In Yunnan's coffee-producing regions, 99.99% of coffee varieties planted are Catimor. Many friends might ask why? FrontStreet Coffee believes this is because Catimor has excellent disease and pest resistance, along with sufficient yields—simply put, its economic benefits are high enough, which is why it's widely cultivated.

Vietnam Coffee vs Yunnan Coffee

What varieties are Vietnam coffee beans? Vietnam primarily grows Robusta, which is then sold to Nestlé for instant coffee production. Robusta itself is very bitter and personally, I find it difficult to drink. The Yunnan coffee bean varieties Catimor and Typica belong to specialty coffee categories. Therefore, Yunnan coffee tastes much better than Vietnamese coffee.

Flavor Characteristics of Yunnan Coffee Beans

What are the flavor characteristics of Yunnan coffee beans? Currently, the most widely planted coffee variety in Yunnan's coffee-producing regions is Catimor. Additionally, in the Baoshan region, there are still small plantings of Typica and Bourbon coffee varieties. Although Typica and Bourbon both belong to the Arabica species, they essentially have significant differences.

Typica Coffee Variety

Typica coffee beans originate from southeastern Ethiopia and Sudan, and are the most widely cultivated coffee variety in the Western Hemisphere. Its plants are relatively robust but not tolerant to strong sunlight. The top leaves of Typica are copper-colored, which is why it's also called red-top coffee. Many commercial improved varieties today originate from this species. Typica coffee beans are recognized as a specialty coffee variety. However, their yield is extremely low, and they are susceptible to rust disease, requiring more labor management and higher maintenance costs. Excellent estate beans such as Jamaica Blue Mountain, Sumatra Mandheling, and Hawaii Kona all belong to Typica.

Catimor Coffee Variety

Strictly speaking, Catimor coffee variety is not of pure Arabica lineage. It is a hybrid between the Timor variety (Robusta coffee species) and Caturra coffee variety (a mutation of Bourbon coffee variety), so Catimor has 25% Robusta coffee variety lineage. It is precisely because of this 25% Robusta lineage that Catimor has flavor defects—insufficient aroma richness, heavy bitterness, and tendency to develop astringency and relatively pungent moldy flavors.

Vietnam coffee beans are basically all Robusta beans, used for making instant coffee, with nothing noteworthy in terms of flavor.

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