Chinese Yunnan Coffee Brands: An Introduction to Yunnan Specialty Coffee Varieties and Flavor Profiles

At FrontStreet Coffee, some friends have noticed Yunnan coffee on our bean list and asked with confusion: "Is Yunnan coffee considered specialty coffee? Is it good?" At times like these, FrontStreet Coffee will tell you: why not taste it for yourself? Below, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce Yunnan coffee from several aspects: variety, terroir, and processing methods.

A Brief History of Yunnan Coffee

Since French missionary Tian De Neng planted the first coffee trees in 1904, Yunnan has had over a hundred years of coffee history. From the 1950s to the 1960s, Yunnan coffee began to expand its cultivation scale. At that time, to meet the coffee demand of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, the Lujiang Dam area was established as China's first production and export base for Arabica coffee. The truly standardized cultivation of Yunnan coffee began in the 1980s. Limited by crude processing methods, roasting techniques, and coffee farmers' lack of coffee knowledge, Yunnan beans have always served as commercial beans and raw material for instant coffee, purchased at low prices by international coffee giants such as Nestlé, Starbucks, and Maxwell House.

In 1988, after Nestlé invested in Yunnan's coffee industry, there was larger-scale production. Starting from 1992, Nestlé established a Coffee Agriculture Department specifically to guide and research the improvement and cultivation of Yunnan coffee, purchasing coffee at prices based on the US spot market. They also introduced high-yield, rust-resistant Catimor varieties from Portugal's Coffee Rust Research Center, Costa Rica, and Thailand. Just in the Lujiang Dam area alone, there are nearly 180,000 mu of Catimor, which is easy to manage, disease-resistant, and more favored by coffee farmers.

These initiatives further expanded the cultivation area of Yunnan coffee and increased the enthusiasm of coffee farmers. At the same time, they established Catimor as the main variety of Yunnan coffee, replacing the ancient Typica variety. In 1995, the Yunnan provincial government formally included Yunnan coffee cultivation in the "18 Engineering Project" for biological resources, and coffee cultivation developed rapidly, with both cultivation area and yield significantly increasing.

What Variety is Catimor?

Catimor 7963 is a hybrid variety developed by Portugal's Tropical Research Institute (HCT) specifically to combat coffee leaf rust, with stable characteristics. This variety has a compact tree shape, dwarf growth, many branches, and short fruit nodes. It grows vigorously with extremely strong vitality, and its greatest characteristics are its amazing rust resistance and high yield capacity. Therefore, it is deeply loved by Yunnan coffee farmers, and currently over 90% of coffee trees in Yunnan are Catimor.

However, Catimor is not 100% Arabica. Catimor is a hybrid between the rust-resistant Timor and Caturra varieties, containing 1/4 Robusta genetics. Those familiar with coffee varieties should know that compared to Arabica, Robusta has a heavier mouthfeel with obvious bitterness, primarily exhibiting grain and walnut flavors, and can easily have earthy notes if not processed properly. Catimor inherited genes from Robusta, and combined with local crude processing methods, it has a strong bitter taste with earthy flavors, often described as a "devil's aftertaste." However, in recent years, as more attention has been paid to the quality of Yunnan coffee, Catimor has also received more scientific cultivation and planting, as well as the rise of post-processing methods, greatly improving its coffee flavor and quality.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that if Yunnan wants to improve the overall quality of its coffee, it needs to gradually replace varieties. Catimor's rust resistance will gradually diminish after 20-30 years, so variety replacement is a current challenge facing Yunnan. Therefore, in recent years, we have seen many new varieties gradually appearing in Yunnan, such as the world-renowned Geisha.

To explore the relationship between coffee cultivation and varieties, FrontStreet Coffee began cultivating coffee in Lincang, Yunnan in 2013, selecting the ancient Typica variety and a small amount of Bourbon variety. Typica needs to be planted at high altitudes to exhibit rich and diverse flavors, fruity acidity, and delicate mouthfeel, making it a recognized high-quality variety. However, it has low yield, poor resistance, and is highly susceptible to leaf rust, coffee berry disease, and nematode disease, thus requiring more human management. After seven years, FrontStreet Coffee finally harvested its first batch in 2020, naming it "FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Coffee" after its own name.

What Does Yunnan Coffee Taste Like?

Some merchants use novel flavor-enhancing processing methods to cover up the inherent flaws of Yunnan beans and add a lot of aroma to increase prices. FrontStreet Coffee believes this neither authentically preserves the flavor of Yunnan coffee nor misleads consumers. Some friends who have tasted Yunnan coffee beans processed with special methods find the aroma particularly prominent and think this is the mainstream processing method for Yunnan coffee. In reality, most Yunnan coffee farmers face difficult conditions and do not have expensive processing equipment. Therefore, the vast majority of Yunnan coffee beans can only adopt natural processing methods, namely washed and natural processing.

If you truly want to explore the "Taste of Yunnan," FrontStreet Coffee recommends our Yunnan Arabica Daily Bean, which uses washed processing. The daily beans launched by FrontStreet Coffee are carefully selected from 7 classic origins, covering multiple representative producing areas and varieties, using natural processing methods customary to each origin to present the unique flavor characteristics of each region.

The washed processing steps: Remove the skin and pulp of the harvested coffee fruits with a machine, put the peeled coffee beans into a fermentation tank for fermentation, use fermentation to decompose the mucilage layer, wash the fermented coffee beans repeatedly with clean water to remove the decomposed mucilage, and finally dry the coffee beans in the sun for 1-2 weeks. Washed Yunnan coffee not only reduces the defect rate but also produces more stable quality coffee with higher flavor cleanliness.

FrontStreet Coffee also has a coffee bean "FrontStreet Coffee 2013" that uses natural drying processing, produced from FrontStreet Coffee's own estate in Lincang, Yunnan, selected from the elegant-flavored Typica variety, using natural sun-drying processing to enhance the coffee's sweetness. Every November when the coffee fruits planted by FrontStreet Coffee ripen, FrontStreet Coffee arranges for workers to pick red coffee cherries one by one, laying the fresh fruits flat under the sun to dry naturally, turning them irregularly to ensure even dehydration and avoid negative flavors from over-fermentation.

When FrontStreet Coffee discusses the flavor characteristics of Yunnan coffee, some describe it as chocolate, some say it's like sweet potato, and some friends think it's like Sanhua plums. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the flavor of Yunnan Arabica belongs to a neutral, balanced profile, meaning it has acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan coffee is all medium-roasted to highlight the roasted aroma of chocolate and nuts while retaining some acidity. From cupping, FrontStreet Coffee tastes nuts, herbal notes, and brown sugar aroma in the Yunnan Arabica Daily Bean, with melon and fruit sweetness, as well as plum acidity, presenting a balanced mouthfeel. The natural-processed Typica presents chocolate, baked bread, tropical fruit fermentation, and a tea-like aftertaste.

Brewing Parameters for FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Arabica Coffee:

Filter: Hario V60
Bean amount: 15g
Water temperature: 90 degrees Celsius
Grind size: 75% pass through #20 sieve
Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15
Three-pour method: Use twice the amount of water to wet the coffee grounds, forming a dome for a 30-second bloom, then pour with a small water stream from inside out to 125g for segmentation. Wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the filter cup, then continue with the same fine water stream to pour the third segment to 225g, until all coffee liquid has filtered through, then remove the filter cup. Time is approximately 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Arabica Daily Bean flavor: Smells of rich nutty aroma, with herbal, chocolate, and caramel notes upon entry, and a light fruit acidity in the aftertaste. The overall mouthfeel is balanced with good cleanliness.

FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Natural Typica flavor: The dry powder presents caramel, nut, and citrus aroma. At high temperature, it shows chocolate, fermentation, and berry notes. As the temperature decreases, plum acidity emerges, with a sweet aftertaste of tea and sugarcane. Medium to high body, clear mouthfeel, with rich and varied layers.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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