Asian Coffee Beans Yunnan Coffee Cultivation History Varieties Coffee Flavor Characteristics Introduction

Looking at the global distribution, coffee belts are mainly distributed across Africa, Asia, and the Americas, with each continent's coffee possessing unique characteristics. African coffee is renowned for its distinctive floral and fruity notes that leave a memorable impression; American coffee offers balanced flavors combining nuts, chocolate, and subtle fruit acidity, creating an endless aftertaste; while Asian coffee carries the fresh flavors of herbal plants, providing a natural and refreshing sensation. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce you to our country's own growing region—Yunnan.

Yunnan

According to FrontStreet Coffee's research, in 1892, when a French missionary successfully planted the first coffee tree in a place called Zhukula for his own coffee needs, he probably never imagined that a hundred years later, coffee would become a highlight of Yunnan's specialty agriculture. According to records from that time, this was a small-fruit variety coffee tree. Therefore, the extracted coffee beans were very small, so Chinese people called such coffee "small-grain coffee."

Later confirmed by research scholars, the initial coffee variety planted in Yunnan was Typica, the oldest variety in the Arabica family. The emergence of other varieties later was due to natural evolution and hybridization from Typica. The greatest flavor characteristic of this variety lies in its clean and balanced flavors, coupled with charming light sweet aftertaste.

From the late 1950s to early 1960s, due to gradual interruption of economic relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, coffee exports were also affected. At that time, coffee consumption domestically was regarded as a capitalist lifestyle, so due to lack of market foundation and high cultivation and maintenance costs for Typica, people cut down coffee trees to plant other cash crops, causing Yunnan small-grain coffee production to almost completely cease. By the early 1980s, Nestlé recognized Yunnan as this treasure land and distributed the easier-to-grow Catimor variety, restoring Yunnan's coffee production and enabling new development.

Initially, Yunnan mainly planted Typica variety coffee, but due to its relatively low yield and weak disease resistance, it didn't gain favor among Yunnan coffee farmers. Instead, the Catimor variety was welcomed by farmers for its excellent performance and gradually became the mainstream variety in Yunnan coffee. So now, when you taste coffee in Yunnan, most of what you drink is Catimor variety coffee.

Catimor is mainly planted on a large scale in Dehong, Baoshan, and Pu'er in Yunnan Province, with Panzhihua in Sichuan and Myanmar also vigorously promoting its cultivation. Yunnan has an altitude above 800 meters, abundant annual rainfall, fertile soil, and loose soil texture. Particularly in Baoshan, Yunnan, the dry-hot valley climate is very suitable for coffee cultivation.

Main Coffee Varieties Planted in Yunnan

Typica and Bourbon are the two main cultivated varieties of Yunnan coffee, known for their clean, balanced, and refined coffee flavors. In 1991, Yunnan introduced the Catimor variety from Kenya, which has stronger virus resistance and higher yields, although slightly inferior in flavor to Typica and Bourbon. Due to the similarity in form and habits between Typica and Bourbon, they are often cultivated together.

In recent years, Yunnan's coffee cultivation methods have become more scientific, and coffee bean processing has become more refined, leading to significant improvements in coffee flavor. Even traditionally washed and natural-processed Catimor coffee beans can exhibit relatively clean flavors.

However, FrontStreet Coffee believes that to truly help Yunnan coffee cross into the specialty coffee ranks, variety selection is crucial. Therefore, in 2013, FrontStreet Coffee decided to plant Typica variety coffee beans on a mountain 1,300 meters above sea level in Lincang, Yunnan. Compared to Catimor, Yunnan's Typica coffee beans can present more pronounced sweetness and intoxicating black tea aftertaste, with balanced sweet, sour, and bitter notes, making the flavor very charming.

Yunnan Coffee Growing Environment

Yunnan's coffee growing areas are mainly concentrated in Lincang, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbanna, and Dehong. Among these, Baoshan is acclaimed as the best small-grain coffee producing area with its climate conditions of average temperature 21.5°C, maximum temperature 40.4°C, and basically frost-free throughout the year.

The small-grain coffee produced here is renowned domestically and internationally for its rich but not bitter flavor, mellow but not pungent aroma, small and uniform beans, and mellow taste with fruity notes. Experts even compare it to Colombian wet-processed small-grain coffee, evaluating it as high-quality coffee in the world. Baoshan small-grain coffee has a long cultivation history and has now become a national geographical indication product, showcasing the unique charm of Yunnan coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee: Frontsteet 2013 Yunnan Typica

Region: Lincang, Yunnan
Altitude: 1300 meters
Variety: Typica
Processing: Natural Process
Brewing Flavors: Dried apricot, plum, brown sugar, chocolate, black tea sensation

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions

For pour-over coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always considered the freshness of coffee beans to be a very important part, as fresh coffee beans can maximize the experience of rich flavors. The coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are freshly roasted within 5 days, because the freshness of coffee beans greatly affects the flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee beans. The coffee bean resting period is generally 4-7 days, so when you receive the ordered coffee beans, it's exactly when the flavor performs at its best. But from the perspective of understanding coffee, even if the resting period is insufficient, you can still try it, so you can understand the aroma of coffee beans at different stages.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing: Parameters for Frontsteet 2013 Yunnan Typica Coffee

Filter: KONO
Water Temperature: 88-90°C
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Medium-fine grind (Chinese #20 standard sieve pass rate 80%)

The brewing method uses three-stage extraction, using twice the amount of water for blooming, that is, 30g of water to bloom for 30 seconds, small stream circular pour to 125g for segmentation, continue pouring to 225g when water level drops about to expose the coffee bed, stop (timing starts from bloom), extraction time is 2 minutes. Try to keep the brewing technique consistent for both beans.

From this coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee mostly感受到 complex flavors of chocolate, nuts, roasted sweet potatoes, and toffee-like sweet aroma, mixed with some dark berry acidity, with good body.

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473