Yunnan Coffee Industry Faces Growth Challenges: The Origin History and Development of Yunnan Small Beans

More than a decade ago, many people's impression of Yunnan coffee was stuck in "poor quality, low price," and quite a few would show a troubled expression upon hearing it. Nowadays, in many specialty coffee shops, Yunnan small-bean coffee has become increasingly common, with some baristas even offering different flavor profile choices. For instance, on FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu, there are two single-origin coffees from Yunnan production areas to choose from. So, how is the quality of these Yunnan small-bean coffees? How do they taste when brewed? Please follow FrontStreet Coffee as we get to the main topic.

The Development of Yunnan's Coffee Industry

Since 1904, when French missionary Alfred Tiende introduced the first coffee tree to Zhugula Village in Binchuan, Yunnan, the cultivation of Yunnan coffee began. Therefore, Yunnan's connection with coffee has a century-long history.

The 1950s-60s were a period of further expansion in Yunnan's coffee cultivation scale, and also the time when China truly had large-scale coffee cultivation for commercial purposes. After the founding of New China in 1952, under the leadership of expert Ma Guojin from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, large-scale coffee cultivation was formally developed, with the produced coffee supplied to the Soviet Union. During this period, in 1937, patriotic overseas Chinese Mr. Liang Jinshan had brought back a batch of seeds from Myanmar to Baoshan, pioneering coffee cultivation land in Baoshan's Lujiangba. At this time, Yunnan's varieties all belonged to Typica and its Bourbon variants, with cultivation area reaching as much as 50,000 mu.

Not long after, Yunnan coffee was severely affected by global leaf rust disease, causing large-scale death of coffee trees and a significant reduction in cultivation area. By the 1980s of reform and opening up, Yunnan coffee gradually entered the international market. In 1988, foreign enterprises such as Nestlé established branches in China, supporting Yunnan's coffee industry development in multiple aspects. They not only introduced high-yield, disease-resistant varieties like Catimor but also promised to purchase Yunnan coffee beans as raw materials at the then-US futures prices. These measures further expanded Yunnan's coffee cultivation area and increased the enthusiasm of coffee farmers. At the same time, it established Catimor variety's position in replacing the ancient Typica trees, becoming the main variety of Yunnan coffee.

In recent years, with the advancement of China's coffee wave and society's emphasis on rural economy and sustainable development, coffee professionals from around the world have successively visited Yunnan, including FrontStreet Coffee. Everyone has continuously worked to improve local coffee quality in terms of coffee pest and disease prevention, shade trees, soil and water conservation, planting altitude, and fresh fruit harvesting and processing methods. Yunnan coffee has gradually gained attention and recognition. Domestic and international coffee brands such as Starbucks, Blue Bottle Coffee, Luckin Coffee, Manner, etc., have also launched products from Yunnan production areas, expanding people's awareness of Yunnan coffee's flavor and quality.

Compared to the past, people are now willing to actively learn about Yunnan as a "new production area." Many customers who come to FrontStreet Coffee shops to drink pour-over coffee ask if there are Yunnan beans, showing that Yunnan coffee's impression on people is undergoing positive changes, while continuously improving on the path toward specialty quality to gain recognition from more coffee consumers.

So What Does "Small Bean" Specifically Refer To?

In fact, the so-called "small bean" is the Arabica variety, compared with the medium-bean coffee (Robusta) planted in Hainan, China, it's a coffee category with smaller fruit size. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Yunnan's initially introduced and cultivated coffee trees all belonged to two pure Arabica species: Typica and Bourbon. Arabica grown at high altitudes carries rich sweet and sour aromas and is recognized as a high-quality variety.

However, they not only have very weak resistance and are easily susceptible to diseases, but the fruit yield per individual plant is also very low. Therefore, Yunnan farmers who make a living from coffee mostly choose to switch to higher-yielding varieties: Catimor.

Although Catimor is classified as an Arabica variety, genetically speaking, Catimor carries 25% Robusta genes. According to FrontStreet Coffee's research and understanding, Catimor "CIFC7963" is a hybrid variety developed by the Portuguese Coffee Rust Research Center (CIFC) specifically targeting coffee rust disease. This variety, in appearance, has characteristics such as compact tree shape, dwarf growth, many branches, and short fruit nodes. It grows vigorously with extremely strong vitality, and its greatest features are amazing rust resistance and high-yield capability. Precisely because it inherited Robusta characteristics, Catimor has stronger disease resistance and yield, and coffee beans will carry rich oils after roasting, while also having Robusta's "devil's flavor." The flavor performance in cupping is often rather ordinary, with low memorability points, and not comparable to pure Arabica varieties at the same altitude level, such as Caturra, Bourbon, etc.

So are there other small-bean varieties planted in Yunnan besides Catimor now? Of course, there are. The coffee trees that FrontStreet Coffee selected and bred in Lincang, Yunnan in 2013 are all ancient Typica varieties. After 5-6 years of cultivation, FrontStreet Coffee finally harvested the first batch of results in 2020 and produced them using natural processing, naming it "FrontStreet Coffee 2013."

So Is Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee Delicious?

In the past, Yunnan coffee farmers did not accumulate much mature experience in coffee cultivation. Coffee trees were mostly planted at lower altitudes, combined with rough processing methods, resulting in mediocre coffee quality that was mostly purchased for commercial instant coffee, thus creating everyone's poor impression of Yunnan coffee quality. With the popularization of domestic specialty coffee culture, many coffee professionals and researchers began to invest in Yunnan's production area cultivation links, continuously working to improve coffee quality in terms of pest and disease prevention, shade trees, soil and water conservation, planting altitude, and fresh fruit harvesting and processing methods. Today's Yunnan small-bean coffee not only has a clean character but can also show unique flavor characteristics with different post-processing methods.

Whenever November arrives, the coffee fruits planted by FrontStreet Coffee also mature one after another. FrontStreet Coffee will arrange workers to pick red cherries one by one from the coffee trees and promptly spread the fresh fruits naturally under the sun for drying, turning them irregularly to ensure even dehydration and avoid negative flavors from over-fermentation. Until the coffee beans dehydrate to a purplish-red color and reach the target moisture content, they are sent for hulling and roasting. Under several days of sunlight exposure, Typica coffee presents a fuller fermentation aroma, prominent sweetness, with caramel, berry, and black tea aromas.

When FrontStreet Coffee talks about Yunnan coffee's flavor characteristics, some describe it as chocolate, some say it's like sweet potato, and some friends feel it's like Sanhua plums. FrontStreet Coffee believes that Yunnan small-bean coffee's flavor belongs to a neutral, balanced character, meaning it has both acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan coffee on the bean shelf all uses medium roasting to highlight caramelized aromas like chocolate and nuts while also retaining some fruit acidity. During cupping, FrontStreet Coffee sensed chocolate, nuts, dried apricots, brown sugar aromas from FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan small-bean Typica, as well as a mellow sweetness of melon and fruits. After swallowing, a black tea-like aftertaste remains in the mouth.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Small-Bean Pour-Over Recommendations

Dripper: Hario V60

Dose: 15g

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: 75% pass-through rate on #20 sieve

Water-to-Coffee Ratio: 1:15

Three-Stage Pour: Use twice the amount of coffee grounds in water to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome for 30s bloom. Then use a small water stream to pour in a circular motion from inside to outside until 125g, then stop. Wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the filter cup's position, continue with the same fine water stream to pour the third stage to 225g, until all coffee liquid has filtered through, then remove the filter cup. Total time is about 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Small-Bean Daily Coffee Flavor: Smells of rich nutty aroma, with herbal, chocolate, and caramel notes upon entry, and a slight fruity acidity in the aftertaste. Overall, the taste is balanced with good cleanliness.

FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Natural Typica Coffee Flavor: Dry powder presents caramel, nut, and citrus aromas. At high temperature, it's chocolate, fermentation, and berries. As the temperature drops, plum acidity emerges, with black tea and sugarcane's sweet aftertaste. Medium-high body, clean texture, rich and varied layers.

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's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473