Top Yunnan China Coffee Brands Recommendations & Yunnan Arabica Bean Pour-Over Brewing Guide Flavor Profile Characteristics

Every mid-December, Yunnan enters its peak harvest season, and some higher altitude areas also begin harvesting. The estate where FrontStreet Coffee grows coffee in Yunnan is no exception. Last year, FrontStreet Coffee produced a batch of self-grown and processed Yunnan natural Typica (named "FrontStreet Coffee 2013"), with limited production of just over 200 kilograms, which received unanimous praise from customers. This November, many customers asked us if our self-produced Yunnan coffee beans had arrived, and FrontStreet Coffee's barista could only smile and say: "They're still on the trees!"

This is because Yunnan has entered the harvest period, where coffee matures faster in lower altitude areas, while higher altitude areas mature more slowly. FrontStreet Coffee's estate is located in a semi-primitive forest near Lincang, close to the Myanmar border, at approximately 1,300 meters altitude, so harvesting can only begin in mid-December.

Reflecting on FrontStreet Coffee's Bitter History of Coffee Cultivation in Yunnan

If one simply wanted a ready-made private coffee estate in Yunnan, it would actually be quite easy. The reason Yunnan's coffee farmers have been unwilling to grow coffee is that the labor cost per kilogram for picking coffee exceeds its selling price. Unless families have surplus labor, they're unwilling to pick coffee even when it ripens. At this time, buying a small piece of land from coffee farmers before harvest, then experimenting with natural processing, honey processing, and other methods, Yunnan specialty coffee could be produced in just two to three months. FrontStreet Coffee doesn't know whether this controversial approach is correct, just as the former director of Yunnan Coffee stated in his previous comment: "The current situation of over one million acres of Catimor in Yunnan production areas is the main problem we urgently need to transform and improve." Therefore, debate is good, but we cannot deny all our current efforts. FrontStreet Coffee deliberately chose the most difficult path: selecting high altitudes, cultivating Arabica varieties, and implementing rational planting practices. FrontStreet Coffee then began cultivating and nurturing coffee seedlings in Yunnan.

This year marks FrontStreet Coffee's twelfth year, but what many people don't know is that FrontStreet Coffee's coffee cultivation actually began half a year earlier than its roasting operations. FrontStreet Coffee's predecessor was "Dazhen Coffee," named because we wanted to grow coffee in a place called Dazhen in Guangdong. When we used Catimor to grow seedlings to 20cm height, more than half a year had passed before we finally understood: the relationship and sequence between variety, altitude, and processing method.

Choosing the right variety, planting it at appropriate altitudes, and experimenting with processing methods that can express unique flavors after maturity—this is FrontStreet Coffee's only logical framework for specialty coffee to have distinct regional characteristics.

Therefore, we abandoned our plan to grow coffee in Guangdong. Since the original coffee roasting location opened on Bao'an Frontsteet Street, we renamed "Dazhen Coffee" to "FrontStreet Coffee." At FrontStreet Coffee, while roasting coffee, we continued forward with our specialty coffee cultivation ideas, successively visiting institutions with deep research in coffee cultivation, the Tropical Agricultural Science Research Institute (which houses the Ministry of Agriculture's coffee germplasm repository), and a few farmers who grow specialty coffee. We clarified why Yunnan doesn't primarily grow specialty coffee varieties like Typica and Bourbon, and through a fortunate opportunity, found suitable land for cultivation.

Arabica coffee beans have altitude requirements, needing to be grown above 1,000 meters. For better flavors, the planting altitude should be even higher. However, Yunnan's普遍 mountain ranges barely meet the qualifying line, which is also Yunnan coffee's disadvantage. To compensate for altitude deficiencies, superior agronomic management is necessary even with good coffee varieties.

FrontStreet Coffee didn't purchase a ready-made coffee estate but bought a mountain area suitable for coffee cultivation. This is because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that even with good land, coffee grown from unsuitable varieties won't have good flavors (at that time, Catimor was prevalent in Yunnan). Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee chose the path of starting coffee cultivation from scratch. The coffee variety FrontStreet Coffee grows is Typica, which is an Arabica variety with excellent flavor characteristics. However, Typica has very low yields, only one-third of Catimor's yield, which is why it commands higher prices. Additionally, Typica and Bourbon are very susceptible to coffee leaf rust disease, which is one reason farmers are unwilling to grow Arabica varieties.

Yunnan has no four seasons, only dry and rainy seasons, and most coffee-producing regions face similar situations. This is also the fundamental reason why some production areas use natural processing methods. Entering June marks the beginning of the rainy season in production areas, with the next three to four months bringing continuous rainfall—the most favorable period for coffee cultivation. Only by planting seedlings during this time, with several months of moisture from rainfall, can they develop robust root systems to survive the first six-month dry season.

Starting coffee cultivation from scratch is also a very time-consuming endeavor. Coffee takes three to four years from seedling to first harvest, then additional time to experiment with suitable processing methods and finally reproduce them. It takes at least five years to get the first batch of coffee. Nobody can guarantee immediate production of high-quality specialty coffee. FrontStreet Coffee firmly believes there are no such easy things in this world. After multiple variety selections and post-harvest processing experiments, several more years passed. Not until the eighth year did FrontStreet Coffee's cultivated coffee in Yunnan achieve its first commercial production batch.

Yunnan Small Bean Coffee Variety—Catimor

Although FrontStreet Coffee's estate in Yunnan grows Typica, most of Yunnan's production is still dominated by Catimor, which we often call Yunnan small bean coffee. In 1959, Portuguese people moved Brazil's Bourbon mutation variety Caturra to East Timor to hybridize with Timor, which has Robusta heritage, successfully cultivating Catimor with excellent disease resistance and productivity. As coffee leaf rust plagued global coffee-producing countries, international organizations assisted in vigorously promoting Catimor to resist leaf rust disease and increase productivity.

Planting Altitude for Yunnan Small Bean Coffee

Yunnan small bean coffee cultivation areas are mainly distributed in Lincang, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbanna, Dehong, and other regions. Baoshan has altitudes above 1,200 meters, with an average temperature of 21.5°C, reaching highs of 40.4°C. It's basically frost-free year-round and is recognized as the best Yunnan small bean coffee production area. The small bean coffee cultivated here is characterized by being rich without bitterness, fragrant without harshness, with small, uniform beans, mellow and intense flavor, and fruity notes.

For Arabica, 1,200 meters is the quality watershed. However, because Baoshan has the Gaoligong Mountains to its north, which block the direct impact of Siberian cold currents in winter, June to August is the rainy season, often with clear skies for minutes followed by half an hour of rain. With clouds and mist, numerous mountains create protective microclimates for coffee growth.

FrontStreet Coffee Natural Processing

In the past, coffee farmers in places like Colombia hired daily harvest workers, paying wages based on the weight of harvested fruit. To earn more dollars, they needed to improve work efficiency. Rather than picking individual cherries, they used a stripping method. Since coffee cherries grow in clusters, they would strip everything—ripe and unripe alike—then discard the unripe and overripe cherries later. This greatly affected coffee quality.

However, FrontStreet Coffee's operations are not large-scale, so daily maintenance workers are responsible for harvesting, picking each fully red cherry individually. Then 2-3 layers are spread on drying nets, with the fully red coffee cherries laid flat to dry until they turn purplish-red. The mesh holes on the drying beds help the fruit breathe, avoiding negative over-fermentation flavors. This allows FrontStreet Coffee's natural Typica to present a fuller-bodied mouthfeel with citrus and berry notes, a hint of fermented wine aroma, and caramel sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting

In roasting, FrontStreet Coffee refers to corresponding regional characteristics and decides to use medium roast to highlight this coffee bean's sweetness.

Flavor Comparison

Parameters: Filter: Hario V60; Dose: 15g; Water temperature: 90°C; Grind size: Medium-fine (80% passing through China standard #20 sieve); Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15; Segmented extraction.

Since the V60 filter's ribs are distributed in curved patterns from top to bottom with varying lengths, during brewing, degassing is smoother and flow rate is relatively fast. Because of this, the extracted coffee flavor layers are more distinct.

Use 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds, then continue center pouring with small water flow to 125g segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup. Extraction time (starting from bloom) is 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee's self-produced Yunnan FrontStreet Coffee 2013 coffee bean flavor performance: Dry aroma has subtle caramel and nutty aromas. The taste is dominated by chocolate with brown sugar sweetness and slight fruit acidity, while the aftertaste carries some black tea notes. The overall flavor layers are quite rich.

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: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473