Flavor Profile, Processing Methods, Variety Characteristics, and Regional Introduction of Yunnan Typica Coffee Beans

In the history of Chinese coffee, the Yunnan region holds a significant position as one of China's earliest coffee-growing areas. As early as a decade ago, FrontStreet Coffee also joined the ranks of coffee cultivation in Yunnan, starting from the very roots. The "Frontsteet 2013" on our bean menu represents the culmination of FrontStreet Coffee's years of effort, selected from the ancient Typica coffee variety and processed using the natural sun-drying method, shared for everyone to taste.

What are the characteristics of the Typica variety?

The most distinctive feature of the Typica coffee tree is its bronze-colored leaves at the top, earning it the name "Red Top Coffee." Its trunk is slender, with very thin branches that tilt slightly, with lateral branches forming a 50-70° angle with the vertical stem. The plant reaches about 5 meters in height, making manual harvesting somewhat challenging. Right next to the entrance of FrontStreet Coffee's shop, we have planted both a Typica variety and a Catimor variety - feel free to observe them while enjoying your coffee. Typica coffee beans are relatively large, elongated, with pointed tips that curve upward, somewhat resembling an egg. Typica coffee beans often exhibit citrus acidity with a sweet aftertaste, praised by many as elegant and clear coffee beans. Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is also of the Typica variety.

Due to its extremely poor disease resistance, Typica struggles to resist common diseases such as leaf rust and coffee berry disease... etc., and its yield is also very scarce. Coffee trees infected with leaf rust are equivalent to having an incurable disease, eventually withering and even dying. As an economic crop, Typica's low yield and susceptibility to disease make it difficult to achieve profitability, causing many growers to abandon it in favor of other varieties with better disease resistance. Cultivating Typica coffee beans with elegant and pure flavor is no simple matter - every stage from natural terroir conditions, plant management, fruit harvesting, to post-processing requires adequate assurance for the coffee beans to develop positive flavors and textures. This also means producing high-quality Typica requires more investment in labor costs and technical expertise.

How does FrontStreet Coffee cultivate Typica?

As a country where tea culture flourishes, coffee is essentially an imported product in China, so domestic knowledge about coffee is not extensive. To explore more coffee knowledge, FrontStreet Coffee traveled to Lincang, Yunnan in 2013 to begin our coffee cultivation journey. From site selection, variety selection, seedling cultivation, planting, harvesting, processing, to roasting - all aspects were handled by FrontStreet Coffee's team, through which we accumulated considerable experience and knowledge regarding varieties, altitude, and processing methods.

Originally, the coffee varieties planted in Yunnan were the ancient Typica and Bourbon. Later, Yunnan coffee suffered from global leaf rust damage, causing large-scale death of coffee trees and a significant reduction in planting area. With support from major foreign companies, the high-yield, disease-resistant Catimor variety was introduced. This established Catimor's position as a replacement for the ancient Typica trees, becoming the main variety of Yunnan coffee today. Due to the low yield and disease susceptibility of Typica coffee beans, coupled with high management costs, growers face longer exploration periods, which is why most Yunnan coffee farmers are reluctant to plant it.

Lincang, Yunnan is influenced by the warm and humid airflow from the Indian Ocean and southwest monsoon. The distinction between seasons is not obvious, but dry and rainy seasons are clearly defined. With abundant rainfall, long sunshine hours, short frost periods, and some areas being frost-free year-round, the three-dimensional climate is distinct and very suitable for Arabica coffee cultivation. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee specifically chose the most primitive Typica variety. However, the delicate Typica is also notorious for its low yield and poor resistance, so FrontStreet Coffee invested considerable effort in cultivation management. After 5-6 years of cultivation, FrontStreet Coffee finally harvested the first batch in 2020, produced using the natural sun-drying method, and named it "Frontsteet 2013."

Why use the natural processing method?

At FrontStreet Coffee, you can only find Yunnan coffee beans processed by two methods: washed and natural. For this Typica coffee, FrontStreet Coffee chose the natural processing method. Natural processing doesn't require excessive equipment - the main process involves evenly drying the beans under continuous sunny weather. Although the steps may seem simple, to achieve high-quality natural processing, the details of each step must be carefully managed.

Coffee cherries must be processed immediately after harvesting. First, they undergo sorting, with flotation being one commonly used sorting method. The sorted coffee fruits are then sun-dried. FrontStreet Coffee arranges staff to periodically turn the cherries to avoid uneven heating that could cause over-fermentation. When the coffee cherries dehydrate from bright red to dark purple and reach the target moisture content, they can be sent for hulling and roasting. Naturally processed Typica exhibits fuller fermented flavors compared to washed processing, with prominent sweetness, carrying aromas of caramel, berries, and black tea.

Pour-over flavor profile of Yunnan Typica coffee

In terms of roasting, FrontStreet Coffee believes that Yunnan coffee should have both rich coffee aroma and certain acidity, so we use a medium roast level. For daily store offerings, FrontStreet Coffee uses pour-over extraction, hoping to present the natural aroma of the coffee for everyone to taste.

Pour-over black coffee is not only the daily extraction method used by FrontStreet Coffee's baristas but also a simple method that many coffee enthusiasts can perform at home. Considering that Yunnan Typica coffee tends toward a balanced flavor profile - avoiding excessive acidity and heavy bitterness - FrontStreet Coffee prefers using the V60 dripper with medium-fine grind size and medium water temperature for extraction.

FrontStreet Coffee uses corresponding parameters for brewing different coffee beans. For darker roasted beans like Mandheling and Brazilian coffee, FrontStreet Coffee uses water temperature of 87-88°C and medium-coarse grind size. For lighter roasted beans like Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Panama Geisha coffee, FrontStreet Coffee uses higher temperatures of 91-93°C with medium-fine grind size to stimulate the aroma of high-altitude hard beans. Returning to brewing FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan arabica coffee, we use medium water temperature and grind size to highlight its balanced and harmonious mouthfeel.

Brewing parameters:

• Dripper: Hario V60
• Bean amount: 15g
• Water temperature: 90°C
• Grind size: 75% pass-through rate on #20 sieve
• Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

Three-stage pouring: Use twice the amount of coffee in water to moisten the coffee bed, forming a dome and let it bloom for 30 seconds. Then use a small water stream to pour in circles from inside to outside until reaching 125g, then pause. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine stream for the third stage until reaching 225g. Remove the dripper once all coffee liquid has filtered through, taking about 2 minutes total.

Pour-over flavor of Frontsteet 2013 Natural Typica: Caramel, nuts, chocolate, fermented notes, berries, black tea, sugarcane. Medium-high body with clean texture, black tea aftertaste, 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 on 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