The "Living Fossil" of Chinese Coffee

In early May, journalists joined more than 60 Chinese and international experts and scholars on a visit to Zhukula Village in Pingchuan Town, Binchuan County, to survey the Zhukula coffee forest, described as one of the birthplaces of Chinese coffee and the only surviving model of Chinese coffee heritage to have continued for more than a century.

The Living Fossil of Chinese Coffee

"These are the purest and most original coffee beans in the world, with extremely high historical and scientific value, and they deserve to be called the 'living fossil' of Chinese coffee," said Chen Dexin, Secretary-General of the Yunnan Specialty Coffee Society, as he entered the village and looked out over the verdant coffee forest.

Mr. Chen first visited Zhukula in 2009 and has since returned nine times, volunteering as a guide. In 1904 a French Catholic priest, Tian Deneng, obtained a coffee seedling that a fellow missionary had carried from Lao Cai in Vietnam through Hekou, and planted it behind the Catholic church in Zhukula Village. That single act, almost by accident, created a legend of Chinese coffee. The village now holds 13 acres of ancient coffee forest, 1,134 trees in all: 24 planted between 1908 and 1912, and 1,110 planted in 1948. Experts have identified them as the oldest Typica and Bourbon plants of Yunnan arabica, now extremely rare in China and fairly called priceless treasures.

Preservation and Development

The Catholic church built in those years still stands, its walls mottled and its rooms empty, while the century-old coffee forest continues to grow and to extend its family. Binchuan County has launched the Protection Plan for the Historical Site of the Century-Old Zhukula Coffee as an Important Chinese Agricultural Cultural Heritage, which aims to build a distinctive coffee eco-agricultural tourism brand through protection and development.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Yunnan is usually introduced as "Yunnan small bean," and small bean is simply another name for Arabica, the smallest-seeded of the three original coffee species. FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan small-bean coffee comes from the Baoshan growing area and is washed and medium roasted, showing soft nut and chocolate sweetness with a light plum acidity. Its approachable price has made it a first taste of Yunnan for many drinkers.

To go deeper into the region, FrontStreet Coffee's 2013 Natural Typica comes from the estate FrontStreet Coffee planted in 2013 with a batch of Typica trees, the same variety the first missionary-planted trees in Yunnan belonged to. Made from fully ripe red cherries and sun-dried, then medium roasted for balance, it brings dark berry character with caramel sweetness, chocolate and a touch of dried apricot, finishing on black tea.

Yunnan coffee is grown mainly across the south-west of the province, in Baoshan, Dehong, Pu'er and Lincang, where most land sits around 1,000 metres with fertile slopes, ample sun and rain and a wide day-night temperature swing. Baoshan's coffee history begins in the mid-1950s, when the overseas Chinese patriot Liang Jinshan introduced the crop, and its frost-free climate suited small-bean coffee so well that the Lujiang dam area became known for its distinctive sweetness.

For an espresso take on Yunnan, FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa blend pairs Yunnan washed small bean with Brazil Cerrado. The Brazil side supplies mixed-nut aroma and balance, while Yunnan contributes chocolate and citrus; pulled as an Americano it is balanced across acidity, sweetness and bitterness with nut and brown-sugar sweetness, and with milk it becomes a smooth latte with almond and cream.