How Many Years for Yunnan Coffee Trees from Planting to Fruiting - Annual Yield of One Coffee Tree

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Coffee, as an agricultural crop, has its own annual fruiting cycle. How many years does it take for a coffee bean to grow from planting to bearing fruit? How much coffee can one tree produce in a year? FrontStreet Coffee will answer these two questions based on our experience growing Typica coffee trees in Baoshan, Yunnan.

How long does it take for coffee trees in Yunnan to bloom and bear fruit?

According to FrontStreet Coffee's observations, coffee trees typically have their first flowering period at around three years of age. The white, five-petaled tubular flowers emit a faint jasmine fragrance, with dense inflorescences arranged in clusters. The petals will wither within two to three days, and several months later, fruits will form. The fruit is a drupe with a diameter of about 1.5 centimeters, initially green, gradually turning yellow, and becoming red when mature, very similar to cherries. Therefore, coffee fruits are also called coffee cherries and can be harvested when ripe.

Coffee beans are actually the two seeds contained within the coffee fruit. These two beans stand upright connected face-to-face along their flat sides. Therefore, each coffee bean has a thin outer membrane called silver skin, which is covered by a yellow outer skin called parchment. The entire coffee bean is encased in a mucilaginous pulp, forming soft, sweet-tasting coffee flesh, with the outermost layer being the husk.

How much coffee can one tree produce in a year?

The amount of coffee a tree can produce annually mainly depends on the coffee variety and growing conditions. In FrontStreet Coffee's growing region in Yunnan, coffee trees bear fruit only once a year. For Catimor varieties, which can be planted densely, about 330 Catimor coffee trees can be planted per mu (approximately 667 square meters). Generally, one mu can produce about 300kg of coffee beans, meaning one Catimor coffee tree can produce 0.9kg of coffee beans per year.

For Typica varieties, the main vertical trunk can reach up to 5 meters in height. This height means that, compared to other varieties, the distance between branches and between nodes on the same branch is longer. Therefore, about 100 trees can be planted per mu, with an approximate yield of 100kg per mu. This means one Typica coffee tree can only produce about 1kg of coffee beans per year.

According to FrontStreet Coffee, the most widely planted single-origin coffee beans in Yunnan are Catimor varieties - what we commonly see in the coffee market as Yunnan small-bean single-origin coffee. This is because this variety has high yields and is easy to cultivate, but its flavor is not as good as Typica varieties. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee primarily grows Typica in Baoshan, Yunnan, to bring everyone the best-flavored Yunnan coffee beans.

Typica is also currently the oldest original Arabica variety in the coffee market, and almost all Arabica coffee bean varieties are derived from Typica. Typica has an elegant flavor. However, its drawback is that Typica coffee trees have weaker constitution, low disease resistance, and are susceptible to leaf rust.

Therefore, Typica coffee beans have low yields and cannot meet economic benefits. In recent years, Typica has gradually been replaced by Caturra and Catuai in Central and South America. This is why Typica is becoming increasingly rare. Although Typica has an elegant flavor, it is not as popular as Bourbon.

According to FrontStreet Coffee, the earliest coffee variety planted in Yunnan's coffee-growing regions was also Typica.

This history can be traced back to the early 20th century when foreign missionaries planted coffee for their own consumption in Yunnan. Then, in the 1950s, the earliest large-scale coffee production began, with the goal of exporting to the Soviet Union. At that time, coffee agronomists, considering Yunnan's coffee-growing environment and conditions as well as coffee quality, determined Typica as the main planting variety.

However, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Typica coffee beans have low yields, are susceptible to disease, and have strict altitude requirements. Therefore, the coffee yield from Typica trees is very low. Most importantly, Yunnan's coffee farmers at that time did not have the specialty coffee awareness to harvest fully ripe coffee cherries. Consequently, the quality of harvested coffee fruits was inconsistent, so Yunnan's coffee farmers turned to Catimor variety coffee trees, which are easy to plant, have high survival rates, and high yields.

Catimor is a hybrid of Arabica and Robusta species. Robusta has good leaf rust resistance, rich oil content, high yields, and is easy to cultivate. After hybridizing with Typica (an Arabica variety), Catimor acquired 25% Robusta genes. This improved its leaf rust resistance, retained rich oil content, and maintained some of the rich flavor of the original Typica variety.

This is one of the reasons why Catimor coffee beans are still widely planted in Yunnan today. In addition, FrontStreet Coffee chooses to primarily grow Typica in our estates because we believe that to change the current flavor profile of Yunnan coffee, we must start from the root cause. Currently, Yunnan coffee blindly relies on special processing methods to quickly change undesirable coffee flavors, leading consumers to have the fixed impression that "only specially processed Yunnan coffee is drinkable." As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Typica coffee has its unique subtle and clean flavor, with balanced characteristics and high clarity - something that special processing methods cannot achieve. After all, whether a coffee bean tastes good ultimately depends on the coffee variety, as special processing methods are not a long-term solution.

Yunnan Coffee Bean Growing Region - Baoshan

Furthermore, FrontStreet Coffee's choice to plant Typica coffee trees in Baoshan, Yunnan is not without reason. Baoshan has a long history of coffee cultivation, dating back to the mid-1950s when the first coffee seedling was introduced from Southeast Asia by the late patriotic overseas Chinese Mr. Liang Jinshan.

In recent years, with the expansion of international trade, Lujiangba's small-bean coffee has become renowned. European, American, and Arab countries, especially merchants from Britain, America, Egypt, Hong Kong, and Macao, all regard it as premium coffee. Demand exceeds supply. In December 2010, after review by China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, it was decided to implement national geographical indication product protection for "Baoshan Small-Bean Coffee."

FrontStreet Coffee chose to plant coffee at the border of Yunnan's Baoshan and Myanmar because Baoshan has an average temperature of 21.5°C, with a maximum of 40.4°C, and is basically frost-free year-round, making it a recognized optimal region for small-bean coffee cultivation. The small-bean coffee cultivated here is famous at home and abroad for being strong but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, with small and uniform beans, rich mellow aroma, and fruity notes.

This means that even the easy-to-grow Catimor variety coffee beans can exhibit excellent flavor here, let alone the even higher-quality Typica variety coffee beans.

The above is FrontStreet Coffee's compilation of knowledge about how many years Yunnan coffee trees take from planting to bearing fruit and how much coffee one tree can produce annually. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the flavor differences between Yunnan Catimor single-origin coffee beans and Typica single-origin coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Flower-Fruit Mountain Coffee Beans

Country: China
Region: Baoshan, Yunnan
Altitude: 1450-1550m
Variety: Typica
Processing: Washed
Flavor: Citrus, nuts, plum, melon fragrance, brown sugar, black tea sensation

The difference between FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan Flower-Fruit Mountain coffee beans and Yunnan small-bean coffee is that Flower-Fruit Mountain is of Typica variety, while Yunnan small-bean is Catimor. Actually, both varieties can be called small-bean coffee, but because Typica's floral and fruity acidity is more mellow and rich, we specifically named it Flower-Fruit Mountain to distinguish between the two varieties.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee Beans (Daily Coffee)

Country: China
Region: Baoshan, Yunnan
Altitude: 1200m
Variety: Catimor
Processing: Washed
Flavor: Herbal, nutty aroma, chocolate, caramel

Yunnan small-bean coffee refers to the small-bean coffee cultivated in the Yunnan region. Coffee is an evergreen small tree of the Rubiaceae family, native to Africa. Currently, the main coffee plants cultivated as beverage crops are small-bean and medium-bean coffee. The small-bean coffee traditionally cultivated in China's Yunnan specifically refers to a mixed population of Bourbon and Typica variants.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Coffee Bean Pour-Over Recommendations

Because both beans come from Yunnan and are medium-roasted, Frontsteet recommends using a V60 conical dripper. The V60 has a large opening, and its unique spiral rib design allows air to be discharged more easily, thereby improving extraction quality. The mouthfeel might not be as rich, but its high concentration brings out Yunnan coffee's fruity acidity and distinct aroma, which is its major characteristic.

Dripper: V60
Water Temperature: 90-92℃
Ratio: 1:15
Grind Size: Medium-fine, similar to granulated sugar (VARIO 5O: China standard #20 sieve pass rate 57%)

Brewing Method: Segmented extraction.

Use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour with a small circular motion to 124g before segmenting. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 227g and stop. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. Extraction time is 2 minutes (timed from the start of blooming).

Flower-Fruit Mountain brewing flavor description: Strong but not bitter, fragrant but not intense, floral notes, mid-palate shows cantaloupe sweetness, finish with black tea sensation.

Yunnan small-bean brewing flavor description: Smooth entry, Asian herbal plant aroma, lively and bright acidity, mouth-watering on both cheeks, soft acidity with good balance between richness and thickness, rich layers, distinct black chocolate, honey, and cane sugar flavors in the aftertaste, with brown sugar flavors when completely cooled.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on WeChat: ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473