How Did Yunnan Coffee Become China's Main Producing Region?

Yunnan is China's main coffee-producing province, and Catimor is now its most widely planted variety. Yunnan coffee began in 1904, when a French missionary planted the first Arabica tree in Zhukula Village, Binchuan, giving the region more than a century of growing history. Catimor, hybridized from Timor and Caturra, combines disease resistance and high yield with a flavor that remains debated.

The history of coffee in China is short compared with tea. Tea culture was already established when Lu Yu wrote The Classic of Tea in 780 AD, while the coffee tree only arrived in the late 19th century. The word coffee appeared in Chinese records in the 1840 Sizhou Zhi, and China's first coffeehouse opened in Guangzhou in 1836, so commercial coffee growing in Yunnan is a more recent development.

Yunnan Province, as China's main coffee-producing region, has always attracted attention for its variety turnover and flavor performance. Since 1904, when a French missionary planted the first Arabica coffee tree in Zhukula Village, Binchuan, Yunnan coffee has gone through more than a hundred years of history. Today, Catimor has become the most widely planted variety in Yunnan. It was hybridized from Timor and Caturra, combining disease resistance and high yield with controversial flavor. This article will sort out the historical context of Chinese coffee and the distribution of Yunnan's producing areas, focusing on Catimor's breeding background, plant characteristics, and cupping performance, and will also include two Yunnan beans recommended by Front Street Coffee and three-stage brewing parameters, helping enthusiasts fully understand Yunnan coffee's past and present.

History of Coffee in China

With the help of modern scientific and technological methods, we know that tea leaves contain caffeine. This seems to mean that Chinese people had already begun consuming caffeinated beverages more than 1,300 years ago. In 780 AD, Lu Yu, the Sage of Tea, wrote The Classic of Tea, which further opened up China's tea art culture that stood alone in the world. However, it was not until the late 19th century that another caffeine-containing crop—the coffee tree—was introduced to China. In other words, China's coffee history is only a short span of more than two hundred years.

The earliest Chinese-language documentary record of the word "coffee" can be traced back to the Sizhou Zhi, compiled under the leadership of Lin Zexu, a national hero of the late Qing Dynasty, in 1840. The book mentions that Yemen exported coffee as a local product, while the "Yunaishidie Guo" (that is, the United States) was an importing country. Interestingly, China's history of coffee consumption predates the Sizhou Zhi. In 1836, Li Dou, a Qing Dynasty dramatist, recorded in Yangzhou Huafang Lu that Danes opened China's first coffeehouse near the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou, then called the "Black House." The Jiaqing-era Guangdong Tongzhi also wrote: "Black wine, which foreign devils drink after meals, saying this wine can aid digestion."

The "black wine" mentioned above was exactly what coffee was called at the time. This imported product, coffee, had far more than just one name as "black wine" at the time. Because there was no unified translation, various written records now appear quite interesting: jiafei, jiafei, jiafei, kefei, kaofei, qiefei, gaofei, and so on.

By the period of the Republic of China, more and more Chinese people had developed the habit of drinking coffee, especially in the earliest batch of treaty ports, such as Shanghai. Today, the number of coffeehouses in Shanghai still ranks first in the country. At that time, however, coffeehouses existed more as gathering places. Mr. Lu Xun, the author of "Young Runtu" in our elementary school Chinese textbook, very much liked going to the Gongfei Coffeehouse at No. 998 Sichuan North Road in Shanghai. What he fell in love with was not coffee itself, but the atmosphere of the coffeehouse.

In recent years, China has also been catching up with the third wave of coffee. More and more enthusiasts have begun discussing coffee bean growing regions, varieties, roasting, and extraction methods. And Front Street Coffee has also been accompanying everyone on this path, popularizing the story behind every bean and every producing area, as well as how we handle them.

History of Coffee Cultivation in Yunnan

The Binchuan County Chronicle records: "In the 30th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1904), the French Catholic missionary Tian Deneng, dispatched by the church of the Dali diocese, brought the Frenchman Lu Hongru and the Sichuan native Deng Peigen to the Binchuan area to preach..." In 1904, French priest Tian Deneng was ordered by the Dali church to go to Zhukula Village, Pingchuan Town, Binchuan County, present-day Dali, to build a church and preach. Father Tian Deneng had the habit of drinking coffee, so he introduced an Arabica coffee tree and planted it beside the church.

Some say that Arabica coffee tree was introduced from Vietnam, but there is really no way to verify it. Some say the tree was planted in 1892; others say it was 1902. Among them, The History of Catholicism in Yunnan records: "Church name and address: Catholic Church, Pingchuan Zhukula, Binchuan Prefecture. Founding time: the 30th year of Guangxu (1904)." These documents all prove that Father Tian Deneng indeed first appeared in Binchuan Prefecture in 1904 and funded the construction of a church in Zhukula. This period of history is quite controversial, but it still never explains exactly which year the Arabica coffee tree was planted in Yunnan.

Yunnan Coffee Producing Areas

When it comes to China's coffee-growing regions, they can be divided into three producing areas and two parts. The first part is the coastal provinces of Fujian and Hainan. Because these two provinces have low average elevations and relatively high temperatures, they are not suitable for growing Arabica beans, so both of these producing areas grow Robusta beans. As for Yunnan, most areas have elevations of 1,000-2,000 meters. The terrain is mainly mountainous and sloping, with great topographical variation, fertile soil, abundant sunshine, ample rainfall, and large temperature differences between day and night. These are all ideal growing conditions for Arabica beans.

Yunnan's coffee-producing areas are mostly concentrated in the west and south, mainly distributed across Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, Dehong, Nujiang, Xishuangbanna, and other places. These places have the innate conditions of low latitude, high altitude, and no frost, making them more suitable for coffee tree growth. In Yunnan, coffee is generally planted among higher-altitude hillsides. The rolling hills, fertile soil, ample sunshine, and concentrated rainfall brought by the rainy season allow coffee trees to quickly integrate into the local terroir.

Yunnan Coffee Bean Varieties

When talking about Yunnan coffee, Front Street cannot fail to mention Yunnan small bean. Yunnan small bean was originally named because of Typica, and Typica is the small-bean Arabica type. Yunnan's oldest variety is Typica, but because Typica has poor disease resistance, in order to increase production, coffee farmers began cutting down good-quality coffee trees with decent flavor and switched to higher-yielding varieties. In the early stage, S288, which is resistant to leaf rust, was introduced, and later Catimor, which has even higher yield, was introduced. Today, you can see two beans from Yunnan on Front Street Coffee's bean list. One is Front Street 2013 of the Typica variety; the other is Yunnan small bean of the Catimor variety.

[Front Street Coffee: Front Street 2013 Yunnan Small Bean Typica]

Producing area: Lincang, Yunnan

Altitude: 1,200 meters

Processing method: Natural

Variety: Typica

Flavor: Nuts, brown sugar, chocolate, dried apricot, tea-like

[Front Street Coffee: Yunnan Small Bean]

Producing area: Baoshan, Yunnan

Altitude: 1,200 meters

Processing method: Washed

Variety: Catimor

Catimor

Catimor comes from a cross between Timor and Caturra. In 1959, it was developed by CIFC, the Portuguese Coffee Leaf Rust Research Center, with research directions of disease resistance and high yield. Catimor coffee beans are characterized by high yield, short plants, suitability for dense planting, and reddish-brown new leaves. The Robusta genes inherited from Timor enable Catimor to better resist coffee berry disease and coffee leaf rust, and also give it stronger resistance to pests and diseases, but because of this it is often criticized for its performance in the cup. Catimor coffee beans are characterized by fast fruit maturation and high yield, and require sufficient fertilizer supply and shade.

Catimor coffee beans were initially developed in the 1950s and began to be promoted in Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. With disease resistance and high yield, it secured a place among coffee varieties in Central and South America. The recurring coffee leaf rust crises in Central and South America also helped drive the adoption of Catimor. Unfortunately, because Timor (also known as Arabusta) is the product of a natural cross between Arabica and Robusta, although the latter can give it disease resistance, the delicate mouthfeel of Arabica varieties is also lost as a result.

Catimor CIFC7963 (F6) has been promoted and planted on a large scale in Yunnan's coffee-growing areas such as Dehong, Baoshan, Pu'er, Xishuangbanna, Lincang, Wenshan, and Yuxi, and has also been promoted and planted in Panzhihua, Sichuan, and neighboring Myanmar, with a total promoted area of more than 200,000 mu.

Brewing Suggestions

When Front Street Coffee recommends brewing these two Yunnan coffees, it leans more toward balance: there is no need to overly highlight acidity, nor to excessively modify the finish. Choose 15 grams of coffee powder, and a recommended coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15. If you want a clearer flavor, use 1:16. Choose a Kono dripper, with a brewing water temperature of 88°C, in order to make the acidity softer, and use a medium-fine grind / fine sugar size (80% passing through a No. 20 sieve).

Use three-stage extraction: bloom with 30 grams of water for 30 seconds, then pour in a small circular stream until reaching 125 grams for the stage break. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until 225 grams and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. (Start timing from the beginning of blooming.) The extraction time is 2'00".

Flavor: In Huaguoshan Typica coffee beans, you can taste obvious roasted nuts, soft acidity, an overall balanced and rich profile, solid dark chocolate aroma, and slight orange peel. In small-bean Catimor coffee, you can taste nutty aroma, herbs, chocolate, caramel, with a faint fruity acidity in the aftertaste.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of Front Street Coffee. WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.