What is typica coffee and how does Yunnan grow it?

Typica coffee reached Yunnan in 1892, when a French missionary brought the first coffee tree to Binchuan County and it was trial-planted successfully. The small fruit led to the name small-grain coffee, and genetic testing later confirmed the earliest Yunnan plants were Typica. Twenty of those original trees still bloom and bear fruit there.

Yunnan coffee grows mainly in Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, Dehong, Nujiang and Xishuangbanna, within the Arabica species of the Coffea genus. Planting expanded during the debt-repayment period, and Nestlé's arrival promoted Catimor, long tying Yunnan beans to instant coffee. Better cultivation and processing have since raised quality.

Yunnan small-grain coffee belongs to the Arabica species of the Coffea genus in the Rubiaceae family, and is mainly produced in Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, Dehong, Nujiang, Xishuangbanna, and other areas. In 1892, a French missionary brought the first coffee tree to Binchuan County for trial planting. Because the fruit was relatively small, it was called small-grain coffee, and later genetic identification confirmed that it originally belonged to the Typica variety. During the debt period, the government encouraged expansion of planting, and after Nestlé entered, it promoted Catimor, which made Yunnan beans long synonymous with instant coffee raw material. In recent years, cultivation and processing have become more scientific, Yunnan beans have improved in quality, and they have been accepted by more markets. Front Street Coffee currently sells 1,200 m Catimor from Lujiangba, Baoshan, and 1,300 m Typica from Lincang. Their flavors each have different emphases. This article also gives V60 brewing parameters and the performance of the two beans.

Yunnan small-grain coffee belongs to the Rubiaceae family, Coffea genus, Arabica species, and is mainly grown in Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, Dehong, Nujiang, Xishuangbanna, and other areas of Yunnan.

The first coffee tree in Yunnan was brought in by a French missionary in 1892 and successfully trial-planted in Binchuan County. Because the coffee fruit of Arabica is relatively small, this coffee variety was recorded at the time as small-grain coffee. Later, plant genetics confirmed that the earliest Yunnan small-grain coffee was the Typica variety.

In present-day Binchuan County, 20 of the coffee trees from that trial planting still bloom and bear fruit, becoming the ancestors of Yunnan coffee . At first, coffee in Yunnan was not widely planted, until the time when China needed to repay debts to Russia, when the government began encouraging farmers to plant large numbers of coffee trees, so during that period coffee began to spread to different regions of Yunnan for cultivation.

However, after the debts were repaid, because there was not much domestic demand for coffee, many farmers cut down coffee trees and planted other crops. But Yunnan has a very good environment for growing coffee trees, not only suitable temperatures and fertile soil, but it is also between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn (known as the coffee golden growing belt), so Nestlé quickly took a fancy to this treasure land of Yunnan.

At the same time, it introduced the Catimor variety, which has higher yield and better resistance to disease and pests. Therefore, for more than 20 years afterward, coffee beans grown in Yunnan were mainly supplied to Nestlé as coffee raw material, so when people mention Yunnan coffee, they always associate it with instant coffee.

However, with Chinese people's love for and pursuit of coffee in recent years, Yunnan coffee beans are no longer instant coffee raw material. Both cultivation and processing have received more scientific improvements, so Yunnan coffee is now gradually accepted by people in other countries and regions, and is also one of the relatively high-grade coffee beans.

Among the Yunnan small-grain coffee beans currently sold by FrontStreet Coffee, there are Catimor variety coffee beans grown at an altitude of 1,200 m in the Lujiangba area of Baoshan, and there are also Typica variety coffee beans that Front Street itself grows at an altitude of 1,300 m in Lincang.

The biggest difference between the two coffee beans is that the Catimor coffee beans from the Baoshan area have a more obvious plum-like acidity, while the Typica coffee beans grown by FrontStreet Coffee have a cleaner mouthfeel and sweetness.

But no matter which Yunnan small-grain coffee bean it is, under FrontStreet Coffee's medium roast, both can express the distinctive flavor of the Yunnan coffee-producing region: plum, nuts, caramel, and a tea-like sensation; the acidity and bitterness are both moderate, and the aroma is rich.

For brewing, the equipment and parameters used by FrontStreet Coffee are as follows: dripper: Hario V60; coffee dose 15 g; water temperature 90°C; grind size: medium-fine grind (80% passing through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve); coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15; staged extraction.

Because the ribs of the V60 dripper are distributed in a curved shape from top to bottom and vary in length, during brewing the release of gases is relatively smooth and the flow rate is also relatively fast. Precisely because of this, the flavor layers of the extracted coffee are more obvious.

Use 30 g of water to bloom for 30 seconds, then pour in a small stream at the center to 125 g in stages. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225 g and stop. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Start timing from the beginning of blooming.) The extraction time is minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee Yunnan Typica flavor performance: the dry aroma has a faint caramel and nutty aroma; when drunk, the main note is plum-like, with brown sugar sweetness and slight fruit acidity, and the finish carries some black tea tea-like sensation. The overall flavor layers are relatively rich, and the mouthfeel is clean.

Yunnan Baoshan fully red fruit sun-dried Catimor flavor performance: the dry aroma has a faint fermented aroma and the smell of roasted nuts; when drunk, the main note is plum-like, with the sweetness of roasted nuts and caramel, and the finish carries some fermented tea sensation. The overall flavor is rich, and the mouthfeel is solid.

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