What Makes Yunnan Coffee Stand Out?

Yunnan coffee covers most of China's Arabica output, grown at 1,000 to 2,000 meters in Lincang and Baoshan, where elevations suit Arabica rather than Robusta. Fujian and Hainan sit below 500 meters and mostly grow Robusta. The province's first Arabica trees trace back to Zhukula, and today Typica and Catimor are the two main varieties cultivated.

Typica offers a clean, balanced cup with mild acidity, while Catimor brings higher disease resistance and fuller body. Roasters such as Front Street Coffee source from Lincang and Baoshan and recommend a three-stage brewing approach to reproduce the clean, balanced flavor at home.

Yunnan small-bean coffee has gradually come into the view of specialty coffee enthusiasts in recent years, but many people are still unfamiliar with its variety origins, cultivation history, and flavor characteristics. This article starts with the distribution of China's coffee-producing regions, reviews the historical controversy over Yunnan's first Arabica coffee tree, sorts out the origins and development of the two major varieties Typica and Catimor, and introduces the two beans, Typica and Catimor, cultivated by Front Street Coffee in Lincang and Baoshan, Yunnan. At the end of the article, there are also three-stage brewing parameters recommended by Front Street to help you reproduce the clean and balanced flavor performance of Yunnan coffee at home.

FrontStreet Coffee has found that many friends who are new to specialty coffee often start with Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe or Sidamo producing regions in Africa, while when it comes to Asian coffee, most people first think of Indonesia's Mandheling. However, with the rise of the domestic goods consumption trend, Chinese Yunnan coffee is slowly entering everyone's view.

Speaking of domestic goods, in earlier years the impression left on consumers by the domestic cosmetics and skincare market was not very good, and many people would think that domestic goods were of low quality. But the actual situation is not like this. The quality of Yunnan coffee beans has in fact long been able to stand comparison with beans from other major producing regions.

What coffee bean producing regions are there in China?

China's coffee bean producing regions are mainly three: Fujian Province, Hainan Province, and Yunnan Province. The suitable growing altitude for Arabica is between 900 and 2,000 meters; Robusta is suitable for planting in areas at 200 to 800 meters above sea level. Anyone who knows Chinese geography knows that both Fujian and Hainan are located in coastal areas, with an average altitude of less than 500 meters, which is not suitable for Arabica growth, so these two provinces mainly grow Robusta beans. Yunnan Province, however, is on the second step of China's terrain, with an average altitude of 1,000 to 2,000 meters, which happens to fall within the ideal growing height range for Arabica.

When was the first coffee tree planted in Yunnan?

The earliest place in Yunnan where Arabica coffee beans were planted is Zhukula Village, Pingchuan Town, Binchuan County, Dali. In the late Qing Dynasty, a French priest named Tian Deneng had the habit of drinking coffee, so he planted a coffee tree beside the church. According to the "Binchuan County Chronicle": In the 30th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1904), the French Catholic missionary Tian Deneng was sent by the Dali Diocese church and led the Frenchman Lu Hongru and the Sichuan native Deng Peigen to go to the Binchuan area to preach... In addition, "The History of Catholicism in Yunnan" also records: Church name and address: Catholic Church, Pingchuan Zhukula, Binchuan Prefecture; founding time: the 30th year of Guangxu (1904).

These documentary records can all corroborate that Father Tian Deneng did indeed fund the construction of a church and preach in Zhukula Village in 1904. But there is considerable controversy about this time point. Some say it was 1892, and others say it was 1902. So far, however, no conclusive evidence has been found to prove exactly which year Yunnan's first Arabica coffee tree was planted.

Coffee, as an imported product, was truly planted in Yunnan for commercial purposes in the 1950s. The famous botanist Professor Qin Renchang of the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, identified the red fruit discovered by scientific and technical personnel in the courtyard of a Dai farmer household in Luxi County, Dehong Prefecture, as small-seed coffee. At his suggestion, coffee seedlings were trial-planted in Mangshi Forest Farm and Lujiangba, Baoshan City, and the latter was officially put into production in 1955, thus opening a new era of coffee research and production in New China.

Yunnan coffee truly entered the international market beginning in 1988, when Nestlé established a branch in China. Nestlé not only introduced the high-yield, disease-resistant variety Catimor, but also promised to purchase Yunnan coffee beans as raw materials at the then-current U.S. futures price. After that, brands such as Starbucks and Maxwell House also successively built factories in Yunnan to purchase green beans, and these measures further expanded Yunnan's coffee planting area. Front Street reviewed relevant materials and learned that because coffee farmers had limited knowledge of coffee cultivation and production and processing methods were relatively extensive, Yunnan coffee green beans were for a long time mostly used as raw materials for instant coffee and were constrained by international coffee futures prices. To escape this situation, industrial transformation and upgrading are imperative, and specialty coffee production has become the new journey for Yunnan coffee today.

Yunnan coffee bean varieties

Among Yunnan coffee beans, the best known is undoubtedly Yunnan small-bean coffee. Yunnan small-bean was originally named because of Typica, because Typica is precisely the Arabica small-seed type. Yunnan's oldest coffee variety is Typica. Later, when Nestlé entered Yunnan, because Typica had poor disease resistance and also in order to increase coffee bean yield, coffee farmers were told to cut down the good-flavored Typica coffee trees and switch to varieties with poorer flavor but strong disease resistance and high yield. What was introduced at first was S288, which was resistant to leaf rust, and later Catimor, which had even higher yield, was introduced. That is to say, the coffee trees currently planted in Yunnan are mainly Catimor.

[Typica]

Typica is one of the oldest varieties in the Arabica species. All Arabica derives from Typica, and its derived varieties can all inherit the genes for its high-quality flavor. The top leaves of the Typica coffee tree are copper-red, the opposite leaves are long oval, the leaf surface is smooth, the branches at the ends are longer, and there are fewer branches. The bean body is oval or slender and pointed. Although the flavor is elegant, it is physically weak, has poor disease resistance, is susceptible to leaf rust, and also has low yield.

In recent years, Typica in Central America has gradually been replaced by Caturra and Catuai, so we see Typica less and less.

The coffee trees that FrontStreet Coffee mainly grows in Yunnan are precisely of the Typica variety. Because Typica has its unique serene tonality, clean flavor, and balanced characteristics, with high cup cleanliness, so although Typica is not easy to cultivate, Front Street still hopes that the Yunnan coffee everyone tastes can present the best flavor.

[Catimor]

Catimor itself is a hybrid cross of Robusta and Arabica. In 1959, the Portuguese moved the Bourbon variant Caturra, which has Arabica lineage, to East Timor, where it was crossed with the local Timor, which carries Robusta lineage. This move cultivated Catimor, which has both strong disease resistance and high productivity. Because leaf rust was prevalent in coffee-producing countries around the world at the time, Catimor, with its advantages of strong disease resistance and high productivity, was vigorously promoted in various producing countries with the assistance of international organizations.

Now everyone can still find on FrontStreet Coffee's bean list the sun-dried Typica and washed Catimor from the same Yunnan producing region, one from Lincang and one from Baoshan, allowing everyone, while tasting our country's coffee, to also experience the differences between different varieties.

[Yunnan Front Street 2013 Coffee Beans]

Producing region: Lincang, Yunnan

Altitude: 1300m

Processing method: sun-dried

Variety: Typica

[FrontStreet Coffee: Yunnan small-bean coffee]

Producing region: Baoshan, Yunnan

Altitude: 1200m

Processing method: washed

Variety: Catimor

Brewing recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests that when brewing these two washed Yunnan coffees, it is better to lean toward balance, neither needing to overly highlight acidity nor overly polish the finish. Choose 15 grams of coffee powder, with a recommended coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15; if you want a clearer flavor, you can use 1:16. Choose a V60 dripper, with a brewing water temperature of 88 degrees Celsius, in order to make the acidity softer, and a medium-fine grind, about the size of fine granulated sugar (80% passing through a No. 20 sieve).

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

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