Is Yunnan Coffee Specialty Grade Arabica?

Yunnan coffee provokes sharply split opinions because both views are grounded in real lots. Older plantings, largely Catimor, are often described as earthy and gamey, while newer anaerobic natural lots draw praise for sweetness and aroma. Yunnan is the only province in China growing Arabica, and Arabica beans there are also called small-bean coffee, as opposed to the Robusta grown in Hainan.

The variety history explains the range. Typica, a recognized specialty variety with strong flavor potential, was planted in Zhugula Village in 1904 by a French missionary and spread further in the 1930s and again in the 1950s and 1960s. Catimor later took over much of the acreage for its disease resistance, and its cup profile is what shaped the earthy reputation, which processing improvements are now working against.

Yunnan is the only province in China that grows Arabica coffee, yet in recent years opinions about it have been sharply divided: some find it heavy with an earthy, gamey note, while others who have tried anaerobic natural lots praise it as sweet and aromatic. Behind this disagreement lies a history of variety introduction and industrial change. This article begins with the origin of the name "small-bean coffee" and traces how varieties such as Typica and Catimor have shaped the flavor direction of Yunnan coffee, analyzes how far Yunnan coffee still is from specialty-grade quality, and introduces how Front Street presents the character of Baoshan washed Catimor in its everyday beans and espresso blends.

"How exactly is Yunnan coffee developing right now?" This is probably a topic many coffee lovers are following. When Front Street is in the shop, we also often meet friends who have become interested in Front Street's Yunnan coffee beans.

As China's domestic coffee consumption market keeps expanding, Yunnan, as the only province in China growing Arabica coffee, has naturally become a focus of discussion. "The Ethiopian coffee I drink is so good, so why does Yunnan coffee always carry an earthy, gamey note?" "Yunnan beans taste great now—the anaerobic natural lot I drank last week was sweet and aromatic." Today, the two opposite views "Yunnan coffee isn't good" and "Yunnan coffee is quite good now" exist at the same time. To understand this disagreement, we need to look back at the road Yunnan coffee has traveled.

Yunnan small-bean coffee ?

Some may wonder why coffee produced in Yunnan is called small-bean coffee. In fact, small-bean coffee is another name for Arabica coffee beans—because Hainan in China also grows another kind of coffee, namely Robusta, which is also called medium-bean coffee or Robusta beans. Generally speaking, Arabica performs better in flavor than Robusta.

In 1904, a French missionary planted Typica coffee trees in Zhugula Village, which is the earliest written record of coffee cultivation in Yunnan. Later, in the 1930s, the overseas Chinese Liang Jinshan took the lead in promoting Typica cultivation in Yunnan, and in the 1950s and 1960s, the planting scale went through another round of expansion.

Typica's flavor performance is quite outstanding, and it is recognized in the industry as a specialty coffee variety, but its drawbacks are also obvious: low yield, susceptibility to coffee leaf rust, and the need for more labor in management. When international coffee prices decline, the income of Yunnan coffee farmers shrinks noticeably, their willingness to grow coffee weakens, and they switch to other cash crops. When Front Street visited Yunnan in 2013 for field research, we saw that in many places coffee trees were in a semi-wild state, left to fend for themselves and compete naturally.

What truly rekindled the enthusiasm of Yunnan coffee farmers was the entry of Nestlé. As the largest coffee seller at the time, Nestlé, while opening up the Chinese market, also funded and supported Yunnan's coffee-growing industry.

In 1988, Nestlé supported the development of Yunnan's coffee agriculture, introduced Catimor 7963 from the Portuguese Coffee Rust Research Center (CIFC), and selected and bred it at the Dehong Tropical Agriculture Research Institute, first conducting trial plantings in Hainan, Baoshan's Lujiangba, and Ruili.

In 1991, Nestlé introduced Catimor P1, P2, P3, and P4 from CIFC for trial planting, where P stands for Population. Among them, P4 had the highest yield, and then in 1994 the P series began to be promoted for planting in Pu'er, with P4 accounting for the majority. Later, after expert investigation, it was found that Catimor P1, P2, P3, and P4 were respectively 7960, 7961, 7962, and 7963.

T5175 and T8667 were introduced by Nestlé from Central America in 1994. These two lines were first trial-planted in Pu'er, and both had lower yields than 7963.

After Nestlé vigorously developed coffee agriculture in Yunnan, 99% of Yunnan's coffee was of the Catimor variety, which is what we now commonly call Yunnan small-bean. These coffee beans were originally purchased by Nestlé as raw material for making instant coffee, so the requirements for flavor were not high.

Why is it said that Yunnan coffee beans taste very devilish, with woody and earthy, gamey notes? Part of the reason lies in Catimor. The Catimor coffee plant has four times the chromosomes and belongs to the Arabica species, but its lineage is not pure—it carries one quarter Robusta genes. Having inherited Robusta genes, Catimor has higher yield, stronger resistance to disease and pests, and stronger environmental adaptability, but its flavor is worse. Therefore, Yunnan small-bean coffee has always been positioned as raw material for instant coffee or for coffee blends.

In recent years, as China's specialty coffee market has continued to grow, more people have paid attention to Yunnan coffee, and some have wondered: can Yunnan produce specialty coffee? As a result, many coffee professionals began to devote themselves to building up Yunnan origins. At present, there are two paths to improving Yunnan coffee's undesirable flavors. One is a short-term route, using post-processing methods to suppress the bad flavors, such as the currently popular anaerobic and enzyme treatments. The other is a long-term route, returning to agriculture itself and working hard on cultivation and varieties. If Catimor's flavor is not good enough, then switch to varieties with excellent flavor, such as Typica, Bourbon, Geisha, and so on. In fact, Yunnan has all these varieties, but the planting scale is still very small and they are at an exploratory stage, far from enough to shake Catimor's dominant position in Yunnan, and also hard to reverse outsiders' flavor impression of Yunnan coffee. Yunnan coffee is indeed getting better and better, but it must also be admitted that the improvement cycle in agriculture is as short as five years and as long as ten, and there are still many links that need time to be polished.

Front Street has always believed that the coffee beans of a place, whether more acidic or more bitter, carry the flavor personality of that origin. Yunnan currently mainly grows Catimor small-bean coffee, so small-bean coffee is the most typical representative of Yunnan coffee's flavor. The Yunnan coffee selected in Front Street's everyday bean series is precisely Baoshan washed Catimor. Baoshan is a producing area with a long history of coffee cultivation in Yunnan, and its cultivation standard ranks among the excellent, while washed processing best showcases the flavor characteristics of a place's coffee beans.

Front Street Everyday Bean Series Yunnan Small-Bean Coffee Beans

Origin: Baoshan, Yunnan, China

Altitude: 1,200 meters

Processing method: Washed

Variety: Catimor

In addition to single-origin pour-over coffee beans, Front Street has also launched a Yunnan-flavored espresso blend, combining Yunnan small-bean with Brazil Red Bourbon, using a medium-dark roast to create a Front Street Black Cocoa Base Blend born specifically for coffee machines and moka pots, with flavors of nuts, chocolate, and cream, moderate crema, and a soft mouthfeel, suitable for making all kinds of fancy coffee.

If you want to taste this coffee bean at its best, Front Street recommends brewing with freshly roasted coffee beans, so you can experience the coffee's rich flavors to the greatest extent. The coffee beans shipped by Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are all within 5 days of the roast date, because Front Street deeply understands that the freshness of coffee beans has a great impact on flavor. Front Street's roasting principle is "freshly roasted good coffee," so that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee. The resting period for coffee is about 4-7 days, so when the customer receives it, it is exactly at its best flavor.

Brewing parameters

Dripper: Hario V60

Water temperature: 90°C

Dose: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: 75% passing a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve

Pour 30 grams of water and bloom for 30 seconds, then pour from the center with a thin stream and slowly spiral out to 125 grams; when the water level in the dripper drops to just about to expose the coffee bed, continue spiral pouring to 225 grams; total extraction time is about 2 minutes.

Front Street Yunnan small-bean coffee flavor: melon and fruit aromatics, sweet melon, brown sugar, plum acidity, black tea sensation.

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