What Sets Baoshan Lujiang Yunnan Coffee Apart

Lujiang Township in Baoshan, Yunnan, is known as China's No. 1 Coffee Village, and its small-bean coffee has won a world gold award. The Third Baoshan Coffee Culture Festival, held from November 23 to 25 in Xinzhai Village, used competition-level standards for picking, pour-over extraction and cupping, with local farmers and international teams taking part.

The gap is not variety or quality but method. Dong Zuliang of the China Coffee Engineering Research Center noted that without a systematic standard for picking, pulping and drying, high-end processors struggle to buy beans of stable quality, and farmers sell mixed lots at low prices. Building specialty coffee standards on the farm is the proposed fix.

Baoshan's Lujiang Township in Yunnan is known as China's No. 1 Coffee Village, and the small-bean coffee produced here has won a world gold award. This article takes the Third Baoshan Coffee Culture Festival as its starting point to introduce the variety advantages, growing environment, and historical honors of Baoshan small-bean coffee, analyze the pain points in picking and processing faced by coffee farmers, and recommend worthwhile Front Street brand products, offering coffee lovers a professional reference for choosing Yunnan coffee.

The Third Baoshan Coffee Culture Festival was held from November 23 to 25 this year in Xinzhai Village, Lujiang Township, Gaoligong Mountain Tourism Resort, which is known as China's No. 1 Coffee Village. The event covered coffee bean picking, pour-over extraction, cupping and tasting, and other activities, all using the professional standards of world competitions. Among the participants were local farmers as well as overseas coffee experts, the Evergreen International Team, and the Shenzhen Women's Team.

Dong Zuliang, senior consultant of the China Coffee Engineering Research Center, pointed out in an interview at the picking competition site that in order to let Chinese people taste the best local coffee, Baoshan Lujiang has already cultivated top domestic coffee beans. However, because a systematic standard system for picking, pulping, and drying has not yet been established, high-end coffee processing enterprises find it difficult to purchase good beans of stable quality, and coffee farmers, lacking standards, can only sell mixed lots, causing prices to remain low for a long time and hindering the upgrading of the coffee industry.

Dong Zuliang also mentioned that before being picked, coffee beans are merely sweet fruit, and this competition can help ordinary people understand what kind of coffee beans count as high quality.

At the "Drink Chinese Coffee" international expert forum, Dong Zuliang further stated that the coffee varieties and quality in Lujiang Township are by no means inferior, and the real shortcoming lies in planting and processing techniques and modern business models. He suggested that local governments broaden their thinking, actively introduce advanced concepts and technical support, guide coffee farmers to change traditional ideas and improve production methods, and go all out to build specialty coffee. Only when all measures are fully implemented can farmers rely on coffee to live more prosperous lives.

Wang Dayong, a coffee expert and judge from Shenzhen, shared at the picking competition site: "Here we have China's best coffee variety — small-bean coffee — as well as exceptional climate and soil conditions. A good cup of coffee is not only grown, but also picked. Even if it grows well on the tree, if it is picked improperly, it cannot be considered good coffee. One rotten bean, moldy bean, or raw bean is enough to affect the overall quality."

[The Gold Award Path of Small-Bean Coffee]

In April 2016, Premier Li Keqiang tasted "Baoshan small-bean coffee" during a night visit to Kuanzhai Alley in Chengdu, spoke highly of it, and specifically instructed that Chinese coffee should be promoted to the international market.

The growing area for "Baoshan small-bean coffee" is mainly distributed on the west bank of the Nujiang Grand Canyon and the eastern slope of Gaoligong Mountain at elevations of 800 to 1,300 meters, with a small amount planted above 1,300 meters. The main cultivated variety at present is Catimor, along with a small amount of Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, and other varieties.

As early as the late 1950s, "Baoshan small-bean coffee" entered the London market in the United Kingdom, was rated as first-grade, and was given the title "Lujiang No. 1." In 1980, four central ministries and one agency held the National Coffee Work Conference in Baoshan, giving new life to this coffee, which had been planted since the early days of New China.

At the 1980 National Coffee Conference, it was recognized as "the crown of national coffee."

In October 1992, Baoshan small-bean coffee won the Silver Award at the China Agricultural Expo.

In 1993, at the World Coffee Evaluation Conference held in Brussels, Belgium, it won the "Eureka" Gold Award.

In December 2010, after review by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, it was decided to implement national geographical indication product protection for "Baoshan small-bean coffee."

For consumers who want to taste authentic Baoshan small-bean coffee, the Front Street brand offers a variety of selected products. Its coffee beans all come from high-quality production areas in Lujiang Township and use fine picking and processing techniques, presenting a typical flavor interwoven with nuts, caramel, and soft fruit acidity. They are suitable for pour-over, espresso, and various other extraction methods, making them a reliable choice for experiencing the charm of Yunnan coffee.

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