How does a coffee grading system shape Yunnan coffee?

Yunnan coffee is Arabica, and its producers and buyers rely on a five-tier standard that sorts beans by screen size, color, cleanliness, odor and moisture content, plus a newer system launched by YCE in 2019. That combination decides whether a lot is treated as ordinary commercial green coffee or moves toward specialty recognition.

Cultivation began in 1904, when a French missionary planted the first tree in Binchuan, and commercial growing took off after seeds were brought from Myanmar in 1937. Nestle's 1988 entry introduced the high-yield, disease-resistant Catimor variety, which still shapes much of Yunnan coffee's neutral, mellow cup.

Yunnan coffee, as a representative of China's domestic coffee, has attracted much attention in recent years, but does it really count as specialty coffee? This article starts from Front Street's perspective, tracing the development of Yunnan coffee from its introduction in 1904 to the present, analyzing the impact of the Catimor variety on flavor, detailing Yunnan coffee's five-tier standard based on screen size, color, cleanliness, odor, and moisture content, and introducing the new grading system launched by YCE in 2019. At the same time, Front Street recommends washed Yunnan small-bean coffee and a sun-dried bean named after the brand, "Front Street 2013," along with pour-over parameter suggestions, taking you to experience Yunnan coffee's neutral flavor profile—both acidity and a rich, mellow bitterness.

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As coffee beans produced in our own country, Front Street believes Yunnan coffee is very much worth trying, so Front Street has also added washed Yunnan small-bean coffee to its everyday-bean series so everyone can taste the flavor of the region. Some friends have also asked Front Street whether Yunnan coffee actually belongs to specialty coffee. This question requires Front Street to start from the development of Yunnan coffee.

Yunnan Coffee in the Past

Yunnan coffee is also called Yunnan small-bean because the coffee grown in Yunnan is Arabica, belonging to small-bean coffee varieties, which distinguishes it from the medium-bean Robusta coffee grown in Hainan.

Since 1904, when French missionary Tian Deneng introduced the first coffee tree in Zhugula Village, Binchuan, Yunnan, the cultivation of Yunnan coffee began. Planting truly for commercial purposes began in 1937, when patriotic overseas Chinese Liang Jinshan brought coffee seeds back from Myanmar and started raising seedlings near Lujiangba in Baoshan. By 1952, after the founding of New China, under the leadership of expert Ma Guojin from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, large-scale coffee cultivation was officially developed, and the coffee produced was used to supply the Soviet Union.

Yunnan coffee truly entered the international market beginning in 1988, when Nestlé established a branch in China. It not only introduced the high-yield, disease-resistant Catimor variety, but also promised to purchase Yunnan coffee beans as raw materials at the then-current U.S. futures price. Subsequently, brands such as Starbucks and Maxwell also successively built factories in Yunnan to purchase green beans. These measures further expanded Yunnan's coffee planting area and also increased the enthusiasm of coffee farmers.

The Current State of Yunnan Coffee

Under Nestlé's commercial influence, the vast majority of coffee varieties grown in Yunnan are mainly Catimor. Catimor is a hybrid of Caturra and Timor, carrying 1/4 Robusta genes, which improves the coffee's disease resistance and ensures yield, but its flavor is not as good as pure Arabica varieties. In addition, farmers habitually use rough green bean processing methods, so the coffee quality produced is not high, and more of it flows to the bulk commodity market as raw material for instant coffee or cheap blends. So when we compare Yunnan coffee beans with already very mature Ethiopian coffee, Panamanian coffee, and others, there will of course be a certain gap.

Of course, Yunnan also has specialty coffee beans with better flavor, but they account for only a very small portion of Yunnan coffee beans. Therefore, returning to Front Street's question above, Yunnan certainly has specialty coffee, but not all of it belongs to the specialty grade. Overall, to catch up with the international specialty coffee level, coffee people still need to work hard.

Yunnan Coffee's Grading System

Compared with other mature coffee-producing regions, Yunnan's coffee grading system is still not complete enough. Commonly used standards for classification include screen size, color, cleanliness, odor, and moisture content.

According to screen openings of 6.5, 6.0, 5.5, and 5.0 mm, it is divided into five grades:

Grade 1: above 6.5 mm, plump and intact beans

Grade 2: 6.0-6.4 mm, plump, relatively uniform

Grade 3: 5.3-5.9 mm, relatively plump, slightly less uniform

Grade 4: 5.0-5.4 mm, contains incomplete beans, with intact beans accounting for more than 75%

Grade 5: below 5.0 mm, contains incomplete beans, with intact beans accounting for more than 30%

Color: glossy, light blue, light green, and light white are good. Blackish brown and dark orange are inferior:

Grade 1: light blue, light green, light white, light yellow, uniform in color

Grade 2: light blue, light green, light white, light yellow, slightly poorer in color

Grade 3: light blue, light green, light white, light yellow, even poorer in color

Grade 4: slightly yellow, a small amount of brown

Grade 5: mottled color

Cleanliness: containing no impurities or only a small amount of impurities is good:

Grade 1: more than 70% silver skin removed, no impurities

Grade 2: more than 65% silver skin removed, no impurities

Grade 3: more than 60% silver skin removed, no impurities

Odor: fermentation and spoilage, light red and brown indicate sourness, and sour odor or other off-flavors are bad.

Moisture: moisture content not exceeding 12%.

In order to maximize the interests of the broad community of coffee farmers and coffee enterprises, and to further enhance Yunnan coffee's voice and competitiveness in the international market, Pu'er City established the Yunnan International Coffee Exchange (YCE). In 2019, YCE combined the systems of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) to plan a new grading system for traditionally washed Yunnan small-bean coffee, and coffee farmers all grade and quote prices according to this standard.

Recommended Yunnan Small-Bean Specialty Coffee

If we want Yunnan coffee to continue to progress and develop, coffee people first need to understand the basic flavor of Yunnan coffee in order to help improve coffee quality. Therefore, Front Street specifically selected washed Yunnan small-bean coffee as the representative face of Yunnan. Front Street believes that in the washed processing steps, the mucilage layer is completely removed from the green coffee beans before drying, making the cup profile highlight the coffee's own aroma more, which is what we call the "taste of Yunnan."

On Front Street's bean list, in the Yunnan coffee section, there is also a sun-dried coffee bean named after us, "Front Street 2013." Among them, Front Street had already devoted itself to the Yunnan producing region many years ago, began growing coffee in Lincang, Yunnan, in 2013, and also selected an ancient, pure Arabica variety—Typica. Because Typica is weak and has poor disease resistance, requiring a great deal of care in management, the first harvest finally came in 2020, using sun-dried processing.

Front Street believes that the flavor profile of Yunnan coffee should be neutral, that is, it has both acidity and a rich, mellow bitterness. Therefore, for the roast level, Front Street chose a medium roast. Through cupping, this Front Street 2013 coffee bean presents the aromas of plum, dried fruit, chocolate, and nuts, with various flavors appropriately integrated.

Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) Pour-Over Suggestions

Dripper: hario v60

Dose: 15g

Water temperature: 90°C

Grind size: 75% passing a No. 20 sieve

Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

Three-stage pouring: Wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds, forming a dome and letting it bloom for 30s, then pour in a thin stream in circles from the inside out until 125g, pause, wait for the coffee bed to drop to half the height of the dripper, continue pouring the third stage in the same thin stream until 225g, and once all the coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper. The time is about 2 minutes.

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