Front Street Coffee has learned that most people, when first getting into specialty coffee, start with Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe or Sidamo regions in Africa, and when it comes to Asian coffee, most people first think of Indonesia's Mandheling coffee beans. But with the rise of the domestic goods trend, Chinese Yunnan coffee has gradually come into everyone's view.What coffee bean producing regions are there in China?When it comes to China's coffee bean producing regions, there are mainly three: Fujian Province, Hainan Province, and Yunnan Province. Arabica is grown at altitudes of 900 to 2000 meters; Robusta is grown at altitudes of 200 to 800 meters. Those familiar with China's geography know that Fujian and Hainan are both coastal regions with an average altitude below 500 meters, which is not the ideal growing altitude for Arabica, so these two provinces mainly grow Robusta beans. Yunnan Province, located on the second topographic step, has an average altitude of 1000 to 2000 meters, making it an ideal growing altitude for Arabica. When was the first coffee tree planted in Yunnan? 
The earliest place where Arabica coffee beans were grown in Yunnan is Zhukula Village, Pingchuan Town, Binchuan County, Dali, because in the late Qing Dynasty, a French priest named Tian Deneng had a habit of drinking coffee, so he planted a coffee tree next to the church. According to the "Binchuan County Annals": In the 30th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty (1904), the French Catholic missionary Tian Deneng, dispatched by the Dali Diocese church, brought Frenchman Lu Hongru and Sichuan native Deng Peigen to the Binchuan area to preach...... There is also a record in "The History of Catholicism in Yunnan": Church name and address: Catholic Church, Pingchuan Zhukula, Binchuan Prefecture, Establishment time: the 30th year of Guangxu (1904).
These documentary records can all prove that Father Tian Deneng did indeed fund the construction of a church in Zhukula Village in 1904 for preaching. But this time point is quite controversial; some say 1892, others say 1902. However, to this day, no definite evidence has been found to prove exactly which year the first Arabica coffee tree in Yunnan was planted. Coffee, as an imported product, was truly cultivated in Yunnan for commercial purposes in the 1950s. Professor Qin Renchang, a famous botanist at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, had technicians identify the red cherries found in the courtyard of a Dai farmer's household in Luxi County, Dehong Prefecture, as Typica coffee. On his suggestion, coffee seedlings were trial-planted at the Mangshi Forest Farm and Lujiangba in Baoshan City, with the latter officially going into production in 1955, thus opening a new era of coffee research and production in New China.
Yunnan coffee truly entered the international market starting in 1988 when Nestlé established a branch in China, not only introducing high-yield, disease-resistant varietiesCatimor, but also promising to purchase Yunnan coffee beans as raw material at the then-current US futures prices. Subsequently, brands such as Starbucks and Maxwell also successively set up factories in Yunnan to purchase green beans, and these measures further expanded Yunnan's coffee planting area. Front Street, upon reviewing relevant materials, learned that due to coffee farmers' lack of knowledge about coffee cultivation and rough production and processing methods, for a long time most Yunnan coffee green beans were used as raw material for instant coffee, constrained by international coffee futures prices. To break free from these, industrial transformation and upgrading are necessary, and specialty coffee production has become the new journey for Yunnan coffee at present.Yunnan Coffee Bean Varieties The most famous Yunnan coffee bean is Yunnan small bean. Yunnan small bean was originally named because of Typica, since Typica is an Arabica small-bean variety. The oldest coffee variety in Yunnan is Typica.Later, when Nestlé entered Yunnan, because Typica had poor disease resistance and also to increase coffee bean yield, coffee farmers were told to cut down the good-flavored Typica coffee trees and plant varieties with poorer flavor but better disease resistance and higher yield. The initial introduction was S288, which is resistant to leaf rust, and later the higher-yielding Catimor was introduced. That is to say, the coffee trees currently planted in Yunnan are mainly Catimor. Typica is one of the oldest varieties within the Arabica species. Most Arabica varieties are derived from Typica, and the varieties derived from it can inherit its genes for high-quality flavor.The top leaves of the Typica coffee tree are copper-red in color; the opposite leaves are long oval-shaped with smooth surfaces; the terminal branches are long with few branches; the beans are oval-shaped or slender and pointed;Although its flavor is elegant, its constitution is weak, its disease resistance is poor, it is prone to leaf rust, and its yield is relatively low. In recent years, Typica in Central and South America has gradually been replaced by Caturra and Catuai, so we see Typica less and less. The coffee trees that Front Street Coffee mainly plants in Yunnan are precisely the Typica variety, because Typica has its unique serene quality, clean flavor, and balanced characteristics, with high cup cleanliness. So although Typica coffee trees are not easy to cultivate, Front Street still wants everyone to be able to taste Yunnan coffee at its best flavor.Catimor itself is a hybrid cross of Robusta and Arabica. In 1959, the Portuguese moved the Caturra, a Bourbon variant of Arabica lineage, to East Timor, where it was crossed with the local Timor, which has Robusta lineage. This move bred 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, and Catimor happened to have extremely strong disease resistance, plus high productivity, it quickly became popular in most coffee-producing countries. Now you can still find on Front Street Coffee's bean list both the sun-dried Typica and washed Catimor from the same Yunnan producing region, one from Lincang and one from Baoshan, allowing everyone to taste our country's coffee while also experiencing the differences between varieties.[Front Street Yunnan 2013 Coffee Beans] Region: Yunnan Lincang Altitude: 1300m Processing Method: Sun-dried Variety: Typica[Front Street Coffee: Yunnan Small Bean Coffee] Region: Yunnan Baoshan Altitude: 1200m Processing Method: Washed Variety: CatimorThese two Yunnan coffees tend more toward balance, without too prominent acidity or overly intense bitterness. Therefore, our brewing method need not be too extreme. Choose 15 grams of coffee grounds, with a recommended coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15; if you want a clearer flavor, you can choose 1:16. Choose a V60 dripper, with a brewing water temperature of 90 degrees Celsius, aimed at making the acidity softer, with a medium-fine grind size / fine granulated sugar size (75% passing through a No. 20 sieve).Use a three-stage extraction: bloom with 30 grams of water for 30 seconds; after blooming, pour in a small stream in a circular motion until reaching 125 grams, then pause; when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until reaching 225 grams and stop; when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. (Start timing from the beginning of the bloom.) The extraction time is 2'00". The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
