When we look up Yunnan coffee, the word that appears most often is "coffee arabica", and the early Yunnan arabica coffee was famous for its oldest native variety, Typica. Today, let’s talk about the characteristics of Typica coffee beans grown in Yunnan production areas.
How did Typica coffee come to the Yunnan production area?
The story of coffee in Yunnan can be traced back to 1904, when a French missionary brought coffee seeds into Yunnan from abroad and successfully planted the first batch of coffee trees in a place called Zhukula. Before the 1980s, the varieties widely planted in Yunnan were two ancient small-grain varieties: Typica and Bourbon. The so-called small-grained species refers to the smaller Arabica variety, compared with the medium-grained Robusta coffee beans from Hainan.
Typica has a rich and diverse flavor, showing various fruit acidity and delicate taste. It is recognized as a high-quality variety. The famous Blue Mountain Coffee and Hawaiian Kona Coffee both belong to Typica. In appearance, Typica is a tall tree with good cold tolerance, but the yield of a single plant is low and the resistance is poor. It is very susceptible to leaf rust, coffee berry disease, and nematode diseases. Therefore, more manpower management is required, and the variety does not have much advantage in market sales price. Many Yunnan coffee farmers choose to plant higher-yielding varieties instead of Typica.
Although Yunnan is currently dominated by Catim varieties, some growers are still willing to insist on planting the ancient high-quality variety Typica in pursuit of better coffee flavor. The Front Street 2013 coffee grown in Front Street's own manor is of the Typica variety.
Typica coffee in Baoshan, Yunnan
Baoshan is one of the earliest coffee-producing areas in Yunnan. Lujiangba has the largest coffee planting base in the country and Xinzhai Village, known as the "No. 1 Coffee Village in China". The mountains of every household are covered with coffee trees, the courtyards are full of coffee beans, and the aroma of coffee floats in the house. In the local warm climate with no frost all year round, coffee trees thrive in a moist and comfortable environment. Fertile soil and just the right amount of rainfall provide ample irrigation for crops. The environment of good mountains and rivers makes the coffee beans here have less pulp and a sweet taste.
The harvest season is from November to March each year. Coffee cherries mature and turn red in the mountains. We can see busy farmers picking coffee berries on the mountains in an orderly manner. Most coffee farmers in Yunnan have difficult conditions and do not have expensive processing equipment. Therefore, the vast majority of Yunnan coffee beans generally use natural processing methods, that is, washing and sun-drying. Yunnan has abundant fresh water resources, and it is easy to encounter rainy days during the harvest season, so it is more suitable for production by washing. Washing is also the most common green bean processing method in Yunnan.
Baoshan's Huaguoshan coffee from Front Street is washed, and the coffee pulp is removed through peeling, soaking and fermentation before drying. The flavor shows the quiet aroma of Typica coffee beans itself, as well as a round and smooth taste, with a rich fruity aroma. Front Street believes that washed coffee beans are cleaner and can express the basic flavor of the production area. This is also a natural processing method that Front Street particularly likes.
Typica coffee in Lincang, Yunnan
In order to explore more coffee knowledge, Front Street went to Lincang, Yunnan in 2013 to start a chapter of coffee cultivation. Site selection, seed selection, seedling raising, planting, harvesting, processing, and baking are all handled by colleagues from Front Street, and they have also summarized a lot of experience and knowledge related to varieties, altitudes, and processing methods.
Originally, the coffee varieties grown in Yunnan were the ancient Typica and Bourbon. Later, Yunnan coffee was attacked by global leaf rust, causing large-scale death of coffee trees and a significant reduction in planting area. Later, with the support of major foreign companies, the high-yield and disease-resistant variety Katim was introduced. This also established that the Catim variety has replaced the ancient tree species Typica and has become the main variety of coffee in Yunnan today. Since Typica coffee beans have low yields, are prone to diseases, and have high management and maintenance costs, it means that growers need to explore for a longer period of time. This is why most coffee farmers in Yunnan are unwilling to grow it.
Lincang, Yunnan Province is affected by the warm and humid air currents of the Indian Ocean and the southwest monsoon. The four seasons are not obvious, but the dry and rainy seasons are distinct, with more rain, long sunshine hours, and short frost periods. Some areas are frost-free all year round. The three-dimensional climate is very suitable for Arabica coffee cultivation, so Front Street specially selected the original Typica coffee. However, the delicate Typica is also known for its low yield and poor resistance, so Front Street has put a lot of effort into its planting and management. After 5 to 6 years of cultivation, the first batch of fruits was finally harvested in Front Street in 2020, and produced using a natural drying and sun-drying method, also named "Front Street 2013".
After harvesting, the Typica coffee berries grown on Front Street are sun-dried immediately to ensure the freshness of the coffee. Screening will be carried out in the front street first. Flotation is one of the commonly used screening methods. The screened coffee cherries will be dried in the sun. Front Street will arrange for personnel to turn the coffee cherries regularly to prevent uneven heating of the coffee cherries, which may lead to over-fermentation. When the coffee cherries are dehydrated from bright red to dark purple and reach the target moisture content, they can be sent to shelling and roasting. Front Street sun-dried Typica coffee exhibits a fuller fermented flavor than washed coffee, with prominent sweetness and aromas of caramel, berries, and black tea.
Flavor characteristics of Yunnan Tiepika coffee
In terms of roasting, Front Street believes that the taste of Yunnan coffee should have a mellow coffee aroma and a certain acidity, so Front Street will use a medium roasting degree. Produced in daily stores, Front Street extracts it in the form of hand brewing, hoping to present the aroma of the coffee itself for everyone to taste. Hand-brewed black coffee is not only a daily extraction method produced by Front Street Coffee baristas, but it is also a method that many coffee drinkers can easily operate at home.
Front Street considers that Yunnan Tiepika coffee prefers a balanced taste, that is, it does not have excessive acidity and heavy bitterness. Front Street prefers to use V60 filter cups, using medium-fine grinding and medium water temperature for extraction to highlight the neutral and balanced taste of Yunnan Tiepica coffee beans.
Is Yunnan Tiepica suitable for making Italian coffee?
In order to present the balanced tonality of Yunnan coffee, Front Street presents this self-produced sun-dried Tipica with medium roasting. Therefore, after grinding, it has the aroma of brown sugar, chocolate, cream, nutty cookies, etc., with a balanced balance of sour, bitter, and sweet. Therefore, in addition to hand brewing, it is also suitable for extraction with moka pots and espresso machines. Below, Front Street uses the equipment produced by the store to demonstrate how to make delicious Yunnan soe.
The coffee machine in the Front Street store is a commercial single-head "Lelit Bianca" that can adjust the extraction by changing the pressure. The maximum pressure can be 11bar. A home coffee machine only needs to reach a pressure of 9 bar to meet the functions of extracting and frothing milk, and is paired with an espresso coffee grinder.
Front Street uses a double powder bowl capacity, and the amount of powder is about 18 to 20 grams. When Front Street produces coffee, 20 grams of coffee powder is used. Usually the ratio of coffee powder to coffee liquid is 1:1.5~1:2.5. The extraction ratio of Front Street is 1:2, that is, 20 grams of coffee powder extracts 40 grams of coffee liquid. The time is related to the flow rate of the coffee powder. Generally, the duration of a single extraction is controlled between 20 and 35 seconds, because within 20 seconds, the coffee usually tastes thin, and if it exceeds 35 seconds, it is easy to over-extract and produce a burnt and bitter taste. Most of the enrichments on Front Street are in the range of 28 to 30 seconds.
First, wipe the powder bowl dry, turn on the grinder, grind out a double amount of coffee powder, place it on the electronic scale and increase or decrease it to reach a weight of 20 grams. Then use tools to spread the powder evenly and fill the coffee powder cake tightly to ensure more stable coffee extraction. Then turn on the extraction switch and release water, moisten the brewing head and take away the stuck coffee grounds. Gently buckle the handle on the brewing head and start to pull down the brewing extraction. When the electronic scale shows that 40 grams of coffee liquid has been extracted, and it takes about 30 seconds, you can pull the extraction switch. Pour the coffee liquid into the Espresso cup and enjoy.
The taste and texture of Espresso is related to the coffee beans used. Today, the Espresso made from the Yunnan sun-dried Tipica from Front Street has moderate fat, the entrance is sweet and fragrant with chocolate and cocoa, and soft acidity, and the overall taste is relatively balanced.
In order to better feel the charm of this espresso coffee, Front Street will add a certain proportion of hot water to it to make American coffee. Add 160ml of warm water to the espresso in a ratio of 1:4. The entrance has the flavor of plums, dried apricots, chocolate, and nuts, and the aftertaste is like black tea, which makes it very comfortable to drink.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
