China Coffee Overview

Odd Introductions to Chinese Arabica Coffee

Starting 10 years ago, we began receiving some interesting emails about Chinese Yunnan Arabica coffee. I had only cupped various types of commercial grade Yunnan coffees grown under 1000 meters.

The emails would read “You can order this coffee in whatever style you want : Central American wet-processed style , Brazilian semi washed or dry-processed style, Sumatran semi wet hull style. It is unique”. The fact is, until recently I have not found much of any flavor in these commercial coffees. It is suited toward the mass “industrial coffee market” meaning the R & G (roasted and ground) coffee market and institutional roasting.

I know that every originIn coffee talk, it refers to a coffee-producing region or country; such as, “I was just at origin.” Of course “Origin” for most product we use is not… …more that is newly introduced to the market piques the interest, but that doesn’t always make it good! VarietyA botanical variety is a rank in the taxonomic hierarchy below the rank of species and subspecies and above the rank of form (form / variety / subspecies… …more without quality is not really sustainable.

Focus on quality and a community vision 

But more recently I received a sample of Yunnan coffee that was markedly better, a specialty-level coffee judging by the cuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest…. …more results. It was from the ManLao River Plantation, that ranges from 3500-4500 feet,  with the coffee coming from smallholder farms as well as a large estateA “coffee estate” is used to imply a farm that has its own processing facility, a wet-mill. In Spanish this is called an Hacienda. A Finca (farm) does… …more. In fact the main focus of the project is to assist the adjacent farming communities.

The cup was clean, bright and had good sweetnessSweetness is an important positive quality in fine coffees, and is one of five basic tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Savory (Umami). In coffee, sweetness is a highly… …more, and was well processed. It was not a fresh new cropRefers to fresh shipments of green coffee within the first month or two of the earliest arrivals … not quite the same as Current Crop, which means the… …more sample so it scored 84, but it could be an 85-86 point in the future.

Yunnan can produce good coffee, and sometimes it’s simply a matter of what you are exposed to that colors those perceptions about specific coffee origins.

Sadly for us, the program we were connected to ended, and since then we haven’t seen coffee with the same taste profile, or the same intention to provide a market to small scale producers. We hope to learn more about the quality potential of arabica coffee in China, and see what other zones might be able to produce good coffee!