Yunnan Coffee

[liuzhou]

Yunnan Province (云南省 - yún nán shěng) is in southern China bordering Myanmar/Burma, Laos and Vietnam and like the latter grows decent to excellent coffee. It also borders Guangzhou, so I can source their coffee, easily.

 

云南咖啡 (yún nán kā fēi) is smooth and extremely low in bitterness. I've no idea how widely it is exported, if at all. Any coffee aficionados out here who have come across it?

 

 

 

[AAQuesada]

Here in LA we are just getting better quality Vietnamese coffee at places like Phin Smith https://www.phinsmith.com/coffee/  but I have yet to see coffee from China here but I could see there being a market for it. 

[liuzhou]

1 minute ago, AAQuesada said:

Here in LA we are just getting better quality Vietnamese coffee at places like Phin Smith https://www.phinsmith.com/coffee/  but I have yet to see coffee from China here but I could see there being a market for it. 

 

Thanks. The Yunnan coffee is very similar to the Vietnamese.

 

 

[donk79]

From James Hoffmann's World Atlas of Coffee

 

"Coffee production stayed relatively small until around 2009, when a significant jump occurred. This was probably due to a combination of lower tea prices and a brief spike in the global price of coffee. The coffee industry continues to grow in Yunnan, buoyed in particular by a growing market throughout China. Per capita consumption of coffee in China is still incredibly low, but its enormous population means the Chinese market has the potential to have an enormous impact on the supply and demand of coffee production worldwide.

 

"Right now China is beginning to get a taste for its own coffee; the best Chinese coffee I have tasted was only available in China."

 

[AAQuesada]

Randomly came across this place called Mandarin Coffee Stand -In Pasadena which is in the Chinese heavily populated San Gabriel Valley. Someone on a local food board said they went and there were no Chinese coffee beans to be had there at the moment but here is a web page about them. 

 

https://mandarin.ju.mp

[liuzhou]

I got myself 300 grams of roasted beans from Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. They are described as Yunnan Small Grain Coffee Beans. I'd say a medium roast.

 

 

I ground them to a medium fine powder and had a very pleasant mellow brew for breakfast. Again, I have to say they remind me very much of Vietnamese coffee. Not surprisingly.

 

With the right backing, which seems in place, they could become a major player in the near future.

 

 

[AAQuesada]

I wonder if they are what is sometimes called peaberry coffee beans

[weinoo]

36 minutes ago, AAQuesada said:

I wonder if they are what is sometimes called peaberry coffee beans

 

Aren't peaberries generally considered peaberries when there is only one to a pod?  And they are smaller than "standard" coffee beans?

[liuzhou]

20 hours ago, AAQuesada said:

I wonder if they are what is sometimes called peaberry coffee beans

 

I'm not sure but I suspect not. Having read this

 

 https://coffeebrewster.com/best-coffee-beans/peaberry-coffee/#:~:text=Peaberry coffee is a natural mutation in arabica,snail. Coffee beans come from the coffee cherry.

 

I have to say they don't match the description of being rounder and nor are they particularly expensive. 

 

 

[liuzhou]

You've probably heard of 普洱茶 (pǔ ěr chá), Pu'er tea from the Pu'er region of Yunnan.

 

However, this is 普洱咖啡 (pǔ ěr kā fēi), Pu'er coffee from the Pu'er region of Yunnan.

 

 

The packaging states that it's an Italian style dark roast. I'm not sure what's Italian about it.

 

This bag was a 'gift' which came with a new drip machine I bought today. I'll try it later when I've finished the batch of different Yunnan beans that's still half full. Will report back.

 

 

[liuzhou]

This amused me. I ordered a kilo of roasted Yunnan coffee beans online. They arrived this morning and the package contained not only two 500g of beans but a tiny sachet containing three unroasted beans for planting!

 

 

I'm not sure how that will wok out in my apartment. Coffee trees grow to between approx 10 and 12 feet tall.