Rare origin · new to specialty

Yunnan Coffee

Nearly all of China’s coffee grows in Yunnan, in the far south-west, near Laos and Myanmar. A new generation of farmers is turning it into specialty coffee.

Altitude
3,300–6,500 ft
Harvest
November–March
Varieties
Catimor, plus some Typica and Bourbon
Usual process
Washed, natural and experimental
Rarity index
99/100

Carried by 1 of 312 US roasters we track

On Roasterland
1 coffees · 1 roasters

In the cup

Brown sugar, dried fruit and herbs

Sweet and approachable, with brown sugar, raisin and plum, sometimes with herbal or tea-like notes. Experimental ferments can be boldly fruity.

Brown sugarDried fruitHerbalPlum

Taste profile

SweetnessMedium
AcidityMedium
BodyMedium
BitternessLow

From our tasting of every coffee from this origin on Roasterland. Each coffee page has its own profile.

China, side by side

Same origin, different small roasters. Each roasts it its own way.

About the region

From a missionary’s garden to Pu’er

Coffee is said to have arrived in Yunnan with a French missionary in the 1890s, in the village of Zhukula. Large-scale planting came a century later, around Pu’er and Baoshan, the same hills famous for tea.

Most Yunnan coffee was once sold as commodity. Over the last decade, farmers and young processors have started picking riper cherry and experimenting with fermentation, and small US roasters have begun to buy their lots.

If you like China, try

Asia & PacificMyanmarStrawberry · Stone fruit · Chocolate · Citrus Asia & PacificThailandCaramel · Nutty · Milk chocolate · Dried fruit Asia & PacificTimor-LesteDark chocolate · Spice · Molasses · Earthy

Questions about China

Does China really grow coffee?
Yes. Yunnan grows almost all of it, and production has grown quickly since the 1990s.
Why is it rare in the US?
Most of it is still sold domestically or as commodity. Specialty lots are new and small.