Yunnan coffee adds new note to global coffee map

By Cui Yin, People’s Daily
Each cup of coffee carries the essence of its birthplace – Brazil’s bold richness, Jamaica’s vibrant
brightness, and Ethiopia’s delicate freshness. Now, Yunnan, in southwest China, is adding a new
chapter to this global narrative, offering a distinctly Chinese flavor that is gaining recognition on
the world stage.
This evolution was on full display at the 2025 First Gems of Yunnan Green Coffee Competition
(Yunnan CoE Pilot Program). Held in Yunnan’s Baoshan, the competition marked a milestone: for
the first time, a CoE-related competition was hosted in Yunnan. Out of 144 entries, 19 coffee
samples received scores above 87 points – qualifying them as world-class – following rigorous
blind tasting by international judges.
The top-scoring beans, grown in Yunnan’s Lincang, fetched a record 13,000 yuan ($1,813.65) per
kilogram at auction, setting a new benchmark for Chinese coffee sales. More importantly, the
competition placed the province into the purview of one of the world’s most authoritative coffee
evaluation systems, signaling its transformation from a raw material supplier into a standard-setter
in the global coffee sector.
Founded in Brazil in 1999, the CoE has reshaped the coffee industry by combining competition
with transparent auction mechanisms. Information about bean variety, processing methods,
pricing, and producers is made publicly available, setting new benchmarks for traceability and
quality.
During the competition, each carefully selected coffee underwent an rigorous evaluation: roasting,
grinding, weighing, and on-site brewing, followed by multiple cupping sessions. A panel of over a
dozen professional judges evaluated each sample on cleanliness, sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel,
and flavor complexity. A Brazilian farmer named Oliveira, whose beans scored an impressive 90
points, could barely contain his excitement.
Over the past two decades, CoE competitions have been hosted in more than ten countries,
spotlighting emerging producers in Honduras and Costa Rica. This has expanded the global map
of valued coffee-producing regions, raising both quality standards and farmer incomes.
Producing high-quality coffee requires a combination of ideal natural conditions and painstaking
cultivation. The best coffee regions are typically mountainous at elevations above 1,000 meters,
with marked differences between day and night temperatures and clearly defined wet and dry
seasons – conditions that also pose greater challenges and management costs.
Yunnan, located in the global golden belt for coffee cultivation, boasts a coffee-growing history of
over a century and now produces 98 percent of China’s total coffee output. Recent advancements
in variety improvement, standardized farming practices, and processing technologies have
propelled Yunnan forward: the proportion of specialty-grade beans rose from 40 percent in 2022 to
70 percent in 2024, while deep processing rates jumped from 60 percent to 85 percent. These traits
have helped turn Yunnan coffee into a byword for premium quality.
Coffee, as a global commodity, embodies the convergence of civilizations across continents. In
China, its popularity has surged in recent years. Shanghai has overtaken New York and London to
become a city with the highest number of coffee shops in the world. Among younger generations,
coffee drinking has become both a social ritual and a lifestyle symbol. This cultural adaptation
reflects a broader ethos in Chinese civilization: the principle of harmony without uniformity, an
openness to global influences, seamlessly woven into a distinctively Chinese context.