A beautiful encounter between Xiaodou Mocha and Yunnan Coffee

For professional baristas, please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

During a 23-day trip to Yunnan in late October last year, more than half of the trip was in southwestern Yunnan, walking along the border between China and Myanmar. This area used to be the main coffee growing area in Yunnan, so I took advantage of the rare opportunity to bring back some raw coffee beans, hoping to taste the good flavor I had drunk more than a decade ago.

To sum up, we know that coffee is produced in Yunnan in the 1980s, when Taiwan and the mainland were still locked in each other. At that time, some news about the mainland was often known through the international media, and it was at that time that the concept of boutique coffee sprouted in the United States, and some people in the coffee industry in the United States began to focus on China. It is believed that some parts of southern China may have the potential to produce high-quality coffee. At that time, there was a report about Yunnan coffee, with special reference to Yunnan's soya bean mocha.

The report aroused my interest. On the one hand, small bean mocha is a relatively rare kind of beans, which I had been chasing for several years before; on the other hand, in the early 1970s, I speculated that Yunnan might be the best place to grow coffee in the mainland, but it was difficult to prove. That report solved part of my doubts.

With regard to Xiaodou mocha, let's find an opportunity to talk about it later. I would like to raise one point here: there are large tracts of land in the south of the mainland across the coffee belt (Note 1). Why would I guess that the most suitable place to grow coffee is Yunnan? To tell the reader, although I have one or two coffee trees, my purpose is only for interest and viewing. In fact, there is a lack of actual planting experience. This judgment is all based on professional books. Apart from such factors as abundant water, dense sunshine, and moderate wind speed, "the favorite growing environment for coffee trees is mild climate and volcanic soil." In all of China, apart from Yunnan, I can't think of a second place with both (Note 2). Before reading the report, I had never been to Yunnan. My understanding of Yunnan, including geography and climate, was mostly dictated by elders, except for a few from textbooks. Because some of my late father's colleagues joined the Yunnan-Burmese Expeditionary Army during the Anti-Japanese War and fought bloody battles with the Japanese in the vicinity of Myitkyina and Tengchong. When they were young, they talked to their father about the cruelty and hardship of the battle, and they were deeply impressed, and there were volcanic groups near Tengchong. It is the memory left by hearing.

I have read the report that it took nearly ten years before I had a possible contact with Yunnan Coffee. The reason for saying "possible" is that I dare not say whether it is really Yunnan coffee or not.

It was a summer in the 1990s, and several members of the May 4th Coffee Club and I took a trip to Yunnan, mainly to Lijiang and Shangri-La. A day or two before his departure, member S Jun told me excitedly that he had just watched a TV program about the ancient city of Lijiang, in which it was specially reported that a coffee shop in the ancient city was responsible for coffee preparation by a beautiful young woman and a graduate of Peking University. As we already have a whole day's tour of the ancient city in our itinerary, we decided to go to that coffee shop for a cup of coffee on the day of our trip to Lijiang. Think about it, not only can you drink Yunnan coffee that you have heard about for a long time but never met, but also appreciate the beautiful women with outstanding temperament, isn't it pleasant? Unfortunately, things are often difficult to live up to expectations.

On the first day of the trip, we first flew to Hong Kong and then transferred to Kunming. Taking advantage of the transit time, I went to the bookstore at the airport and happened to see a book "The Coffee Companion" written by an Englishman Jon Thorn, which spent a lot of space commenting on coffee from various coffee-producing countries, including a page about China. I did not hesitate to buy the book. When I read this book carefully on my way to Kunming, I couldn't help but get a chill, because when it comes to Chinese coffee beans, the first sentence in the book is, "coffee professionals are not sure whether China's exported coffee beans are really made in China." It turns out that although China produces coffee beans and some of them are exported abroad (Yunnan coffee was already well-known in the international community at that time), the number of coffee beans imported by China is even larger than that of exports. moreover, there is a bad record of mixing beans imported from Tanzania as coffee beans made in China and selling them abroad to earn a price difference. In other words, even if you drink coffee in Yunnan, there is no guarantee that you will drink Yunnan coffee.

In any case, we finally arrived in the ancient city of Lijiang and found the coffee shop, but the "temperament beauty" was gone, and the man in charge of the bar was replaced by a young man. As for the coffee we ordered, it can only be said that the flavor is ordinary, and it is not clear whether the coffee beans are produced in Yunnan. The only commendable thing is probably the leisurely mood of drinking tea and coffee in the context of gurgling water and fluttering wickers. So when I get back to Taiwan, whenever someone asks, I can only say "I drank coffee in Yunnan" but I dare not say "I drank coffee in Yunnan".

After a few years, I had real contact with Yunnan Coffee. The opportunity came from my wife's brother-in-law, my brother-in-law. At that time, because my brother-in-law had just experienced a turning point in work and family, in order to empty himself and start again, he traveled to the mainland alone for more than half a year, from north to south, all over half of China. Unexpectedly, he met his lifelong partner in Xishuangbanna, a border town bordering Yunnan and Myanmar, and got married there. After getting married, due to the regulations at that time, he could not immediately bring his wife to Taiwan, so he had to temporarily become a flying man and commute between the two places. Some of the relatives of brothers and sisters are engaged in coffee-related work, such as taking care of rubber trees and coffee trees, or in large foreign companies (Nestl é or Maxwell? ), so every time my brother-in-law goes back to Taiwan, he can bring some real Yunnan coffee beans from Xishuangbanna to my brother-in-law, who loves coffee.

The first two coffee beans brought back are unshelled coffee beans, which look like bourbon varieties in size and shape. After picking beans, baking and careful conditioning, I tasted it excitedly, but I was disappointed, because there was nothing special compared with my existing coffees. At that time, there were many articles praising Yunnan coffee in the foreign coffee industry, but I later learned that only Yunnan Xiaodou mocha was praised, and I mistakenly thought that all Yunnan coffee should have a good flavor. After tasting it, of course, I was inevitably disappointed. However, the beans brought back by my brother-in-law for the third time have completely reversed the impression.

The third time my brother-in-law brought back the shell beans that had not yet been removed from the parchment (Note 3). It is said that the uncle of his brother and sister-in-law teaches at Xishuangbanna Mountain Primary School. These beans are a small batch of finished products that he picked from wild coffee trees and processed by himself during his spare time in teaching. Since Chinese mainland is not the native place of coffee trees at all, I personally judge that the so-called wild coffee trees should be plants that were once planted and later abandoned. In short, the pickers basically don't know much about coffee, and the handling process is not professional enough, so that the beans are unflattering in appearance, not only mottled in color, but also uneven in size, which is much uglier than the beans brought back the first two times. The first two times and can not be satisfied, this time the beans, if you want to bake, you have to go to the valley, in the absence of a sheller, any experienced person knows how troublesome it is to remove parchment. So my first thought was to throw away the beans. But my wife advised me that my brother-in-law traveled thousands of miles to bring the beans back to live up to this intention, and promised to share the drudgery of shelling, which gave up the idea of throwing away the beans.

Shelling is very hard, but the peeled beans make people's eyes bright, it is actually small bean mocha! Before that, I had baked Yemeni Ismaili, which is also a bean mocha, several times, and the baking curve had been corrected well enough to apply to this batch of beans, so I chose an "auspicious day of the zodiac" (for coffee bakers, which means sunny) and carefully roasted the beans according to the predetermined curve. Two days later, choose the best brewing equipment, a siphon pot for two, carefully prepare two cups of coffee and share it with your wife.

The entrance to the coffee is amazing. Not to mention the full-bodied palate, beautiful acidity and a combination of berries, chocolate aromas and throat notes, and, most specifically, an extremely light and beautiful smoky taste. Most coffee connoisseurs know that smells such as soil, rocks, mushrooms and firewood are usually classified as "flaws" and are often the cause of deduction during cup testing, but this is not an immutable law. Sometimes, a subtle special smell will increase the uniqueness of the coffee and leave a deep and unforgettable impression on the taster. for example, some Sidamo coffees, with a slight smell of clean rock, almost make people imagine the land of Sidamo; similarly, if I were to use words to describe how that cup of coffee made me feel at that time, I would probably say something like this:

It is like climbing a beautiful hill, facing the open distance, breathing in the clear and transparent air, only to find that there is a trace of smoke in the air, like a burning pine branch, while looking around, there is no trace of smoke.

I am very lucky to have such a beautiful encounter with Yunnan Coffee, but it is also a pity that it is the only time. Later, my brother-in-law did not return to Yunnan. before picking up his brother and sister-in-law to settle in Taiwan, he went back and forth between the two places once or twice. For the last time, he brought back about half a kilogram of shelled raw beans, which were specially selected by his brother and sister-in-law's cousin who worked in the coffee garden. I hope I can identify them to see if they are of good enough quality. Beans are relatively large, not small bean mocha varieties, the appearance is very beautiful, regardless of color, plumpness or evenness have nothing to say, only one thing is frustrating: drink into the mouth, in addition to the word "ordinary", can not think of other adjectives.

During my trip to Yunnan two months ago, in order to taste the unforgettable taste I once had, I tried my best, and the tour leader and tour guide also tried my best to help me. Finally, at the starting point of the Nujiang Grand Canyon, Liuku Town, I bought locally produced coffee beans. Several travelers who love coffee, including me, share all more than 20 kilos. Unfortunately, beans are obviously mixed, small bean mocha accounts for only a small part, what are the other varieties, Mr. Li, who sells beans, is vague. When I got home, after I tried it, the comment was "good", but there was still some distance from "excellent". The coffee is mild and balanced, with no bad smell, but it doesn't excite the sensation of surprise, especially the smoky smell that makes people reverie and seems to have nothing. Obviously, this trip did not catch up with the beauty I once encountered. The lyrics "there are beauties, never forget them." I wonder how many years that feeling will linger in my mind in the future.

(note 1) the coffee belt (Coffee Belt) refers to the area on earth suitable for coffee trees to grow, about between 22 degrees north latitude and 26 degrees south latitude. It has such a name because it is very much like a belt, circling the earth. A considerable part of southern China, such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan Island, fall within this area.

(note 2) the elevation of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau is less than half that of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the climate is famous for its mild climate, and there are only two places in Chinese mainland, one in the northeast and the other near Tengchong in Yunnan.

(note 3) the endocarp of coffee fruit, commonly known as parchment, becomes a hard shell when dried, covering the coffee beans inside, a bit like a peanut shell covered with peanuts, except that each shell (parchment) is covered with only one coffee bean. Coffee beans before this shell is removed are called bean with parchment. By the way, the Turkish city near the Aegean Sea, Bergama (or Pergamun), is the place where parchment was produced in ancient Greece. The English parchment, parchment, is Pergamun.