Introduction to the characteristics of taste and flavor of Pu'er coffee. How much is Pu'er coffee? is Pu'er coffee good?

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When it comes to Pu'er, people's first reaction is "tea". But in fact, in addition to tea, coffee is also one of the very important local agricultural products, regardless of history or quality, are worth talking about. The history of coffee cultivation in Yunnan can be traced back to hundreds of years ago. It is said that at that time, a French missionary came to Yunnan to preach, asked someone to bring seeds because he missed coffee, and then started the local coffee planting. However, for quite a long time, we did not know the existence of coffee in Yunnan. Although this valuable tropical cash crop has been planted continuously, it has not really appeared in the mass consumer market. It was only in recent years when the coffee boom emerged that people began to pay attention to this coffee producing area in southwest China.

One of the bean drying farms in Dakaihe Village, Pu'er, Yunnan Province.

The reason why the early Yunnan coffee is not known, on the one hand, is that the market at that time is not mature, and on the other hand, it is because its own quality is not up to standard-most of the coffee beans received by large manufacturers here are used to make instant coffee, and the pursuit of quality is not strict. Of course, untrained farmers (the local name for coffee growers in Yunnan) did not know the secret. "the more fruit you pick, the more money you sell." it was probably a fixed mindset at that time, and the concept of so-called high-quality coffee beans probably didn't exist at all at that time. But now that is changing. Young people who have studied in big cities have brought new thinking here, and professionally trained agronomists are enthusiastically imparting what they have learned to hard-working farmers. A younger group of coffee buyers are also starting to collect coffee beans from Cannons in a more transparent and stringent way. The idea that "you can't grow coffee only, you have to grow it well" has gradually begun to become a local consensus, and the future of Yunnan coffee may be closely related to these enthusiastic and sincere young people.

Plum: growing coffee at home is probably an instinct engraved in the blood.

When she was a university student in Hunan, Meizi probably didn't think that her future would be associated with coffee. "at that time, I studied interior design, which really had nothing to do with coffee." But every time the students get together to discuss future work problems, the word "coffee" suddenly appears and lingers in her mind.

The sunshine conditions in Yunnan are good, and the coffee cherries harvested with all red fruits are being treated in the sun on the bean drying farm.

"I grew up in coffee. My grandfather grows coffee here, and my father grows coffee here," Meizi sits in Starbucks' Yunnan Pu'er coffee origin store, with a finished cup of coffee in front of her. Her expression shows the shyness of strangers for the first time, but you can easily find her love for coffee in her words and eyes. "the one who impressed me the most when she was a child. It is in the coffee cherry harvest season that the fermented coffee beans dried on the bean drying farm give off a unique flavor. "

Meizi's home is in Dakaihe Village, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, near Taiyang River Park (the local national forest park in Pu'er), with a superior natural environment. "We all rett on our own, which is time-consuming and laborious, but in my opinion, these actions are very meaningful." The coffee garden is characterized by organic coffee cultivation, manual weeding, no pesticides and organic fertilizers, and has now been certified by EU organic coffee fresh fruits and organic coffee beans. For coffee drinkers who now pursue organic food, this is undoubtedly a very attractive point.

Only when we go to the fields again and again and harvest all red fruits according to the maturity of coffee cherries, can we ensure that the coffee finally presented to consumers is of excellent quality.

The plum family mainly makes high-quality coffee, which means that from the beginning of picking fresh coffee, there must be stricter standards than ordinary coffee. "full red fruit must be harvested in order to ensure the quality of coffee." But this is not easy. As more and more young people go out to work, most of those who can feel at ease to engage in agriculture are old and do not have a good understanding of the plum's requirements for harvesting. "sometimes people from neighboring countries cross the border to harvest, but for various reasons, it is not very convenient to communicate, and the quality of fresh coffee picked is not particularly good. Most of the time we still have to do some sorting work. "

Coffee cherries floating on the sink

Harvested coffee cherries will not immediately turn into coffee, it needs further processing. In Yunnan, washing is the most common way to treat coffee cherries, and Meizi's coffee is naturally dominated by this, but at the same time, she will also choose some coffee cherries to try other treatments, such as more water-saving sun treatment. or the now popular honey treatment. "A batch of honey-treated coffee beans sold well before, with a price of about 58 yuan a kilogram." Coffee beans are usually traded according to the international average price. Recently, the price is about 17 yuan, and the price of 58 yuan is more than twice the international average price, which is really quite high.

"my friends and I now hope to be a local youth farmers' association in Pu'er, where everyone gets together to make better coffee." Said the plum.

Wan Dong: I want to teach Ka Nong everything I have learned.

At 9: 00 in the morning after arriving in Pu'er, Wandong was already waiting at the gathering place, ready to drive us to visit the coffee garden in Pu'er 's South Island River Village.

Nandaohe Village is not far from Pu'er City District, and it takes about 40 minutes to get there by car. "at first, I was going to take you to a farther place, but it takes two hours to drive, and it's not easy to walk on the mountain road." the last time I went there, many people already threw up on the way. " Wan Dong explained, "but the two gardens are similar. This is fine."

Yunnan mainly grows small-grain coffee (Arabica coffee), and its tree shape is not tall. What stands tall is actually a shade tree that blocks the sun from the coffee tree.

Wan Dong is an agronomist at Starbucks Yunnan grower support Center. before that, he worked at Baoshan Tropical Economic Plant Research Institute. He once went to Myanmar as a foreign expert to study mango for a whole year. "at that time, I was the only one who stayed in Myanmar for that long." the others left in a week or two, and the longest one was sent abroad for a month. " Myanmar is having a hard time. I can't see anyone or speak a language, so I have to do research in the laboratory by myself, delving into the impact of diseases, insect pests and fungal infections on mango planting. From time to time, I have to think of ways to solve the problem of water and power outages. "it feels so good to be back!"

For ordinary people, the season in Yunnan is divided into dry season and rainy season, but for agronomists like Wandong, the days are only divided into busy and idle seasons.

"I don't even have a rest when I'm busy," Wandong said. "sometimes I have to go out at 7 o'clock in the morning, drive five hours to the mountains, train local farmers, take them to the coffee garden for field lectures, and then drive back when I'm done. It will be past 10:00 in the evening when we get to the city (Pu'er District)." Yunnan is an area inhabited by ethnic minorities, and coffee farmers naturally come from different nationalities. many people have not received systematic education, let alone literacy, or even basic Chinese communication. It is quite a challenge to train them in modern agriculture and let them accept modern views. "at first, when they came into contact with farmers, they ignored me, and then they went to a lot of places. Everyone will feel better when they get to know each other. "Wandong smiled and recalled his ice-breaking experience a few years ago." now we will first go to the village committee or their leader, as long as these people are willing to listen to our lectures and training. others will accept it soon. Moreover, there is another advantage of finding village committees and leaders, that is, language communication will become more convenient, and they can translate for us! "

No one listened to the lecture at the beginning, but now the lecture is full. After tasting the sweetness, the farmers are more and more eager to acquire planting knowledge.

It is not easy to grow good coffee. If you want to find a similar item to compare, then the wine that is now more and more known by the public may be a good choice. Whether in terms of the exquisite degree of the treatment or the initial field planting, the two have similarities.

"Coffee is grown in Yunnan. First of all, the weather is fine. Coffee has a requirement for temperature. It cannot be cold in winter. Once it is below 18 ℃, it is easy to freeze to death. You see here, the perennial temperature is not lower than the basic requirement of coffee, so coffee is rarely frozen to death. The only challenge is that there may be frost in spring and hail may occur occasionally, but trees will not freeze to death. That is, it will knock down some coffee flowers and reduce the output. " The coffee garden in Nandaohe Village is about 1200 meters above sea level. Like most of the local coffee plantations in Pu'er, they are built on slopes. They can't drive up, so they can only walk on their feet step by step. The elevation of a garden sometimes varies from three to four hundred meters. It's easy to catch breath for a trip back and forth, but for Wandong, who runs around all day, it's not a thing at all. "but coffee itself is a shady plant. Therefore, it can not accept the sun directly. In the past, the farmers did not understand this, so we must be more professional than them, so we slowly suggested that they plant some shade trees in the coffee fields, which can not only protect the soil and water loss, but also make the coffee have a better growing environment. If the farmers are willing to plant some cash crops such as lychees and mangoes, they can also harvest and sell money in the fruit. It is also a good way to increase income. "

Going to the coffee field to teach the knowledge of planting and harvesting is an important part of Wandong's daily work.

Fertilization is an inevitable link in agricultural planting, but it is very important to choose targeted fertilizers, which not only give soil nutrition and let plants thrive, but also will not affect their future availability. "most of the soil in Yunnan is red soil, and there is no shortage of phosphorus in the soil, but if you want to grow coffee, you will find that there are not enough trace elements such as calcium and magnesium in this soil, so from the perspective of agriculture, we have to develop a fertilizer suitable for local soil and suitable for coffee growers." If it's just these requirements, it's not difficult to meet them, just put forward customized requirements to the fertilizer plant, but the farmers themselves don't have much money, so it's quite a challenge to strike a balance between reducing costs and achieving the requirements. "then find it! They kept getting in touch with fertilizer factories all over the country and asked one by one. " Fortunately, after a long period of trial and effort, a factory finally reached an agreement with Wandong to provide targeted fertilizer to local farmers at a fairly low price. "there are also farmers who grow organic coffee, but for ordinary farmers, the cost of organic fertilizer is too high and the fertility is not enough. To put it simply, the fertility of 300 tons of organic fertilizer may only be equal to that of 50 tons of chemical fertilizer. If the time cost of retting fertilizer is taken into account, most farmers actually do not have the economic strength to do so." Will the soil that has been applied with custom fertilizer change, resulting in adverse effects in future plant cultivation, becoming land where coffee can only be grown? Wan Dong's answer is no, "Don't spoil the ground."

Tong Aaron: I want to proudly say to my grandson, "Yunnan coffee is made by your grandfather."

At first, Tong Yalun just wanted to work here in Pu'er for two or three years, and then he moved to another better company, but now he has made coffee his career. "I think when I get old, I can proudly say to my grandson, 'you see, Yunnan coffee is so good now that it was made by your grandfather.'"

This painting, spelled out with coffee filter paper, well describes the general process of a cup of coffee from growing in the field to finally entering the hands of consumers, while the one who is picking coffee cherries in national costume is the local minority farmer in Pu'er, Yunnan Province.

Tong Aaron's previous work had nothing to do with agriculture, but he knew how to manage and know people. Not long after coming to Pu'er, a team of agronomists and cup reviewers (coffee quality appraisers, who sip to judge the flavor level of coffee) was quickly set up, and in six years, the quality of Yunnan coffee has been greatly improved.

The sunshine in Pu'er is strong, and farmers generally have a darker complexion.

"at the beginning, the farmers did not know that the coffee harvest was sustainable. It was often a bunch of coffee, with both red and green fruits, which directly led to the poor quality of the products. But in their view, they may think that if I collect more, they should sell more money, but this is not the case." In the local area, Tong Yalun is not only the coffee collector, but also the one who spreads the knowledge of planting to the farmers. "only ripe red fruit can be finally processed into high-quality coffee beans and sell the price, but it is not easy to make the farmers understand this."

On the day of the opening of Starbucks' Yunnan Pu'er coffee origin store, Yan Gu came to the scene dressed in WA traditional costumes and participated in the coffee cup test at the scene with great interest. Bow your head and smell the aroma of your coffee beans after baking and grinding, and then take a serious taste. For farmers who have been busy in the fields, there are not many opportunities like this.

Yanguo, the eldest brother of the WA nationality, was the first minority farmer to sell his coffee to Tong Aaron. The dark-skinned eldest brother is tall and strong, and he has won the archery competition of the National Farmers' Games. He is also a village cadre in Pu'er who lives in a village of different ethnic groups, such as WA, Yi, Han and so on. "he (referring to Tong Yalun) said that the better the quality, the more expensive he was. At that time, no one knew, how could he be believed?" Yan Gu's idea represented the mentality of most farmers, but he could not bear the repeated visits of Tong Aaron and his team, so after two years of acquaintance, the first deal was completed. "sell him half and sell the other half to someone else, so there is nothing to lose." try it first. " Because the coffee beans sold to Tong Yalun were carried out in full accordance with his previous requirements, the cautious Yogu got more income than usual in this transaction. "since he is telling the truth, then give priority to selling to him in the future."

If you want to use the current popular words, Yogu can be regarded as the local KOL (opinion leader). His actions will undoubtedly lead to the choice of many local farmers, so in the next few years, more and more people trusted Tong Aaron. It is said that during the harvest season, coffee bean cars can line up at the factory gate.

Two different styles of coffee beans that you can buy on the market. The one on the left is mixed coffee Fengwu Xiangyun, and the one on the right is 100% single-origin beans made from Yunnan coffee beans.

Nowadays, it is not difficult for you to drink a cup of coffee with Yunnan coffee DNA. For example, Yunnan coffee has already been found in the Starbucks blend coffee Fengwu Xiangyun, which was born in 2009, and now, a 100% coffee made from Yunnan coffee beans has also been put online, but if you want to buy this bag of beans, you may need some luck, because many people like the unique herbal and nutty flavor of this Yunnan coffee. There is often a "sold out" situation. "before, there was a selection of beans made from beans treated with yellow honey by local farmers in Yunnan, but they were sold out as soon as they were on the market." Julio, who works as a support at Starbucks' Yunnan Pu'er Coffee Origin store, is from Dali and used to work in Shanghai. "as a native of Yunnan, I am very proud that coffee in my hometown can be liked by so many people."

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