Single-origin coffee from Yunnan in China, known for Pu-erh tea, finds fans in the West and at home
- Tea-growing Pu’er has become China’s coffee capital and, as well as supplying the mass market, is making inroads among roasters of speciality coffee beans
Yang Wenbo moved from Hefei, in China’s Anhui province, to the American city of Portland, Oregon, in 2016, with the goal of starting a coffee shop. By 2018, Yang had opened Super Joy, a block from Portland State University, offering speciality beans from a variety of regions, including his homeland.
“I sell coffee from China mostly because I’m Chinese,” says Yang, 35. “I want to bring something from my homeland to let people know and try. Everyone knows China is a tea country and that everyone drinks tea, but we have coffee, too.”
The rolling hills and high peaks of Yunnan province are famous for growing tea, that other globally beloved beverage. But Pu’er prefecture’s high mountains and temperate climate also provide the right growing conditions for arabica coffee.
China first started exporting coffee in the mid-1990s, with 58,000 60kg (132lb) bags in 1994-95. By 2019, commercial and speciality coffees from Yunnan were being exported to 55 countries including the United States, Japan, South Korea and many European Union members, according to the Yunnan News Network.
Ever more coffee is being grown in one of the most famous tea regions in the world. In 2020-21, China was the world’s ninth-largest producer of arabica – 99 per cent of which was grown in Pu’er – with growers producing 1.8 million 60kg bags, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Of this, 1.13 million bags, or 62.5 per cent, were exported.
This year, production is expected to hit 2 million 60kg bags, enough to match the domestic coffee consumption of Switzerland.