Those of you who follow our work will know we choose our sourcing partners carefully—the values of the producers and exporters we work with must align with the tenants of the Relationship Coffee Model, championing traceability, transparency, quality, and origin impact. Yunnan Coffee Traders (YCT) wonderfully embody these attributes, investing in trainings for farmers and wet mill managers, bringing innovation in processing and production techniques to the region, and overseeing the supply chain from farm to mill to ensure quality and traceability are upheld. They are impressive coffee professionals who have dedicated their lives to living and working in the region, serving as an extension of our origin operations across the globe.
Without further ado, let's get to the coffees on offer!
LiJiang is a farm and wet mill in Paling, named after its manager, Li Jiangrong, one of the few second-generation farmers in the region. The farm is managed by Li and his father JiaKe, a partnership that extends back more than a decade. These men are pillars of the local coffee industry, having one of the few coffee farms in Menglian that has been able to weather the challenges of changing policies and fluctuating markets. The farm is quite large, producing around 15 metric tons of coffee per year.
Fuyan is a farm and wet mill in Nanben, managed by Li Guangyun with support from his wife Nanuo. The farm, which produces both coffee and tea, is maintained by villagers in the area, who also harvest the cherries and deliver them to the mill. Through this model, Fuyan management provides ongoing support, technical assistance, and fertilizers to these local farmers to ensure they cultivate high quality coffee and are fairly compensated for the high-quality coffee they deliver to the mill.
In 2017, Fuyan coffee placed 3rd in the "Best of Yunnan" competition.
Mangzhang is an estate farm located in Nanya. It is owned and operated by a husband and wife partnership, Mr. Hu Xixiang and Mrs. Li Guangqiong. The farm has a small crew of full-time staff who work at the farm year round, and then during harvest season the neighboring villagers will come over and be paid as pickers for the harvest. Mangzhang stretches over 62.5 hectares.
YiWu is managed by three farmer families in the village of KanNiuShan (rough translation is: Grazing Cattle Mountain), located in the Shigaoqing region of Yunnan. KanNiuShan offers an exceptional micro-climate for production due to its position on the warmer northeast side of the mountain, which is extraordinarily steep but well protected from the cold weather that causes the opposite, more gently sloped side of the mountain to regularly develop frost.
The A78D lot is from a farm called Banka in the Menglian region of Yunnan developed by Mr. Hu, one of Yunnan Coffee Trader's farmer partners. He oversaw the operations of the Banka wet mill and worked alongside the villagers in the area to produce specialty coffee on Banka's land. In 2018, Yunnan Coffee Traders took over the management of the Banka wet mill and a portion of the Banka farm, some 100 hectares of land. The A78D represents coffee from 30 hectares of this land located near the village of “AQicDu,” which can be translated to English as A78D.
With a coffee featured in the 2017 United States Barista Championship, Banka is helping to put Yunnan coffee on the map as a top specialty coffee origin.
Footer image by Corlett Photography for Yunnan Coffee Traders.
Banner, Mangzhang and Banka images by Bryon Lippincott for Yunnan Coffee Traders.
Remaining images by Yunnan Coffee Traders.
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