Product Overview
Region: Yunnan
Altitude: 1,350 m.a.s.l.
Variety: catimor
Processing: washed
This is the third Chinese coffee we’ve roasted, and the second one from Banka washing station. In 2021 we had a natural processed coffee from them and we loved the big bold jammy notes in that one, but this year we decided to go with their washed coffee. We are appreciating this lot for its clarity and sweetness. This coffee is simple and sweet with honey, crème brûlée and vanilla bean flavours. In some roasts we’re pleased to be tasting subtle apricot and floral notes. This coffee will lend itself to any brewing method.
Banka Farm and washing station is based in Yunnan, southern China and is named after the two villages where the coffee cherry for these lots was grown and harvested: Banka Yi and Banka Er. Steampunk bought this coffee from Indochina coffee importers, a small family-run business specialising in coffee from China, Myanmar, India, Philippines and Thailand. They work with Yunnan Coffee Traders (YTC) to export coffee from China.
In 2018 YCT took over the management of the Banka washing station and a portion of the Banka farm, some 100 hectares of land. They installed one of the region’s first optical sorters and began experimenting with processing methods such as yeast fermentation and growing new varieties like pacamara and yellow bourbon.
Coffee was first planted in China by French missionaries in the 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that cultivation on a commercial scale began as part of a government-led project assisted by the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank. The focus on specialty coffee is relatively recent, with the past decade seeing smaller coffee farms and producers improving their knowledge and skills to produce better quality coffee like this one.
Yunnan province is mountainous with fertile land. Almost all of China’s coffee production happens in Yunnan and over half of this production is concentrated around Pu’er, a region famous for its centuries-old tradition of tea production. The people of Yunnan are a hugely diverse mix of different cultures and languages, with most of China’s officially recognised 56 different ethnic groups residing here. It’s not just diverse in terms of the variety of its people either, the region also boasts a vast array of flora and fauna (including elephants and tigers), snow-capped mountains, deep valleys, vast plateaus, subtropical jungles, beautiful lakes and majestic rivers, including the mighty Mekong.
Altitude: 1,350 m.a.s.l.
Variety: catimor
Processing: washed
This is the third Chinese coffee we’ve roasted, and the second one from Banka washing station. In 2021 we had a natural processed coffee from them and we loved the big bold jammy notes in that one, but this year we decided to go with their washed coffee. We are appreciating this lot for its clarity and sweetness. This coffee is simple and sweet with honey, crème brûlée and vanilla bean flavours. In some roasts we’re pleased to be tasting subtle apricot and floral notes. This coffee will lend itself to any brewing method.
Banka Farm and washing station is based in Yunnan, southern China and is named after the two villages where the coffee cherry for these lots was grown and harvested: Banka Yi and Banka Er. Steampunk bought this coffee from Indochina coffee importers, a small family-run business specialising in coffee from China, Myanmar, India, Philippines and Thailand. They work with Yunnan Coffee Traders (YTC) to export coffee from China.
In 2018 YCT took over the management of the Banka washing station and a portion of the Banka farm, some 100 hectares of land. They installed one of the region’s first optical sorters and began experimenting with processing methods such as yeast fermentation and growing new varieties like pacamara and yellow bourbon.
Coffee was first planted in China by French missionaries in the 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that cultivation on a commercial scale began as part of a government-led project assisted by the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank. The focus on specialty coffee is relatively recent, with the past decade seeing smaller coffee farms and producers improving their knowledge and skills to produce better quality coffee like this one.
Yunnan province is mountainous with fertile land. Almost all of China’s coffee production happens in Yunnan and over half of this production is concentrated around Pu’er, a region famous for its centuries-old tradition of tea production. The people of Yunnan are a hugely diverse mix of different cultures and languages, with most of China’s officially recognised 56 different ethnic groups residing here. It’s not just diverse in terms of the variety of its people either, the region also boasts a vast array of flora and fauna (including elephants and tigers), snow-capped mountains, deep valleys, vast plateaus, subtropical jungles, beautiful lakes and majestic rivers, including the mighty Mekong.
