Pu’er Coffee

 Among coffee professionals, there is a group of true “behind-the-scenes heroes.” They may not be great talkers, many of them lean toward being introverts, and they tend to work with rigor, precision, and an almost obsessive attention to detail and data. In my eyes, they are among the most technically skilled people in the coffee industry: coffee roasters. If I had to sum up their work in one sentence, it would be this: “I am not the creator of flavor—I am a carrier of flavor.” They are the ones who allow every coffee drinker to experience the unique character and terroir of different origins. In that sense, roasters play an irreplaceable role. Looking back, I’m surprised that despite nearly ten years of daily writing, I’ve never written a dedicated piece about coffee roasters. Recently, as I’ve been testing beans from different roasters, I’ve found that I can genuinely sense their thinking through their roasting styles. This quiet, almost invisible form of dialogue has deepene...

 Not long ago, while scrolling through Weibo, I came across a post saying that Guangxi has started growing its own coffee . That immediately caught my attention and genuinely surprised me. Curious, I decided to dig deeper and share what I found with you. From a coffee perspective, China is actually a rather unique country. It has a complete coffee supply chain —from cultivation and roasting to distribution and consumption. China is both a coffee-producing nation and a coffee-consuming one. When people talk about Chinese coffee, Yunnan naturally comes to mind as the most well-known producing region. Over the past few years, we’ve all witnessed the remarkable transformation of Yunnan coffee. It has moved from being primarily bulk-purchased for instant coffee to embracing a mature specialty coffee path. Today, even traditionally processed Yunnan Catimor can offer a clean and pleasant cup profile, and varieties like Yunnan Geisha have also emerged, bringing greater diversity. These...