Artisan Roast: China, Xingang, Natural

The Yunnan region of China is better known for its rich bio-diversity and being the probable home of tea, but is now fast gaining a reputation for producing unique high-quality speciality coffees too. Early production in China focused on volume washed coffees for the ever-growing domestic market. Once production stabilised, recent years have seen diversification into micro-lots and alternative processing methods that are breaking pre-conceptions around the world.

This particular coffee, produced on a farm managed by a mother and daughter team, has been double fermented to produce a wild and fruit forward flavour profile. This involves holding the coffee in airtight bags before initial drying and then re-bagging the coffee fruit midway through drying to develop more intense fruit like flavours. Processing like this needs time, deft care and management to make sure the wild tropical fruit flavours remain harmonious with the taste balance of the coffee.

We’ve kept the roast on the light side to experience these flavours at their most opulent. Ripe banana and strawberry like flavours combine with green mango and undertones of liquorice. These melt effortlessly together onto a creamy mouthfeel. An almost lactic like structure subtly holds all these bold elements in place.