Source Analysis by Chris Kornman
Yunnan is saturated with flavor. Fresh lemongrass, vibrant chilis, and edible flowers adorn nearly every regional delicacy. There are dozens of wild edible mushrooms. The numerous ethnic minority peoples in the region bring influences to the cuisine that are reminiscent of the foods of Thailand, India, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. The coffee here is no exception.
I was lucky to find myself traveling to the far reaches of the country in China’s southwestern-most region, to a semi-autonomous zone beyond the city of Pu’er (internationally famous for its fermented tea) to the little city of Menglian. I say little. It’s a backwater, as Chinese cities are concerned. A mere 800,000 in population, almost twice the size of Oakland, California.
In the city, an entire block is dedicated just to specialty coffee cafes, each serving their locally sourced Geshas and Catimors and co-ferments late into the night. On the outskirts, coffee grows in the hills alongside avocado and tea. It’s here that Aki Chen is encamped. Literally. He lives in a tent.
Once successful in business in the Tier 1 megalopolises in the east, an interest in specialty coffee sparked passion and a new career, one which initially saw him sourcing for one of Shanghai’s leading specialty coffee roasters, but then eventually, yearning for deeper connection to China’s agricultural communities, led him to uproot and move to Menglian. Here, he has established a coffee processing facility, coworking and event space, cafe, and who-knows-what-else in the coming years. He’s invested in land across the border in Myanmar to expand his coffee empire, while investing in the community in Menglian by providing education, processing, marketing, and placement services for the coffee growers in the region.
Aki was once a coffee buyer, including buying coffee from Royal. He’s now our newest supplier, in an up-and-coming region experimenting with some of the most cutting-edge techniques in coffee production today. There are parallel idioms in English and Chinese. Here, we say, to “come full circle.” In Chinese, the phrase 周而复始 (“zhōng ér fù shǐ”) indicates the end has come back to the start.
Aki’s experiments are wild, absolutely bending the mind and pallet. I tasted mushroom co-ferments and Bailey’s-aged coffee. However, for our first foray into Chinese coffee, we erred on the side of restraint and selected a jasmine-extract co-ferment. It’s one of our favorites of the year, in part because there is such precision of flavor, and in part because it has been inspired by the classic pearled jasmine green tea, famously produced in China. The iconic pairing was impossible to pass up.
Aki’s process began at Montree Village, harvesting ripe cherries and selectively choosing both by hand and by color sorter the ripest fruits. Thereafter, the coffee cherries are depulped and fermented with a jasmine flower extract for 24-72 hours (depending upon the intended flavor profile). After fermentation is complete, the coffee is washed and dried on raised beds for 14-16 days.
This is our first Chinese Crown Jewel. It’s the result of passion and labor, and a spirit of collaboration that Aki imbues in everything he touches. I’m extraordinarily proud to have filled my end of the bargain we made in March, by bringing it to California. I hope you enjoy this unusual spectacle of a coffee. While I don’t expect it to last long, I do expect there will be more where it came from in the future.
