CHINA YUNNAN

YIRONG COFFEE MANOR

Located at in Menglian Prefecture to the west of Pu’er City, Yi Rong Coffee’s terrain descends from Northern heights of 1600m down to 1300m in the South. A natural, all year round spring flows from the ridge through the property providing water for the plant as w ell as the washing station. Far from the resources of China’s bustling cities, Yi Rong benefits from a subtropical monsoon climate that is a naturally ideal environment for growing specialty coffee.

Established in 1988， Yi Rong coffee has now passed to the second generation of coffee growers. With over 30 years of experience and knowledge of the area, Jean’s father passed on a dream of growing an ever developing coffee culture in China, which drives YiRong coffee to innovate and improve in every aspect of their production. Yi Rong Coffee is regarded as one of the municipality’s leading enterprises and has worked to improve the livelihoods of the surrounding indigenous people including the Wa, La Hu and Dai Minorities. Every household on the farms now has their own motorized transportation and more than 95% of have built their own homes in the area. Yi Rong Coffee is committed to living and working in contentment and peace.

Covering an area of more than 2,000 mu (>130 ha), Yi Rong Coffee now maintains over 60,000 coffee trees. The harvest period extends from December through to February with production output of 200 tons to 300 tones. The manor enforces selective picking of completely filled and red cherries to ensure quality and flavor of the final processed coffee.

To reduce pollution and environmental impact, compost is applied as a substitute to chemical pesticide. The mountain spring water is used in the washing process which develops sweet, mellow, thick coffees that are refreshing to the mouth. Yi Rong Coffee’s focus on quality above all else shines through in its final products with some of the most constantly excellent coffees in the region. One of the most interesting sights around Yi Rong Coffee’s farm is the Asian elephants that wander through the property. While they are less destructive than the elephants of India and Africa, Yunnan’s elephants can still trample coffee bushes and cause problems around the plantations. To keep them out of the coffee shrubs, Yi Rong plant fruit trees and other plants that the elephants love outside of the coffee area to gently encourage the large mammals to avoid the working areas and to minimize damage.

Yunnan’s coffee fields are located in the foothills of the Himalayas providing an ideal environment close to the equator  for producing high quality Arabica coffee. Temperatures in this region vary greatly with altitude which makes it a key factor in determining the success of the coffee plantation. A unique factor in this region is that the winds and weather that sweep down from the higher up mountain range also play a big roll in determing whether a plot of land will be subject to extremes of temperature and rainfall. Yi Rong’s success as a premium coffee producer is in part due to their land being situated in close to an ideal environment to produce some of Yunnan’s best coffees.