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Arabica Coffee of Yunnan

(People's Daily Online)    13:39, August 15, 2013
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Coffee has significant impacts on the economy, it is featured as having many social functions, and has been at the forefront of fair trade programs. With over 400 billion cups consumed every year, it is one of the most popular hot drinks in the world. Almost a third of the world’s population drinks coffee. Coffee ranks as one of the world's major commodity crops and is the major export product of some countries. They come from shrubs or small trees, native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia. Coffee includes calories, protein, fat and carbs, starch, sucrose, as well as Caffeine.It sure tastes good.

Coffee plants are cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia, Maldives,and Africa. Coffea is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. Seeds of this plant are the source of coffee. The seeds, called "coffee beans" in the trade, are widely cultivated in tropical countries in plantations for both local consumption and export to temperate countries. When grown in the tropics, coffee is a vigorous bush or small tree.

The two main species of the coffee plant used to produce the beverage are Coffea arabica and Coffee canephora (robusta). There are several species of Coffea, Coffea arabica - Arabica Coffe, Coffea canephora - Robusta coffee, Coffea congensis - Congo coffee and Coffea excelsa - Liberian coffee, which may be grown for the beans, but Coffea arabica is considered to have the best quality. It is popular for its flavor and fragrance.

Yunnan is known worldwide as a tea producing area and the only Arabica coffee-producing province in China. The tropical, subtropical zone and low-heat river valley in the southern and west southern Yunnan Province are ideal for Arabica coffee plantation. In particular there is a significant increase of cultivation of the higher grade Arabica coffee plant varietal.

Yunnan enjoys a subtropical zone in the south and southwest where it is adjacent with Vietnam, Burma and Thailand. Yunnan has many places which are suitable for the coffee growing condition, which are mainly in the Prefectures Of Lincai, Baoshan, Simao, Xishuangbannan and Dehong. A rare semi-tropical region of western Yunnan, Lujiangba never sees frost, making it suitable to grow coffee beans. Local Arabica beans result in strong, but not bitter coffee, with a moderate fragrance.

(Editor:YeXin、Chen Lidan)

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