This coffee comes from Tianhao Estate, nestled in the mountains of Lancang County in southwestern Yunnan. Grown at elevations of 1,600–1,800 MASL, the cherries underwent what our importer, YD Selects, describes as a “red natural” process — designed to take advantage of the region’s exceptionally high sugar and pectin content. The result is a boozy, full-bodied cup with notes of spiced rum, dark chocolate, and hazelnut.

Tianhao Estate was founded in 2007 by Ms Wei Yunhua, who began planting coffee trees on the slopes around Pu’er city the year before.  While Pu’er is best known for growing tea, the climate is also ideal for arabica coffee. From the beginning, she focused on organic and sustainable practices, avoiding chemical pesticides and relying on homemade organic fertilisers. Nearly two decades later, the estate has grown considerably and now provides more than 200 jobs to the local community. A dedicated processing facility on site allows the team to manage every stage of production — from coffee plant to finished green bean.

After being washed, the cherries were sealed in tanks for controlled fermentation, with sugar levels closely monitored as they developed fruit-forward complexity. Brix readings (which measure dissolved solids, in this case, sugar) were tracked throughout fermentation — starting around 16–17 °Bx and reduced to approximately 8 °Bx. Once the target level was reached, the cherries were dried whole for several weeks, then hulled to remove the parchment and carefully sorted to eliminate any defects.

We purchased this lot through YD Selects, a green coffee trading company founded in 2024 by Yufan Wu and Jeremy Shen to support Yunnan farmers in producing and exporting high-quality coffee. This is our first year working together, and we had the pleasure of meeting Yufan earlier this year. We hope this will be the first of many coffees we source through them. Harvested and processed between January and March 2025, this coffee arrived in the UK in September 2025.