Harvest: Coffee cherries are hand harvested from Banka farm and nearby villages.

Pulping & Fermenting: The coffee cherry is pulped to remove the skin, fruit and mucilage. The remaining coffee (parchment) is dry-fermented for 18 hours.

Sorting: Next, they are run through narrow channels of flowing water to sort the parchment coffee by density.

Drying: The parchment coffee is spread out on drying patios for approximately 5-8 days.

Banka farm and washing station is based in Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County, Yunnan and is named after the two adjacent villages (Banka Yi and Banka Er) where the coffee cherry is harvested.

Our origin partners, Yunnan Coffee Traders manage Banka wet mill and a portion of the Banka farm, some 100 hectares of land, installing one of the region’s first optical sorters, experimenting with processing methods such as yeast fermentation and growing new varieties such as Pacamara and Yellow Bourbon.

Indochina has worked in partnership with YCT since we first began importing coffees to the UK in 2016. As a pioneer of the Chinese specialty coffee industry in the Menglian County of Yunnan, YCT operates farming, mill, research, and training facilities. Its mission is three-fold:

Create opportunities for Yunnan farmers to engage in sustainable production practices

Employ industry best-practices for sourcing, processing, wholesaling, and exporting coffees

Supply coffee to importers and roasters who care about sustainability, traceability, and transparency.