2026 Yunnan Gem Green Bean Contest: International Stage Opens at Dianchi Lake, Kunming

At a Glance (China Coffee Network): Yunnan Net (reporter Zhao Gang), June 22 — The international stage of the 2026 Second Yunnan Gem Green Bean Contest (Yunnan Cup of Excellence Pilot Competition) officially opened on the shores of Dianchi Lake in Kunming. The international stage brings together nine veteran coffee cuppers from countries including the United States, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Italy and Australia, together with two outstanding cuppers selected in China, to form a professional international judging panel that will assess and score the 40 shortlisted Yunnan green coffee samples.

Yunnan Net (reporter Zhao Gang), June 22 — The international stage of the 2026 Second Yunnan Gem Green Bean Contest (Yunnan Cup of Excellence Pilot Competition) officially opened on the shores of Dianchi Lake in Kunming. The international stage brings together nine veteran coffee cuppers from countries including the United States, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Italy and Australia, together with two outstanding cuppers selected in China, to form a professional international judging panel that will assess and score the 40 shortlisted Yunnan green coffee samples.

They will conduct the final assessment of the advancing coffee beans under the guidance of the head judge, and give scores that carry public credibility and reference value for the international market.

The competing beans are coded multiple times throughout the process to ensure the results are not influenced by information about their origin or producers. Following the Cup of Excellence judging standards, the panel will assess the 40 entries across eight professional dimensions: cleanliness, sweetness, acidity, mouthfeel, flavor, aftertaste, balance and overall impression. The top 10 winning beans will be auctioned live on the afternoon of June 25 at the main venue, Zhangmei Village Pier on the east bank of Dianchi Lake in Kunming. This will help premium Yunnan coffee reach consumers directly and steadily consolidate Yunnan coffee’s position in the global specialty coffee industry landscape.

A person in charge of the contest said that Yunnan currently ranks firmly among the world’s top ten Arabica coffee-producing countries, that the time is ripe for Chinese coffee to step onto the world stage, and that they hope coffee lovers around the globe will have the chance to taste a cup of coffee from Yunnan, China.

In recent years, Yunnan’s coffee-growing footprint has continued to expand, and the physicochemical quality and flavor profile of its green beans have improved steadily; Yunnan has grown into an emerging producing region with great potential in the global specialty coffee industry. As of 2025, the province’s coffee-growing area reached 1.495 million mu, with total output of 170,000 tonnes, while the coverage rate of improved varieties, the specialty-coffee rate and the deep-processing rate rose to 21.8%, 41.7% and 85% respectively.

With international standards, this competition provides coffee farmers across the province with a clear direction for specialty production; using the contest as a bridge to consumers, it will, through the auction, put Yunnan’s specialty green beans directly in the hands of global consumers, build a long-term, stable platform for international industry dialogue, deeply integrate Yunnan into the global specialty coffee industry network, and create a world-class coffee industry name card belonging to China’s Yunnan.

In addition, this Cup of Excellence pilot competition is a core professional event held in advance of the 2026 Dianchi International Coffee Culture Carnival, taking the lead in opening this year’s series of Dianchi coffee-and-tourism festivities. The ten best Yunnan specialty green beans selected by the contest will be displayed together and offered at dedicated cuppings during the carnival.