Complex

A boozy, fruit-forward Chinese natural — the kind that catches people off guard. Complex is built around Banka Farm's natural lot from Menglian, picked by smallholders from Banka Yi and Banka Er and processed at the farm's own washing station in Yunnan.

The producer — Banka Farm, Yunnan

Banka was started nearly twenty years ago by Mr. Hu, a local grower who was among the first to take Chinese specialty coffee seriously. Since 2018 it's been run in partnership with Yunnan Coffee Traders — the team driving China's specialty scene forward, with their own milling, training and research operation across the region. They've been working with our import partners Indochina Coffee since 2016.

The lot — Banka Natural

Catimor P3/P4, grown at 1,800m, processed as a natural. Cherries are picked ripe, fermented and dried whole on raised beds — alongside experimental Pacamara and Yellow Bourbon plots and ongoing yeast-fermentation trials. It's a properly modern Chinese coffee: jammy, fruit-led and built to surprise.

How to drink it

• Espresso — best showcase. Pulls thick and syrupy, more jam than fruit.
• Filter / V60 — gummy cherry and stonefruit jump out, dark chocolate rounds it off.
• With milk — softens into a chocolate-and-cherry cup. Different drink, still good.