Which Country's Brand is Blue Mountain Coffee? What Are Its Most Distinctive Characteristics?

As one of the representatives of high-quality coffee, Blue Mountain Coffee's ideal growing environment is created by the unique combination of weather, geological structure, and terrain in Jamaica's Blue Mountain range.

The mountain range extending across Jamaica reaches the eastern part of the island, with the Blue Mountains rising to over 2,100 meters. However, Blue Mountain Coffee is only cultivated at elevations between 910-1,700 meters, as areas above 1,700 meters are designated as nature reserves. In these regions, the weather is cool, foggy, and experiences frequent precipitation. The fertile soil and rainfall are perfectly balanced, and coffee trees are grown using mixed cultivation methods, sharing terraced spaces with banana and avocado trees that provide natural shade for the coffee plants.

The excellent growing environment, fertile volcanic soil, and the ancient Typica coffee variety combine to give Blue Mountain Coffee an exceptionally balanced and clean flavor profile. FrontStreet Coffee offers a washed Blue Mountain coffee bean from Jamaica's oldest coffee estate—Clifton Hill Estate, grown at 1,310 meters. After medium-dark roasting and cupping analysis, we found that Blue Mountain Coffee achieves perfect balance between acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. Its rich dark cocoa body carries subtle bright fruit acidity and a distinct sweet aftertaste, leaving everyone who tries it with an unforgettable impression.

Why is Blue Mountain Coffee so expensive?

First, Jamaica's coffee industry faces numerous challenges, including hurricane impacts, increasing labor costs, and the difficulty of mechanizing operations on terraced fields. Many small estates and farms struggle with rational cultivation practices, resulting in limited annual Blue Mountain Coffee production.

Second, due to Japan's continued investment in Jamaica's coffee industry, before 2012, most Blue Mountain Coffee was controlled by Japanese interests, who also held priority purchasing rights. In 1992, Jamaica sold 688 tons of Blue Mountain Coffee to Japan, 75 tons to the United States, and 59 tons to the United Kingdom. Today, 90% of Blue Mountain Coffee is purchased by Japan. Since the rest of the world can only access the remaining 10%, Blue Mountain Coffee is always in short supply regardless of price.

It wasn't until 2012 that the Jamaican government cancelled Japan's priority purchasing rights, giving other countries more opportunities to import Blue Mountain Coffee. The harvest period for Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee runs from June to November, typically using hand-picking methods. After harvesting, the beans undergo a series of processes including washing, pulping, fermentation, dehydration, drying, hulling, and roasting before becoming finished Blue Mountain Coffee beans.

During the green bean processing stage, each step has dedicated personnel responsible for quality supervision. For the precious Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica's government also employs unique packaging and transportation methods. Unlike other coffees packaged in 60kg burlap bags, Blue Mountain Coffee is shipped in wooden barrels following standards of 15, 30, or 70kg per barrel.

Jamaica is also the last country still using traditional wooden barrels for coffee packaging and transportation. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee beans must receive quality certification from the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB), the only institution authorized to issue such certificates. Additionally, for each export batch, specialized quality supervision experts are responsible for sampling, roasting, grinding, and brewing the coffee to determine whether it meets standards.

Although Blue Mountain Coffee prices are slightly higher compared to many regions' coffee beans, they are now significantly cheaper than ten years ago. FrontStreet Coffee sells Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 for 158 yuan per 100g.

How to identify authentic Blue Mountain Coffee

Many friends ask FrontStreet Coffee: Blue Mountain Coffee beans are so expensive, and I'm afraid of spending a lot of money on fake products. How can I identify authentic Blue Mountain Coffee beans? Which brands are trustworthy? Regarding this, FrontStreet Coffee would like to share several identification characteristics of Blue Mountain Coffee beans.

(1) Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans are all exported in whole wooden barrels, so when purchasing coffee beans, you can check if the seller has whole Blue Mountain barrels. This helps prevent sellers from passing off other coffee beans as Blue Mountain beans;

(2) Buyers of Blue Mountain Coffee beans (first-hand green bean buyers) can apply for Blue Mountain Coffee bean certification certificates from Jamaica's CIB or the estate, which can also prove the authenticity of Blue Mountain Coffee beans;

(3) You can observe the roasted beans—Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans should be uniform in size, full, and plump.

Currently, authentic Blue Mountain Coffee beans available in China are all of Blue Mountain No. 1 grade. At FrontStreet Coffee's physical store, you can see the wooden barrels required by the Jamaican government for exporting Blue Mountain Coffee, as well as the certificate of origin from the Blue Mountain Coffee's origin (Clifton Hill Estate).

Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Recommendations

To highlight the balanced nutty characteristics of Blue Mountain Coffee's acidity-sweetness-bitterness profile and to restore a more classic Blue Mountain flavor, FrontStreet Coffee has selected several medium and dark roast curves. Through cupping comparisons, we found that medium-dark roasting better enhances the chocolate sweetness.

To ensure everyone can enjoy freshly roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee ships all coffee beans within 5 days of roasting completion. After receiving your Blue Mountain Coffee, you can keep the package unopened and store it in a cool, dry place until 6-7 days after the roast date printed on the back label. This allows the coffee beans to naturally release some of their internal carbon dioxide, stabilizing subsequent extraction.

Blue Mountain Coffee has a relatively dark roast degree, with flavors leaning toward richness and body. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use the KONO dripper, utilizing its characteristic close fit between filter paper and dripper to create an immersion-style extraction during pour-over, resulting in higher coffee concentration. Additionally, to avoid over-extraction making the coffee bitter and strong, FrontStreet Coffee uses slightly lower temperature hot water and a coarser grind setting.

FrontStreet Coffee's in-store extraction parameters: KONO dripper, 88°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g coffee dose, grind size (70-75% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve).

Specific brewing technique: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom; second stage, pour in small circular motions to 125g, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, then continue pouring in small circular motions to 225g. The total extraction time should be around 2 minutes and 10 seconds after complete drip-through.

Pour-over Blue Mountain Coffee flavor profile: Rich nutty and dark chocolate flavors, with full-bodied mouthfeel and a sweet, clean aftertaste.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473