What is Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee - The Difference Between Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee and Blue Mountain Coffee - Blue Mountain Coffee Price

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FrontStreet Coffee · An Introduction to Blue Mountain Coffee

The world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, every single bean of which is chased after, descends from the Typica family.

The Blue Mountains lie in the eastern part of Jamaica. On a clear day the surrounding Caribbean reflects direct sunlight and throws a brilliant blue glow across the peaks, which is where the name comes from. The highest summit rises 2,256 meters, making it the tallest peak in the Caribbean and a well-known tourist destination. The range sits inside the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, clean unpolluted air and a humid climate of year-round fog and rain, averaging 1,980 mm of precipitation and a temperature of around 27°C. Those conditions produced the world-famous Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, and with it the world's most expensive coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee carries every hallmark of a fine coffee. Its taste is rich and mellow, and because sweetness, acidity and bitterness are so perfectly balanced, it shows no bitterness at all, only a moderate and perfectly judged acidity. It is usually drunk as a single origin, but with production so limited and the price so high, the market generally falls back on coffees of similar flavor as substitutes.

FrontStreet Coffee · Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Authentic FrontStreet Coffee Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has pronounced acidity and fruit flavors.

True Jamaican Blue Mountain is one of the coffees grown under the most favorable conditions anywhere in the world. Jamaica's weather, geology and topography combine to create an ideal, naturally blessed site. Certified Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee can only be grown in the Blue Mountain region, in the eastern northern part of the island near Kingston.

The terrain is also extremely rugged, which makes harvesting very difficult; the pickers are almost entirely women. Every tree grows on steep slopes, so the picking is arduous and only experienced local women can manage it. Choosing properly ripe cherries during the harvest matters enormously, since underripe or overripe beans drag down the quality. Once picked, the beans must be hulled the same day, then fermented for 12-18 hours. After that they are washed and sorted. Drying comes next and must take place on concrete floors or thick blankets until moisture content drops to 12%-14%, after which the beans are held in dedicated warehouses. When needed, they are pulled out for roasting and then ground. Every one of these steps has to be tightly controlled, or the quality suffers.

Today six major marks can identify Jamaican Blue Mountain origins: Mavis Bank Central Factory (M.B.C.E), Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative (M.H.C.C.T.), Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative (P.X.X.S.H.), Coffee Industry Board (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Board (St. John's Peak), and Blue Mountain (J.A.S). Some estate-level coffees are also marked on their wooden barrels.

In 1950 the Jamaican government established the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board, which sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and oversees their enforcement to safeguard quality. The board issues special official seals for Jamaican raw and roasted coffee exports. Because Japanese loans helped improve production quality, the market was assured.

Since Japan has invested continuously in Jamaica's coffee industry, most Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is now controlled by Japanese companies, which also hold priority purchasing rights. In 1992 Jamaica sold 688 tons of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee to Japan, 75 tons to the United States and 59 tons to the United Kingdom. Today, 90% of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is purchased by the Japanese. With the rest of the world able to obtain only the remaining 10%, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is in short supply at any price. Appreciation for it has reached near-fanatical levels, and Japanese UCC facilities are visible throughout the Blue Mountain coffee estates.

By 1981 Jamaica had developed about 1,500 hectares for coffee cultivation, and it later invested in another 6,000 hectares. In reality today's Blue Mountain region is small, with only 6,000 hectares under cultivation, so it is impossible for every coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to have grown there. A further 12,000 hectares are planted with two other coffees, High Mountain Supreme and Jamaican Prime.

Jamaican Blue Mountain green beans are widely available on Japanese streets, where you can buy and roast them on the spot. In Japan, about 300 grams of Blue Mountain coffee costs between RMB 500-600, with a range of roast levels to choose from.

FrontStreet Coffee · Telling Blue Mountain Coffee from Blue Mountain Flavor

More than 90% of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is exported to Japan, so the many "Blue Mountain coffees" sold in Chinese coffee shops are almost certainly fakes. The so-called "Blue Mountain blend" has no relationship to genuine Blue Mountain at all. This situation arose because early Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee was rare and expensive, so operators blended beans and roasted them dark to approximate Blue Mountain's flavor profile. The beans in a "Blue Mountain blend" are mixed, with noticeable variation in shape that makes them easy to spot. Nor should you trust "premium Blue Mountain" at just dozens of yuan per pound or "Blue Mountain coffee" at over thirty yuan a cup. Blue Mountain coffee generally costs around 1,000 yuan per kilogram, and once profit margins are added, the retail price is unavoidably very high.

FrontStreet Coffee · Classification of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Classification of Blue Mountain Coffee

The history of Jamaican coffee goes back to the 18th century, when the British introduced coffee trees to Jamaica and planted them in the Blue Mountains. The crop is divided into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, Jamaican High Mountain coffee and Jamaican Prime coffee, with the different grades commanding different prices.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

(Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee) Both Blue Mountain coffee and High Mountain coffee are split into four grades each. Ranked by quality from highest to lowest: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3 and PB, where PB stands for peaberry. According to CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666 meters in altitude can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

Jamaican High Mountain Coffee

(Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans) Coffee produced below 666 meters within the Jamaican Blue Mountain region is called High Mountain coffee. It is second only to Blue Mountain in quality and is known in the trade as Blue Mountain's brother variety. Because Jamaican Blue Mountain production is so limited, Jamaican High Mountain is the best choice if you want to taste that Jamaican character.

Jamaican Prime Coffee

(Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans) Coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain region is simply called Jamaican coffee. Chinese coffee professionals once widely held the misconception that only coffee grown above 1,800 meters in the Blue Mountain region could be called Blue Mountain coffee. In fact there is only one estate above 1,800 meters on the Blue Mountain peaks: Amber, owned by a Chinese descendant whose family name is Lyn and whose roots are in Guangdong, China. That estate holds only 30 hectares and produces very little. Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed across five mountain areas: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak and Blue Mountain Peak.

Identifying Authentic vs. Fake Blue Mountain

1. Appearance: FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain green beans are green in color, very uniform, medium-to-small in size, with slightly upturned ends. After roasting they expand noticeably and become very full.

2. Grinding: True FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain beans grow at high altitude, so their cellular structure is relatively loose. Ground by hand they feel crisp, smooth and continuous, with no resistance.

3. Aroma: The aroma is very rich and dense. So-called blended Blue Mountain coffee never has that kind of aroma.

4. Taste: True FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain coffee tastes balanced and rich, with no single flavor standing out or falling short. This is the most important identification point, and no other bean can match it. Blue Mountain peaberries have a more restrained aroma but a relatively stronger flavor.

5. Feeling: As the world's finest coffee, FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain has the classic balanced character. Tasting it, one inevitably feels a subconscious, hard-to-describe satisfaction.

The coffee in the cup tastes very clean and is among the sweetest coffees in the world. Jim Reynolds of Peet's Coffee & Tea described it this way: "The best example of Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee is that it has aroma, smooth richness, and it gives me a feeling of gem-like quality. It is as precious as a gemstone. It is complex but very gentle, it is sweet, it has very strong body. You must taste it to know what I'm talking about." Unique growing conditions and extraordinary care at every step of production have made FrontStreet Coffee Jamaican Blue Mountain justly famous.

Dear reader, "Blue Mountain flavor" coffee actually has no relationship whatsoever with authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Once you understand what a real Blue Mountain is, the practical question becomes where to find one you can actually trust. Only coffee grown in the designated Blue Mountain region and certified by the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board can legitimately carry the name, and the traditional wooden barrels, shipped in 15, 45 and 70 kg sizes, are themselves a mark of authenticity, since each barrel is stamped with the batch details of the green beans inside. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 comes from the historic Clifton estate, which has been growing and processing coffee since around 1750 and sits at an average elevation of 4300 feet (1310.64 m), where generous altitude, mild afternoon cloud cover, ample sunlight and mineral-rich soil combine to slow the ripening of the cherries and concentrate flavor. This is the highest grade of the crop, with strict standards for bean size, defect count and overall quality.

In the cup it is remarkably clean, complex and gentle, with chocolate sweetness and very strong body, the bitter, sweet and acidic notes in perfect proportion, an almost complete absence of bitterness, a restrained but perfect acidity and a long fruity finish. FrontStreet Coffee roasts it medium-dark to draw out that classic depth, and suggests brewing with a Kono dripper, which reinforces the full body. Use 15g of coffee, a 1:15 ratio and 87-88°C water, slightly coarser than you would grind a light roast, roughly the texture of granulated sugar, and let the beans rest 4-7 days from the roast date. Pour in three stages: 30g for a 30-second bloom, then to 120g with a slow, steady vertical stream in small circles, then to 225g a touch faster to keep the bed from clogging. Whether you want a daily cup or a gift for someone who appreciates the classics, Blue Mountain No.1 is the benchmark.