What Grade is Geisha Coffee? Understanding Panama Geisha Coffee Brands and Essential Estates

Whether or not you drink coffee, you have almost certainly heard of Jamaica's Blue Mountain. Open any online shop and you will find no shortage of "Blue Mountain flavor" and "Blue Mountain blend" options. What makes Blue Mountain so special that it leaves such a lasting impression? Let us explore some facts about it.

History of Jamaican Coffee

The history of Jamaican coffee goes back to the 18th century. In 1717, France's King Louis XV ordered coffee cultivation in Jamaica. In the mid-1720s, Jamaica's Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes imported Arabica seeds from Martinique and began promoting cultivation in the St. Andrew area. Coffee trees were introduced to Jamaica and planted in the Blue Mountain range, which was further divided into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, High Mountain coffee and Jamaican coffee. Different grades command different prices.

Blue Mountain Geography

The Blue Mountain range lies in eastern Jamaica. It takes its name from the fact that on clear days, when the sun shines directly on the azure Caribbean Sea, the peaks reflect the brilliant blue of the water. The highest peak reaches 2,256 meters, making it the highest point in the Caribbean region and a famous tourist destination. Sitting in the coffee belt, it has fertile volcanic soil, fresh, unpolluted air and a humid climate with fog and rain year-round (average precipitation of 1,980mm and a temperature around 27°C). These conditions created the world-renowned Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, as well as some of the most expensive coffee in the world.

True Blue Mountain is one of the coffees grown under the most superior conditions anywhere. Jamaica's weather, geology and topography together provide an ideal, naturally gifted place. Designated Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee can only be grown in the Blue Mountain area, north of Kingston in eastern Jamaica. The ridge that crosses Jamaica extends to the eastern part of the island, with the Blue Mountain range rising above 2,100 meters. The cool, foggy weather with frequent rain keeps this fertile land well watered. Here, people use mixed cultivation, planting coffee trees alongside banana and avocado trees on terraced slopes.

Harvesting Challenges

The mountains are also extremely rugged, which makes harvesting very difficult (the pickers are almost entirely women). The coffee trees all grow on steep mountain slopes, making picking exceptionally challenging, and only skilled local women can manage it. It is crucial to select perfectly ripe cherries during harvest, since underripe or overripe beans affect quality.

Processing Method

Washed processing: Blue Mountain uses only the washed method.

The washed method uses water and fermentation to remove the skin, pulp and mucilage. Farms using it must build washing tanks with a continuous supply of fresh water. During processing, the skin and pulp are removed first, then the beans ferment for 12-18 hours. The fermented beans are placed in tanks and moved back and forth, using friction between beans and the power of flowing water to wash them until smooth and clean. After washing, the beans are still enclosed in the parchment shell with a moisture content of 50%. They must be sun-dried down to 12-14% moisture, or they will keep fermenting and become moldy and spoiled. They are then screened and stored in dedicated warehouses. Every one of these steps must be strictly controlled, or quality suffers.

The Three Major Growing Regions of Blue Mountain Coffee

The Blue Mountain area is small, with only 6,000 hectares of planting area, so it is impossible for every coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to come from there. A further 12,000 hectares are used to grow two other, non-Blue Mountain types: High Mountain Supreme coffee and Jamaican Prime coffee.

Today the St. Andrew region remains one of the three major growing regions for Blue Mountain coffee, the other two being Portland and St. Thomas. Some small estates also grow it, such as Wallenford Estate, Silver Hill Estate and J. Martinez's Atlanta Estate. Even the largest estate owners here would be considered small-scale by international standards, and many are smallholders whose families have worked this land for two centuries.

There are currently six certifications that can represent Blue Mountain coffee origins, such as M.B.C.E (Mavis Bank Central Factory), M.H.C.C.T. (Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative), P.X.X.S.H. (Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative), Coffee Industry Board (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Board (St. John's Peak) and J.A.S (Jamaica Agricultural Society). Some estate-level coffees are also marked on wooden barrels.

Popular Blue Mountain Coffee Brands

Next, let us introduce several common Blue Mountain coffee brands.

Coffee Trades

The estate name is CLYDESDALE, and the company's coffee factory sits in the backyard of the CIB office building. The estate is located about halfway up Blue Mountain, at around 1,200 meters. Jamaica's other two major Blue Mountain coffee companies are Wallenford and Mavis Bank. Both were originally state-owned. Wallenford's production exceeds 60% of Jamaica's total Blue Mountain output, while Mavis Bank's exceeds 20%. Mavis Bank is also one of the few Jamaican Blue Mountain companies that handles all three grades: Jamaican Blue Mountain, Jamaican High Mountain and Jamaican Prime.

WALLENFORD

WALLENFORD Estate lies in the heart of Jamaica's Blue Mountain range, on the slopes of Mount Catherine at around 1,524 meters elevation. WALLENFORD began planting Blue Mountain coffee in 1790. The perennially cold, foggy climate makes the coffee fruit sweet and plump, producing uniquely high-quality Blue Mountain beans.

Moreover, while the Jamaican government sold and privatized most estates, WALLENFORD is the only one that remained under direct government management. Its quality control is the strictest; rather than chasing commercial scale, it treats maintaining the reputation of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee as its mission.

1. The official registered logo of the Jamaica Coffee Board, used to certify and inspect exported Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee;
2. The Jamaica Coffee Board (CIB) officially registered BLUE MOUNTAIN COFFEE® trademark, which identifies authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee packaging;
3. The WALLENFORD COFFEE COMPANY registered trademark, which identifies WALLENFORD Blue Mountain coffee packaging.

Mavis Bank

The Munn family began operating the Mavis Bank company in 1885. Its location at the time was slightly higher than the current site and was called Strawberry Hill. Mavis Bank processes coffee cherries at high altitudes. It invested in brand-new equipment, which noticeably improved its trial batches, because its processing is genuinely flawless. The flavor is very mild and smooth with good body, sometimes reminiscent of the aroma of high-mountain Dongding oolong tea.

R.S.W Blue Mountain

R.S.W Blue Mountain Estate is located in the southeastern mountains of Jamaica. R.S.W refers to 100% Blue Mountain coffee produced by its Resource, Sherwood Forest and Whitfield Hall estates. Coffee grown in these three areas ranges from approximately 700 to 1,600 meters in altitude. The mountains are often shrouded in cool cloud and mist, which is very beneficial for the trees. After harvest, all the fruit is concentrated at the Sherwood Forest washing station for processing.

Clifton Mount Estate

Clifton Mount is Jamaica's oldest coffee-producing area still in normal operation today. It is also the only farm in Jamaica with Rainforest Alliance certification. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No.1 comes from Clifton Farm and uses traditional washed processing.

As early as the mid-18th century, around 1750, Clifton Farm began planting and producing coffee. Its cultivation and processing areas sit at an average altitude of 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters). Sufficient altitude, gentle afternoon cloud and mist that wrap the mountain forest in shade, abundant sunlight and mineral-rich soil give the trees good growing conditions and also extend the ripening period of the cherries.

Gold Cup

Established in 2003, Gold Cup was founded through collaboration between Dr. Charles Lyn and several farmer teams in the designated Blue Mountain region. Mount Lebanon in St. Andrew (elevation approximately 975-1,280 meters) and Abbey Green Estate in St. Thomas (elevation approximately 1,158-1,585 meters) are both partners, and the well-known Abbey Green is also currently one of the largest estates in the Jamaican Blue Mountain region.

To ensure the best quality and control, Gold Cup invests heavily in post-processing, updating hardware such as new pulping machines, and it maintains good control through green-bean processing, drying and roast sample testing. Gold Cup is also the largest shareholder of the well-known BMCP processing plant. Fully matured red cherries from high-altitude areas of St. Thomas and St. Andrew are sent to the company's affiliated washing station. The first stage still pre-screens floating beans, after which they enter the Blue Mountain Coffee Processors LTD plant for drying. After screening and sun-drying, they rest for 8 weeks and are graded again by green-bean size, density, color and appearance. Finally, cupping confirms whether any potential imperfections remain. All of these procedures are completed simultaneously under the guidance and control of the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB), with all specifications executed to Jamaica's highest domestic standards. The quality of the green beans is especially reflected in the flagship brand "Amber Estate."

Gold Cup currently has two brands: "Amber Estate" and "BMCP" from the Blue Mountain Coffee Processors LTD plant. Among them, the independent Amber Estate is its top-tier flagship, with cherries 100% harvested from the Abbey Green and Mount Lebanon estates and strictly selected from the highest-quality green beans graded by the Blue Mountain Coffee Processors plant.

Blue Mountain Coffee Varieties

The variety of Blue Mountain coffee is Typica.

Typica's top leaves are bronze-colored, and the beans are oval or slender-pointed. The plant is tall with slightly inclined branches at angles of 50-70 degrees. It has an elegant flavor but a weak constitution and poor disease resistance. Each tree produces very low yields with few fruits.

Typica has a distinctive feature: its leaf tips are copper-colored, hence the name "red-topped coffee." The opposite leaves are long-oval with smooth surfaces. The terminal branches are long with few side branches. The flowers are white, blooming at the base where the petiole joins the branch. Mature cherries look like cherries and are bright red.

How Did Japan Get Priority Purchasing Rights?

Whenever Blue Mountain coffee is mentioned, everyone knows that a large share of it was bought up by Japan, making it hard to find Blue Mountain outside Japan. There is a history behind this.

In 1950, the Jamaican government established the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board, which set quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervised their implementation to safeguard quality. The board awarded special official seals to Jamaican exported raw and roasted coffee. Because Japanese loans were used to improve production quality, the market was guaranteed.

By 1981, Jamaica had opened another 1,500 hectares of land for coffee cultivation, followed by investment in an additional 6,000 hectares. In fact, today's Blue Mountain area is a small place with only 6,000 hectares of planting area, so not everything labeled "Blue Mountain" can come from there. A further 12,000 hectares are used for two other coffee types: High Mountain Supreme coffee and Jamaican Prime coffee.

According to 2013 export statistics from the Jamaican Coffee Board, of the limited Blue Mountain quota, 85% is exported to Japan, 5% to the United States, 5% to Europe and 5% to other countries. Yet in the global consumption distribution of authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain, according to International Coffee Association statistics, China accounts for 15% of consumption, because some of Japan's, Australia's and Europe's shares are exported onward through directly operated branches.

Classification and Grading of Blue Mountain

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 Mountain range, later divided into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, Jamaican High Mountain coffee and Jamaican coffee. Different grades mean different prices.

(1) Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Within both Blue Mountain coffee and High Mountain coffee there are four grades each. From highest to lowest quality they are NO.1, NO.2, NO.3 and PB, where PB stands for Peaberry (round bean). According to CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666 meters can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The supreme among coffee specialties is produced in the Blue Mountain area at approximately 2,000-2,256 meters. Because it grows on steep slopes, production is small, with large, high-quality beans and a harmonious flavor that combines appropriate acidity, bitterness, aroma, body and sweetness. Recognized worldwide as a supreme coffee, national-treasure Blue Mountain No.1 carries the highest price of all.

(2) Jamaican High Mountain Coffee

Coffee produced below 666 meters in the Jamaican Blue Mountain area is called High Mountain coffee. It is second only to Blue Mountain in quality and is known by insiders as Blue Mountain's sibling variety. Because Jamaican Blue Mountain production is so limited, if you want a taste of the Jamaican style, High Mountain is your best choice.

(3) Jamaican Coffee

Coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain range is called Jamaican coffee. Chinese coffee professionals once widely believed, mistakenly, that only coffee grown above 1,800 meters in the Blue Mountain area could be called Blue Mountain coffee. In fact, above 1,800 meters on the range there is only one estate, Amber. Its owner is of Chinese descent with the surname Lyn (Lin), with ancestral roots in Guangdong, China. The estate has only 30 hectares with very limited production. Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed across five mountainous areas: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak and Blue Mountain Peak.

Authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Has Certificate Certification

The Jamaican government once insisted that all Blue Mountain coffee be roasted in Jamaica to ensure consistent quality. Roasting, however, is a delicate art requiring experience, training and expensive equipment. From a consumer's point of view, beans should be obtained and consumed immediately after roasting, which coffee roasted in Jamaica cannot satisfy. Now, Jamaican green coffee can be exported.

CIB

Jamaica is the only country in the world with a government coffee management agency, the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. CIB's functions include technical guidance on cultivation, processing training, fair trade and quality supervision, along with other matters related to Jamaican Blue Mountain quality and branding. Its board members are all estate owners who hold a certain scale of planting in Jamaica (owing to shifts in the industry, newly certified Jamaican Blue Mountain estates now need an area of more than 50 hectares).

CIB stipulates that only Blue Mountain coffee beans produced in regions above 2,200 feet in the Jamaican Blue Mountains can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain. Its grades are divided by bean size into NO.1, NO.2, NO.3 and hand-selected PB. The basic standards for NO.1 Blue Mountain green beans include beans above 17 screen, a defect rate below 3% and a moisture content around 13%. To date, Blue Mountain green beans have only one processing method, washed, with no sun-drying or other methods.

Today the Jamaican Coffee Board can issue certificates for all exported Blue Mountain coffee on the market.

There are three types of certificates:

1. Quality certificate issued by the Jamaican Coffee Board
2. Authorization sales certificate issued by Blue Mountain coffee manufacturers

(Blue Mountain coffee is distributed by four Jamaican government-licensed processing producers and exported by 16 licensed exporters.)

3. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee origin certificate

Quality certificates record time and quantity. The Jamaican Coffee Board randomly selects a package from submitted Blue Mountain coffee for inspection, and if it meets the conditions, a certificate is issued.

Among all coffees, only Blue Mountain uses barrel packaging; others are exported in jute bags. This is said to date to the mid-18th century, during the British colonial period, when flour barrels shipped from Britain to Jamaica were recycled to transport coffee and rum. Today's wooden barrels are made from wood from temperate forests in the United States. Their advantage is that they absorb and release internal and external humidity without much change, which can cushion sudden temperature shifts during transport. Barrel packaging also seals in and isolates the coffee's aroma, preserving the best quality, though the extra cost is higher.

How Should Blue Mountain Coffee Be Roasted?

Simply put, roast Blue Mountain thoroughly, inside and out, and then, on top of a fully developed roast, use better technique to express the flavor of this bean.

Caramelization is the process that most strongly affects coffee flavor. After 6-7 minutes of roasting, green beans have absorbed a large amount of heat energy, initiating pyrolysis reactions and the first crack. Some sugars convert to carbon dioxide, moisture continues to evaporate, and new aromatic components gradually develop, forming the so-called coffee oils, which combine with hundreds of aromatic substances such as nicotinic acid, citric acid, quinic acid, malic acid, acetic acid and caffeine.

Roast curve: set the drum temperature to 170°C, heat fully open, airflow at 3. After 1 minute, adjust the heat to 140°C, airflow unchanged. At 5'10", the temperature reaches 153°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears and dehydration is complete. Adjust the heat to 115°C and the airflow to 4.

At 8'00", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for the sound. At 8'12", first crack begins; adjust the heat down to 90°C and open the airflow fully (adjust the heat very carefully, not so low that there is no cracking sound). Drop at 201.3°C.

Cupping

A perfect, subtle balance of acidity, body and aroma. The acidity is bright and delicate. The body is as smooth as velvet. The aroma has a slight penetrating quality, accompanied by floral, spicy and citrus tones, with a hint of cocoa in the aftertaste.

The taste is very clean, complex and mild, with chocolate sweetness and a very strong body. The flavor is rich and mellow, with a perfect combination of sweetness, acidity and bitterness. There is no bitterness at all, only a moderate, perfect acidity with a persistent fruity finish.

Dry aroma: roasted peanut, hazelnut, melon, chocolate-like

Wet aroma: rose tea, caramel, honey, dark chocolate, almond skins, silky mouthfeel, brightness

How Should We Brew Blue Mountain Coffee?

For everyday brewing you can use a V60 filter cup, a Kalita wave or a KONO.

Take the KONO filter cup as an example:

Parameters: 15g coffee, water temperature 86-88°C, grind medium-coarse, like granulated sugar (China standard 20-mesh sieve, 75% pass rate), equivalent to EK43s setting 10.5, coffee-to-water ratio close to 1:15, total time around 2 minutes

Technique: 30g water for the bloom, bloom time 30s, then slowly pour to about 125g and stop. Wait until the water level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed, then pour to 225g.

Little Tips

Blue Mountain is roasted relatively dark. If the water temperature is too high, it will easily produce astringency and a very obvious smoky flavor.

How to Identify Authentic vs. Fake Blue Mountain

1. Appearance: Blue Mountain green beans are blue-green, very uniform, medium to small in size, with slightly raised ends. After roasting they expand significantly in volume and become very plump.
2. Grinding: True Blue Mountain beans grow at high altitudes, so their cell structure is relatively loose. Hand-ground, they feel crisp, smooth and continuous, with no resistance.
3. Aroma: The aroma is very rich and dense; so-called "Blue Mountain blend" coffees do not have it.
4. Taste: True Blue Mountain has a balanced, rich taste in which no single flavor is prominent or missing. This is the most critical identifying point, one no other coffee bean can match.

So What Is Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee?

A so-called "Blue Mountain blend" actually has nothing to do with Blue Mountain. The situation arose because early Blue Mountain coffee was rare and expensive. Operators, working from its flavor, created coffees close to Blue Mountain's taste by blending beans and roasting dark. Conscientious merchants at home and abroad will therefore tell customers that this is "Blended Blue Mountain," "Blue Mountain blend," "Blue Mountain flavor" or "Blue Mountain-style" coffee, not genuine Blue Mountain.

True Blue Mountain and Blue Mountain flavor are two different concepts. Generally, other varieties are roasted to imitate the taste of Blue Mountain coffee. "Blue Mountain blend" beans have relatively large differences in shape, which makes them easier to spot. And do not believe in "premium Blue Mountain" for tens of dollars per pound or "Blue Mountain coffee" for just over ten yuan a cup.

Not every product labeled "Blue Mountain" is genuine Blue Mountain. We hope this helps you tell them apart.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you want to taste genuine Blue Mountain, the grade to look for is Blue Mountain No.1, one of the highest grades in Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, with strict standards for bean size, defect rate and overall quality. FrontStreet Blue Mountain No.1 comes with complete origin certification and the original wooden shipping barrel, so its source can be clearly traced, and it is roasted medium-dark so the classic balance of Blue Mountain comes through fully.

Genuine Blue Mountain is also easy to verify. It comes from Jamaica's Blue Mountain range with a certificate issued by the Jamaican government and an origin certificate, and it is shipped in solid wooden barrels printed with detailed lot information for the green beans, so the barrel itself is one way to judge authenticity. On the green bean side, authentic Blue Mountain is regular, plump, slightly raised at both ends and green in color, and in the cup it is rich, dense, clean and free of any off-flavors, with an intensity that fakes cannot match.

For brewing, FrontStreet recommends a Kono dripper to bring out the body, 15g of coffee, a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15 and a water temperature of 87-88°C; too high a temperature is the usual cause of a burnt, bitter cup. A three-stage pour works well: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 120g with a slow, vertical, small-flow circling pour, then pour to 225g with a slightly faster flow and circling motion to keep the bed from clogging and over-extracting. FrontStreet roasts its Blue Mountain within 5 days of shipping, so the beans arrive at full flavor and can be brewed straight away, with 4-7 days of resting from the roast date giving the best result.