Where Are Blue Mountains Grown - Introduction to the Flavor Characteristics of Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee

Blue Mountain Coffee has always been remembered for its mellow and smooth taste, because its flavor is not like coffee, but rather like a cup of milk tea. Why is this said? Because coffee给人的感觉就是，不是酸的就是苦的，而蓝山咖啡拥有所有好咖啡的特点，不仅口味浓郁香醇，而且由于咖啡的甘、酸、苦三味搭配完美，完全不具苦味，仅有适度而完美的酸味。At FrontStreet Coffee, washed Blue Mountain Coffee has always been the most popular. Blue Mountain Coffee is generally consumed as a single origin, but due to its extremely limited production, it is incredibly expensive. High-quality fresh Blue Mountain Coffee has a particularly lasting flavor, no wonder coffee drinkers say that Blue Mountain Coffee is endlessly memorable.

Although it is now relatively easier to buy authentic Blue Mountain Coffee compared to before, there are still many coffees on the market labeled as Blue Mountain Coffee that are not genuine. Blue Mountain Coffee comes in many varieties: Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica High Mountain Coffee, and Jamaica Coffee. Only Blue Mountain Coffee grown in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica is true Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee.

The Origin of Blue Mountain Coffee

Blue Mountain Coffee is produced from the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. The Blue Mountains are located in the eastern part of Jamaica Island. Because the mountain is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, whenever the weather is clear, the sun directly shines on the blue sea surface, and the peaks reflect the brilliant blue light of the sea water, hence its name. However, not all coffee trees growing in the entire Blue Mountain area can produce high-quality Blue Mountain Coffee beans. The Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB) has established strict production standards: only Arabica coffee grown at 910-1700 meters can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, while coffee from remaining lower altitude areas is classified as Jamaica High Mountain Coffee and Jamaica Prime Coffee.

Here, the air is fresh and unpolluted, the climate is humid, with temperatures around 27°C, and it's often cloudy and foggy, providing shade for the coffee trees. All coffee trees grow on rugged mountain slopes, making the harvesting process extremely difficult. Only local skilled female workers can handle this task. When harvesting, selecting perfectly ripe coffee beans is crucial, as underripe or overripe beans will affect the coffee quality. Combined with fertile volcanic soil, this creates exceptionally high-quality Blue Mountain Coffee beans.

Types of Blue Mountain Coffee on the Market

It is precisely because Blue Mountain Coffee has low production and high prices that many coffees on the market are labeled as Blue Mountain Coffee. According to the altitude of coffee cultivation, Jamaica divides coffee grown in the Blue Mountains into Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica High Mountain Coffee, and Jamaica Coffee. Only Arabica Typica coffee from altitudes of 910-1700 meters in regions including St. Andrew, St. Mary, St. Thomas, and Portland can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. Coffee grown below 910 meters and above 460 meters is called Jamaica High Mountain Coffee, while coffee below 460 meters is Jamaica Prime Coffee. Among these, Jamaica Blue Mountain is further divided into four grades, with quality ranging from high to low: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB (peaberry). The basic standards for Blue Mountain No.1 green beans that FrontStreet Coffee sources include beans of 17 mesh or larger, defect rate below 2%, moisture content around 13%, etc. They appear full, uniform in size, and blue-green in color. In terms of flavor, they simultaneously possess pleasant acidity, sweetness, bitterness, aroma, and body.

Blue Mountain Coffee Growing Regions

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee has four major growing regions: St. Mary, St. Thomas, St. Andrew, and Portland. The total area of these four regions is about 6,000 hectares, accounting for 1/3 of the entire Blue Mountain growing area, with an additional 1,200 hectares used for growing Jamaica High Mountain Coffee and Jamaica Prime Coffee. In recent years, less than 15% of coffee beans produced in Jamaica can be labeled as Blue Mountain Coffee.

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

Currently, there are six symbols that can represent the origin of Blue Mountain Coffee, such as M.B.C.E (Mavis Bank Central Factory), M.H.C.C.T. (Mavis Hill Coffee Cooperation Factory), P.X.X.S.H. (Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperation Factory), Coffee Industry Association (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Association (St. John's Peak), and J.A.S (Blue Mountain Coffee), with some estate-level coffees also noted on wooden barrels.

The Blue Mountain No.1 coffee introduced by FrontStreet Coffee comes from Clifton Farm. Clifton Farm is the largest estate in this region, but by international standards, it's still considered small-scale cultivation, with many estate owners being small landholders whose families have worked this land for two centuries. Through comparison, FrontStreet Coffee believes that Clifton Farm's Blue Mountain No.1 performs exceptionally well and can serve as one of the outstanding representatives of Blue Mountain Coffee.

Clifton Estate

Clifton Estate is one of Jamaica's most ancient estates, having already started cultivating and producing coffee in the mid-18th century. By 1900, it had developed into Jamaica's largest estate. In 1978, the Sharp family took over the management of Clifton Estate, improved the coffee growing environment within the estate, introduced advanced equipment, and established BMCP, currently Jamaica's largest coffee processing plant.

Clifton Estate is one of the Rainforest Alliance certified estates. The entire coffee production process adheres to sustainable environmental protection concepts, minimizing various types of pollution, and the water used in the processing plant is also recycled. When FrontStreet Coffee receives Blue Mountain Coffee green beans, the wooden barrels are printed with a green rainforest tree frog logo. This means that among all coffee green beans, only Blue Mountain Coffee beans are packaged in wooden barrels, and the barrels have a green rainforest tree frog logo on the outside.

Blue Mountain Coffee Varieties

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is of the ancient Typica variety, which has the longest history. The reason Typica is no longer widely cultivated is due to its weak constitution, poor disease resistance, and very low yield per plant. Typica was introduced to the Blue Mountains for cultivation in the 18th century and has been there for over two hundred years. The Blue Mountain Typica has adapted to the local island-type terroir and evolved better disease resistance, particularly being much stronger against coffee berry disease than typical Typica.

The Typica variety has a characteristic bronze-colored leaf tip, known as red-topped coffee. The coffee tree's opposite leaves are long-oval shaped with smooth surfaces, the terminal branches are long with few branches, and the flowers are white, blooming at the base where leaf stems connect to branches. However, it has a weak constitution, poor disease resistance, and very low coffee yield per tree. The mature coffee cherries look like cherries and are bright red.

Blue Mountain Coffee Bean Processing Methods

Previously, Blue Mountain Coffee only had washed processing, but with the advancement of specialty coffee, Clifton Farm first attempted to launch a natural-processed Blue Mountain batch in 2019. Washed processing method: After harvesting, the cherries must first undergo floating water screening to remove the skin and pulp, then ferment for 8-12 hours. The fermented beans are then placed in pools and moved back and forth, using the friction of the beans and the power of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean. The washed green coffee beans need to be air-dried until the moisture content reaches 12-14%. The dried green coffee beans need to be strictly screened once more before being packaged and stored in warehouses.

Although with the diversification of the coffee market, Blue Mountain Coffee has tried to launch small batches of natural-processed coffee beans, washed-processed Blue Mountain flavor remains the most classic representative. FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed-processed Blue Mountain Coffee has rich aroma, clean taste, and balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, better representing Jamaica's high-quality specialty coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee offers both natural-processed and washed-processed Blue Mountain Coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Some people might ask how to brew such excellent coffee beans to bring out their flavor? Actually, when it comes to coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans is a very important factor. Fresh coffee beans allow you to experience the rich flavors of coffee to the greatest extent. All coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are roasted within 5 days, because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that bean freshness greatly affects flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "Freshly Roasted Good Coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The coffee resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive their coffee, it's at its peak flavor.

Of course, some customers need FrontStreet Coffee to grind the beans for them, which is also fine. However, FrontStreet Coffee must remind you: if coffee beans are ground in advance, there's no need for a resting period, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide buildup in the packaging can also make the coffee flavor more rounded, so you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly, because ground coffee oxidizes relatively quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate more quickly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends purchasing whole beans and grinding them fresh for each brew to better taste the coffee's flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Brewing Parameters

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the excellent flavor of Blue Mountain Coffee lies in its balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, high body, and full aroma. For roasting, FrontStreet Coffee chose medium-dark roasting to highlight the nutty and cocoa aromas of the coffee beans. Using a KONO dripper can provide better body.

First, wet the KONO dripper to make the filter paper fit better with the coffee dripper. Pour out the water from the serving pot while adding 15g of coffee grounds. Use 30g of water to bloom for 30s, then start pouring with small circular motions around the center until reaching 125g, then pause. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then pour the second batch using the same technique until reaching 225g. When all dripping is complete, remove the dripper. Start timing from the beginning of pouring; extraction time is 2'00". Next, take the entire cup of coffee and shake it well before pouring into cups for tasting.

[FrontStreet Coffee Natural Blue Mountain Coffee] Slight berry acidity, reminiscent of dark plums and mulberries, with excellent overall balance, rich dark chocolate and nutty flavors, with a slight fermentation sensation.

[FrontStreet Coffee Washed Blue Mountain Coffee] Rich dark chocolate and nutty flavors, creamy smooth texture, balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness.

Blue Mountain Coffee's flavor is very balanced and smooth, of course, not everyone necessarily likes to drink Blue Mountain Coffee. After all, everyone's taste is different. FrontStreet Coffee's daily coffee beans all come from representative coffee beans from different producing countries, offering excellent value for money, allowing you to taste coffee flavors from various producing countries and determine what kind of flavored coffee you like. This way, further selecting single-origin coffees from various regions might be the best path for a beginner.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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