The Pure Flavor of Blue Mountain Coffee_Why Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Commands a Premium Price Due to Its Exceptional Taste

For more professional coffee knowledge and coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

The coffee in the cup tastes exceptionally clean, and it is one of the sweetest coffees in the world. This flavor has been described by Jim Reynolds in Peet's Coffee and Tea: "The finest example of Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee has an aromatic, smooth richness that gives me a gem-like quality feeling. It's as precious as a gemstone. It's complex yet very gentle, sweet, and has a very strong body. You must taste it to know what I'm talking about." Unique growing conditions and meticulous attention throughout all production processes have made Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee renowned.

Blue Mountain coffee originates from Jamaica, named after the Blue Mountains surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. With a perfect balance of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, plus excellent flavor and aroma, it's suitable for single-origin coffee and best suited for medium roasting.

The Blue Mountain Range is located in eastern Jamaica. The mountain gets its name because when the weather is clear, direct sunlight on the azure Caribbean Sea creates a brilliant blue reflection on the peaks. The highest peak of Blue Mountain reaches 2,256 meters, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region and a famous tourist destination. This area lies within the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, and a humid climate with year-round fog and rain (average precipitation of 1,980mm and temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, as well as the world's highest-priced coffee... This coffee possesses all the characteristics of fine coffee, with a rich and mellow taste, and because the balance of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness is perfect, it has no bitterness at all, only moderate and perfect acidity. It's typically consumed as single-origin coffee, but due to extremely limited production and incredibly high prices, the market generally uses coffees with similar flavors as substitutes.

The "Secret" Behind the Pure Flavor of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee

True Blue Mountain coffee is one of the coffees grown under the most superior conditions in the world. Jamaica's weather, geological structure, and topography together provide an exceptionally ideal venue. Designated Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee can only be grown in the Blue Mountain area, northeast of Kingston in the eastern part of the island. Moreover, the mountains are very uneven, making the harvesting process extremely difficult (coffee harvesting is done almost entirely by women). The trees are mainly of the Arabica "Geisha High Bred" type. On the rugged high-altitude mountains, careful cultivation and harvesting are practiced, and all Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is processed, tasted, and distributed by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board.

All their coffee trees grow on rugged mountain slopes, making the picking process extremely difficult—a task that only skilled local female workers can handle. Selecting properly ripe coffee beans during picking is crucial, as underripe or overripe beans will affect coffee quality. The harvested coffee beans must be hulled the same day, then fermented for 12-18 hours. Afterward, the coffee beans are washed and sorted. The next step is drying, which must be done on concrete floors or thick blankets until the coffee beans' moisture content drops to 12%-14%. Then they are stored in special warehouses. When needed, they are taken out for roasting and then ground into powder. These procedures must be strictly controlled, otherwise, the coffee quality will be affected.

In 1950, the Jamaican government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, which sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervises the implementation of these standards to ensure Jamaican coffee quality. The board grants special official seals to Jamaican exported raw and roasted coffee, making it one of the world's highest-level national coffee institutions. Currently, there are six trademarks that can represent the origin of Blue Mountain coffee: M.B.C.E. (Mavis Bank Central Factory), M.H.C.C.T. (Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative), P.X.X.S.H. (Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative), Coffee Industry Board (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Board (St. John's Peak), and J.A.S. (Jenr).

By 1969, the situation had improved because Japanese loans were used to enhance production quality, thus securing the market. Today, this coffee has reached a status of fanatical devotion.

By 1981, Jamaica had opened up about 1,500 hectares of land for coffee cultivation, followed by investment in another 6,000 hectares of coffee land. In fact, today's Blue Mountain area is a small place with only 6,000 hectares of planting area, making it impossible for all coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to be grown there. Another 12,000 hectares are used to grow two other types of coffee: High Mountain Supreme Coffee and Jamaica Prime Coffee. Due to Japan's continuous investment in Jamaica's coffee industry, most Blue Mountain coffee is now controlled by the Japanese, who have also obtained 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. Now, 90% of Blue Mountain coffee is purchased by the Japanese. Since the rest of the world can only obtain 10% of Blue Mountain, Blue Mountain coffee is always in short supply regardless of price.

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Bean Classification

Jamaica is one of the smaller coffee producers in the world, with an annual harvest of about 40,000 bags of 60 kg each (Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is actually shipped in 70kg wooden barrels - they are the last country to still use this traditional packaging method, but their production is measured by 60kg bags because that's the international standard for coffee production measurement).

Coffee from the Jamaica Blue Mountain area has three grades: Blue Mountain Coffee, High Mountain Coffee (Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans), and Jamaica Coffee (Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans). Among these, Blue Mountain Coffee and High Mountain Coffee are each divided into two grades. Ranked by quality from highest to lowest: Blue Mountain No. 1, Blue Mountain No. 2, High Mountain No. 1, High Mountain No. 2, Jamaica Coffee. Generally, only coffee grown at altitudes up to 1,600 meters can be called Blue Mountain Coffee. Coffee grown between 274 and 457 meters altitude is usually called Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans, and Blue Mountain Coffee is several times more expensive than High Mountain Coffee. It is mainly distributed across five peaks: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak, and Blue Mountain Peak.

Identifying Authentic vs. Fake Blue Mountain Coffee

1. Appearance: Raw Blue Mountain coffee beans are blue-green in color, very uniform in appearance, medium to small in size, with slightly raised ends. After roasting, they increase significantly in volume and become very full.

2. Grinding: True Blue Mountain coffee beans grow at high altitudes, giving them a looser cytoplasmic structure. When ground by hand, they feel crisp, smooth, and continuous, without any sense of resistance.

3. Aroma: The aroma is very rich and dense; so-called "blended" Blue Mountain coffee does not have this aroma.

4. Taste: True Blue Mountain coffee has a balanced and rich taste, without any one flavor being突出的 or lacking—this is also something no other coffee bean can achieve and is the most critical identification point. Blue Mountain Peaberry has a more subtle aroma and relatively stronger taste.

5. Feeling: As the world's best coffee with classic balanced characteristics, Blue Mountain coffee inevitably brings some subconscious, indescribable sense of satisfaction when tasted.

Recommended Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee beans offer excellent guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they provide exceptional value—at approximately 158 RMB for a half-pound (100g) package. Calculating at 15g per cup, one package can make 6 cups of coffee, costing only about 25 RMB per cup, which is a conscience-recommended price compared to cafes that often charge over 100 RMB per cup.

More Promotional Activities

Please stay tuned for our updates

Our Taobao store: Coffee Workshop FrontStreet Coffee

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473