Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee Bean Variety Story Introduction - Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee Quality, Taste, Flavor, and Price Analysis

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As more people fall in love with coffee, they gradually want to start making their own cup, beginning with well-known coffee beans. As one of the world's most renowned coffees, regardless of the classification method, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee always ranks among the top. At this point, customers often ask FrontStreet Coffee: "We always hear that 'Blue Mountain Coffee is very expensive,' but we never truly understand where the value of Blue Mountain Coffee lies."

With that in mind, today FrontStreet Coffee will take everyone on a journey into the world of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee to explore the "true face" of this "Coffee Emperor."

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee History

The history of Jamaican coffee dates back to the 18th century. In 1717, French King Louis XV ordered coffee cultivation in Jamaica. In the mid-1720s, Jamaican Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes imported Arabica seeds from Martinique and began promoting cultivation in the St. Andrew region. Coffee trees were introduced to Jamaica and planted in the Blue Mountains, which were divided into different classifications: high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, High Mountain Coffee, and Jamaican Coffee, with different grades determining different prices.

Jamaican Certified Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee Region

The Blue Mountains are located in eastern Jamaica, at elevations of 1,000-1,700 meters. Only coffee grown in this region can be considered authentic Blue Mountain Coffee. The mountain gets its name because when the weather is clear, direct sunlight hits the azure Caribbean Sea, and the peaks reflect the brilliant blue light from the seawater.

The Blue Mountains are situated in the coffee cultivation zone, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh and unpolluted air, and a humid climate with year-round fog and rainfall (average precipitation of 1,980mm and temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. The Jamaican government certifies authentic Blue Mountain Coffee regions in four eastern administrative districts: St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Mary, and Portland. FrontStreet Coffee's washed Blue Mountain and natural processed Blue Mountain both come from Clifton Mountain Estate within the certified Blue Mountain Coffee region. Clifton Mountain Estate is also the only Rainforest Alliance certified estate in the Blue Mountain growing region. Rainforest Alliance certification means: using traditional cultivation methods under native forest shade, which is beneficial to ecosystem protection. Part of the alliance's revenue is also used for wildlife protection in tropical rainforest reserves and improving laborers' living conditions.

Blue Mountain Coffee Cultivation Altitude

The highest peak of the Blue Mountains reaches 2,256 meters, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region. Located in the coffee zone, it has fertile volcanic soil, fresh and unpolluted air, and a humid climate with year-round fog and rainfall (average precipitation of 1,980mm and temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned FrontStreet Coffee Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, as well as the world's highest-priced coffee. Blue Mountain Coffee must be grown in designated areas at altitudes between 1,000-1,700 meters to bear the official certified Blue Mountain logo.

Why Did Japan Have Priority Purchasing Rights for Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee?

In 1950, the Jamaican government established the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board, which sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervises their implementation to ensure the quality of Jamaican coffee. The board grants special official seals to exported raw and roasted Jamaican coffee. Because Japanese loans were used to improve production quality, the market for Blue Mountain Coffee was guaranteed. Until 2009, Jamaica ended Japan's priority purchasing rights, and in April 2011, the first batch of Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee arrived in mainland China.

Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (CIB)

Jamaica is the only country in the world with a government coffee management agency—the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (CIB), which is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The CIB's functions include cultivation technical guidance, processing training, fair trade, quality supervision, and other matters related to the quality and brand of Jamaican Blue Mountain. Board members of the CIB are estate owners who own plantations of a certain scale in Jamaica (due to industry shifts, newly certified Jamaican Blue Mountain estates now require an area of over 50 hectares).

According to CIB regulations, only Blue Mountain Coffee grown in regions above 2,200 feet in Jamaica can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain. Its grades are classified by bean size into NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and hand-selected PB (Peaberry). Among these, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain raw beans for NO.1 must meet basic standards such as beans larger than 17 mesh, defect rate below 3%, and moisture content around 13%. Currently, all Blue Mountain Coffee exported to the market requires certification from the CIB.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Raw Bean Grades

From highest to lowest quality, the grades are: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB (Peaberry). According to CIB standards, only coffee grown at altitudes between 1,000-1,700 meters can be called Jamaican Frontsteet Blue Mountain Coffee. With low production volume, large bean size, excellent quality, and balanced flavor that combines appropriate acidity, bitterness, aroma, body, and sweetness, it is recognized worldwide as a premium product. Therefore, the national treasure Blue Mountain No.1 commands the highest price among all Blue Mountain coffees.

(1) No.1 - 17/18 mesh, defect rate not exceeding 2%

(2) No.2 - 16/17 mesh, defect rate not exceeding 2%

(3) No.3 - 15/16 mesh, defect rate not exceeding 2%

(4) Peaberry - 10MS, defect rate not exceeding 2%

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee variety is Typica. In the 1720s, Typica was transplanted from Martinique to Jamaica's Blue Mountains. After more than 200 years, Blue Mountain Typica has evolved to have better disease resistance, especially superior resistance to coffee berry disease compared to regular Typica. However, when Blue Mountain Typica is grown outside Jamaica, it cannot replicate its characteristic sweet and elegant fragrance. Typica has bronze-colored top leaves, oval or slender-pointed beans, tall trees with slightly inclined branches at angles of 50-70 degrees, elegant flavor, but weak constitution and poor disease resistance, with very low fruit yield per tree.

How to Identify Genuine FrontStreet Coffee Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

1. Designated export company by the National Coffee Board 2. The only region that uses wooden barrels for packaging raw beans. FrontStreet Coffee reminds you to be aware of two misconceptions when purchasing Jamaican Blue Mountain:

First, many merchants roast beans from other regions or blends slightly darker to mask their flavor characteristics and make them resemble Blue Mountain Coffee flavor. These merchants play word games, labeling non-Blue Mountain coffee beans as "Blue Mountain Style Coffee." Due to the high popularity of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, many counterfeit coffees have appeared on the market, such as: Blue Mountain Style Coffee, Blue Mountain Blend Coffee, or directly called Blue Mountain Coffee. However, these are all simulated versions of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee taste, created by blending various coffee beans, and may not contain a single genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee bean.

Second misconception: some practitioners' understanding of Blue Mountain Coffee still停留在more than 10 years ago, believing that all genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee was bought by Japan, and what's sold in China is not genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee. In fact, due to China's huge market demand, Blue Mountain has been normally imported for several years, and Blue Mountain estate owners have visited China in recent years to further help Chinese consumers understand Blue Mountain Coffee beans. Blue Mountain Coffee in the Chinese market is not so rare that it's flooded with fakes. Today's Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee production area is larger than before, and with Japan's recent decline in consumption power, genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is also sold in China—as long as you know how to identify it, you can buy authentic products.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Bean Processing Methods

Before 2019, Blue Mountain Coffee from Clifton Estate was always processed using the washed method. During processing, the skin and pulp are first removed, then fermented for 12-18 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 smooth and clean. After washing, the coffee beans are still encased in parchment, with a moisture content of up to 50%, and must be sun-dried to reduce the moisture content to 12-14%, otherwise they will continue to ferment, become moldy, and spoil. Afterward, the coffee beans are screened and then stored in dedicated warehouses.

In the 2020 harvest season, Clifton Estate launched natural processed Blue Mountain Coffee beans for the first time, which was quite novel. Jamaica has a tropical rainforest climate, with rainy seasons from May to June and September to November each year, with the most showers in January and May. The harvest and processing season for Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is from February to June each year, overlapping with the rainy season for half of this time, making natural processing clearly impractical. Additionally, traditional natural processing yields unstable coffee quality, depending entirely on weather conditions. To achieve better quality with natural processing, the labor cost is higher than washed methods. When coffee fruits are sun-dried on drying beds, they need to be manually turned every few hours to maintain ventilation, reduce mold growth, and ensure even drying. Such a labor-intensive and unrewarding processing method was even more difficult to implement in Jamaica back then.

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Raw Bean Analysis

First, observe FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee raw beans—whether natural or washed, the beans are very full, with uniform size, slightly pointed at both ends, and oval in shape. From the side, the beans appear flat and thin, characteristic of purebred Typica variety. Natural processed FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain beans appear yellow-green in color with more silver skin; while washed FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain beans are blue-green with less silver skin. This is because washed beans are soaked in water for extended periods during processing, separating the silver skin from the coffee beans. When removing the parchment at the end, the outer silver skin is peeled off along with it, leaving very little residual silver skin on the surface of washed raw beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Insights

FrontStreet Coffee Washed Blue Mountain Coffee: Preheat the roaster to 170°C, set airflow to 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 140°C, keep airflow unchanged. Roast until 5'10" at 153°C, when the bean surface turns yellow and grassy aroma completely disappears, indicating dehydration is complete. Adjust heat to 115°C, change airflow to 4. At 8'00", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toasted bread aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma—this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 8'12", first crack begins, reduce heat to 90°C, open airflow completely (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that cracking stops). Discharge at 201.3°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls marked with 150ml and 200ml measurement lines. According to SCAA standards, water TDS is around 150ppm—too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high can affect mouthfeel and cause under-extraction. Cupping water temperature is 94°C. Cupping grind size follows SCAA cupping standards, controlled to pass through a No. 20 standard sieve (0.85mm) at 70%-75% rate. Ratio: 11 grams of coffee grounds to 200ml of hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, which extracts concentration exactly within the golden cup range of 1.15%-1.35%. Steeping time: 4 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee Washed Blue Mountain Coffee Cupping

Dry Aroma: Roasted peanuts, hazelnuts, cantaloupe, chocolate

Wet Aroma: Oolong tea, caramel, honey, chocolate, almonds

Flavor: Roasted nuts, chocolate, almonds, cantaloupe, honey, balanced sweet, sour, and bitter

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Insights

Dripper: Kono

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Medium-coarse (75% pass through No. 20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee segmented brewing method: Pour 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds, then slowly pour in a circular motion from center outward with a small water stream to 100g (total 130g on the scale). Wait until the coffee bed drops to half level, then pour 65g of water with a large stream to reach total water volume of 195g. Remove the dripper after all coffee liquid has flowed into the server, ending extraction. Total brewing time is 1 minute 50 seconds.

[FrontStreet Coffee Washed Jamaican Blue Mountain] The entry reveals dark chocolate and nut flavors, with high clarity, very bright character, good body, and balanced sweet-sour-bitter notes.

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