Price Comparison Between Blue Mountain Coffee Beans and Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee | Blue Mountain Blend Coffee | Blue Mountain Coffee Characteristics

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Blue Mountain Coffee Prices

First, like everything else on the market, coffee bean prices have risen by about one-third, with the better beans rising even more. Beans are also graded, so broad generalizations don't hold. The lowest-priced imported Blue Mountain runs around a thousand yuan per unit, while Brazilian beans cost roughly a hundred yuan (tariffs included). Cheap "Blue Mountain" options are typically blends built from low-grade domestic beans.

Second, coffee beans are generally sold by the pound: 1 pound = 453 grams. As with tea, prices span everything from affordable to extravagant. Ordinary beans cost thirty to fifty yuan per pound; premium coffee can run to thousands or even tens of thousands. The beans behind the Starbucks drinks most people consume cost about 80 yuan per pound.

Third, prices vary by variety. Cheap supermarket beans at thirty to forty yuan per pound are of modest quality - Blue Mountain, Mandheling, Mocha, and Colombia all fall in this range. Nestlé coffee is excellent abroad, but the domestic version, made from Yunnan and Hainan beans, is unremarkable and inexpensive.

Coffee Bean Price Range

Some people say tens of yuan, some say hundreds, others say thousands. In fact, all three are correct: different beans carry different quality levels, and their prices naturally differ. Here is a sample of retail prices collected from the web:

• Arabica Master SELECT espresso beans, 250g/can, priced at 68.00 yuan on Suning.com;
• Original imported JABLUM Blue Mountain coffee, 57 grams, priced at 75.00 yuan on Suning.com;
• Collin Coffee SELECT grade beans, 454g, priced at 48.00 yuan on JD.com;
• Wallenford original imported Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, 114g*2, priced at 1560 yuan on Suning.com;
• Socona Mocha beans, Ethiopian imported fresh-ground coffee, 250g, priced at 59.00 yuan on Suning.com;
• Original imported Lavazza beans, 1000g*2 bags, priced at 336.00 yuan on JD.com;
• iMO premium beans, 500g, priced at 198.80 yuan on YHD.com;
• GRANELL Spanish Clena premium SELECT beans, 250g, priced at 59.00 yuan on Amazon.

Brewing Methods

Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee Beans: French Press

This method best showcases the character of Blue Mountain-style coffee, and high-quality beans suit it beautifully. The principle is simple: brew directly with hot water and filter through a metal mesh, extracting nearly everything the coffee has to give for a cup with original flavor and complex layers.

Steps for Brewing Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee Beans with a Siphon:

1. Step 1: Grind the beans; fineness: 4.5
2. Step 2: Hook the filter into the upper pot

Make sure there are no gaps between the filter and the glass vessel - gaps let grounds fall into the water below and let the vessel leak air, hurting extraction efficiency.

3. Step 3: Fill the lower pot with the appropriate amount of water and heat it with an alcohol lamp

Hot tap water works fine if you want to save time.

4. Step 4: Pour the coffee grounds into the upper pot

Don't insert the upper pot right away.

5. Step 5: Once the water boils, move the alcohol lamp to one side of the lower pot

This reduces the heat and lowers the water temperature.

6. Step 6: When the water temperature drops to around 92-96°C, insert the upper pot

Extraction begins: water rushes up from the lower pot and immerses the grounds.

7. Step 7: Once the water rises, stir with a stirring rod in a cross pattern: twice vertically, twice horizontally
8. Step 8: Wait 30 seconds after the first stir, then stir clockwise in a spiral 2-3 times
9. Step 9: Wait 30 seconds after stirring again, then give one final, quick spiral stir
10. Step 10: Wait 30 seconds after the final stir, while the fine pale foam on the surface is still unbroken

Remove the alcohol lamp and wipe the lower pot with a damp cloth to cool it quickly. The brewed coffee will rush back down into the lower pot.

11. Step 11: Pour the coffee from the lower pot into a pre-warmed cup and enjoy.

Key Point: If the grounds in the center have risen into a small hill, the extraction was a success.

Blue Mountain Blend Coffee

True Blue Mountain is rare and expensive, which is why so-called Blue Mountain flavor and Blue Mountain blend coffees exist. The blends substitute beans with a similar profile - smooth body, balanced acidity, gentle bitterness - at a fraction of the price, while "Blue Mountain flavor" coffee contains no Blue Mountain at all. Knowing the difference is essential before you pay Blue Mountain prices for either.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small storefront but a wide range of bean varieties, where you can find both famous names and lesser-known gems. They also provide online store services.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Coffee originated in Ethiopia and only spread beyond it in the late fifteenth century; by the seventeenth it had swept through Europe, and colonial plantings followed. The Dutch brought seedlings to Java in the late seventeenth century, where coffee thrived until leaf rust devastated the island's trees in the early twentieth century, shifting Indonesian cultivation north to Sumatra - which now produces over 60% of Indonesia's arabica and robusta. The highland provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra grow the arabica we call Mandheling: the Aceh side centers on the Gayo mountains near Lake Tawar, with delicate aroma and a bright cup, while the traditional Lintong region around Lake Toba, aided by its unique wet-hulled processing and local microbial fermentation, yields the classic Mandheling character - rich aroma, heavy body, and intense flavor.

Sumatra's rainy season overlaps with harvest, making natural drying nearly impossible, so processors hull the parchment while the beans are still half-dry, exposing them directly to the air to speed drying - the wet-hulled (giling basah) method that has defined Mandheling since the 1970s and gives it its wild, earthy, herbal notes. FrontStreet's Gold Mandheling, produced by Indonesia's PWN company, is the finest expression of this style: only beans above screen size 18 are used, with fewer than 3 defects per 300g of green coffee to meet the strictest G1 grade, followed by three rounds of hand-sorting for exceptional cleanliness and sweetness. True PWN Gold Mandheling is supplied mainly to Japan and the US, so genuine lots are scarce. For brewing, FrontStreet recommends a medium-dark roast, 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio with water at 87-88°C and a coarse-granulated-sugar grind: bloom with 30ml, pour to 125ml, then finish with a gentle 95ml center pour for a thick, syrupy body with caramel sweetness, dark chocolate, and roasted nuts.