Why Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is Expensive, Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee is Cheaper, and Blue Mountain Coffee's Characteristics and Story

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Since 2019, Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee, which had previously insisted only on washed processing, began to "innovate and reform" by introducing natural processing methods. In mid-November 2020, the first batch of Blue Mountain Geisha coffee beans also arrived in China. FrontStreet Coffee is not surprised by these "Blue Mountain reforms" over the past two years. In today's fiercely competitive coffee market where flavors are trending toward freshness, how can Blue Mountain coffee maintain its position? The answer is planting Geisha. Only through this could Blue Mountain's sudden "innovation and reform" suddenly return to the forefront of everyone's attention. These innovations by Blue Mountain over the past two years are also driven by concerns about being forgotten.

Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Price

In 1725, Sir Nicholas Lawes brought the first Blue Mountain coffee trees from Martinique to Jamaica, planting them in the St. Andrew region. Within eight years, Jamaica exported over 375 tons of pure coffee. In 1932, the Jamaican Conference passed legislation to encourage coffee cultivation to reduce the island's dependence on sugar exports. Coffee production reached its peak that year, with harvests exceeding 15,000 tons.

In 1948, coffee quality had declined, and Canadian buyers refused to renew their contracts. For this reason, the Jamaican government established the Coffee Industry Board and made modifications to the "Jamaican coffee industry," standardizing processing methods, improving coffee quality, and achieving market equivalence to save the fate of premium coffee. By 1969, quality was guaranteed in the market due to improved production quality using Japanese loans. By 1981, Jamaica had cultivated another approximately 1,500 hectares of land for coffee planting, followed by investment in developing an additional 6,000 hectares of coffee land. In fact, today's Blue Mountain region is a small area with only 6,000 hectares of planting area, making it impossible for all coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to be grown there. Therefore, authentic Blue Mountain coffee is very expensive. The additional 12,000 hectares of land are used to grow two other types of coffee (non-Blue Mountain coffee): High Mountain Supreme and Prime Washed Jamaican, whose quality and taste cannot compare with Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee.

The Blue Mountains are located in eastern Jamaica, at elevations of 1,000-1,700m. Only coffee grown in this specific region can be considered authentic Blue Mountain coffee. The mountain is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, and on clear days, direct sunlight hits the azure sea surface, reflecting brilliant blue light from the peaks, hence its name. Blue Mountain is situated in the coffee cultivation belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh and unpolluted air, a humid climate, and year-round fog and rain (average rainfall of 1,980mm, temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. Here, people use mixed cultivation methods to grow coffee trees, planting them alongside banana and avocado trees on terraces. Additionally, the mountain terrain is rugged (all coffee trees are planted on steep slopes), making the harvesting process extremely difficult. Only local skilled female workers can handle this task. It is also very important to select appropriately ripe coffee beans during harvesting, as underripe or overripe beans can affect coffee quality.

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, in specific regions, the harvesting process is very difficult, and the timing of harvest is crucial. Labor and material costs are significantly increased, which we can generally understand as "scarcity makes things valuable." However, is Blue Mountain coffee the most expensive coffee bean? No, in recent years, more and more excellent coffee beans have participated in various competitions, and their prices have surpassed Blue Mountain coffee by several times.

As FrontStreet Coffee also mentioned earlier, Blue Mountain coffee originally only had the Typica variety, but this year introduced the Geisha variety. So what are the differences between these two coffee varieties?

Traditional Blue Mountain Coffee Variety: Typica

Blue Mountain's Typica was transplanted from Martinique to Jamaica's Blue Mountains in the 1720s. After more than 200 years, Blue Mountain Typica has evolved to have better disease resistance, particularly superior resistance to coffee berry disease compared to regular Typica. However, when Blue Mountain Typica is grown outside Jamaica, it cannot replicate its sweet and fragrant characteristics. Until 2019, Blue Mountain coffee circulating in overseas markets was all washed-processed Typica varieties. It is precisely because of this single processing method and coffee variety that Blue Mountain coffee has maintained its high quality decade after decade. Its balanced and mellow taste is appreciated by some coffee lovers. The natural-processed Blue Mountain coffee introduced in 2019 actually enhanced the acidity of Blue Mountain coffee, though its mellowness was not as high as the washed version.

Blue Mountain Geisha Coffee Variety: Geisha Coffee Beans

Geisha traveled from Ethiopia to Kenya, to Uganda, to Tanzania, to Costa Rica, and finally to Panama. It wasn't until 2004 when the owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda discovered Geisha and entered it into competitions that it became famous overnight. Geisha coffee beans are elongated in shape and have refreshing and pleasant flavors. Geisha coffee beans must be grown in high-altitude regions to develop rich and fascinating floral aromas. For example, Hacienda La Esmeralda grows Geisha at an average altitude of over 1,500m, while the Blue Mountain coffee region only has an altitude of 1,310m. Through cupping Blue Mountain Geisha coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee found that the floral aroma of Blue Mountain Geisha is not very obvious, and one can only detect a subtle jasmine fragrance when tasting carefully.

Washed Coffee Processing Method

The washed method is a technique invented by the Dutch in the 18th century. In this process, harvested berries are fed through a depulping machine to separate most of the fruit pulp from the coffee beans. The parchment coffee is then guided to a clean water tank and soaked in water for fermentation to completely remove residual pulp layers. Through water processing, unripe and defective beans are selected out due to buoyancy differences. Then depulping, also called pulping, removes the coffee cherry's skin through machines, leaving coffee beans with mucilage placed in fermentation tanks to ferment for 1-2 days to decompose the mucilage attached to the coffee beans. Then, the coffee beans are thoroughly cleaned with clean water, and the parchment beans are dried until the moisture content reaches 12% for storage. The parchment is removed before export.

The two varieties of Blue Mountain coffee show different characteristics. For traditional Blue Mountain coffee, choose washed-processed Typica Blue Mountain coffee. For innovative Blue Mountain coffee, choose washed-processed Geisha Blue Mountain coffee.

Since these two Blue Mountain coffee beans use different varieties, how does FrontStreet Coffee roast them?

Washed Blue Mountain Coffee Bean Roasting

To express the balanced sweet-sour-bitter characteristics of Blue Mountain coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster uses a degree between medium-light and medium-dark roasting. The beans enter the roaster at 165°C with heat at 130 and damper at 3. The return point is at 1'32", and the temperature is 95.8°C with unchanged heat. At 3 minutes, the damper is adjusted to 4, and at 4 minutes, the heat is increased to 140. When the bean surface temperature reaches 153.3°C, the beans turn yellow, and the grassy aroma completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. At 8'36", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toasted bread aroma clearly transforms into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 10'06", with 3 minutes of development after first crack, and the beans are discharged at 198.5°C.

Blue Mountain Geisha Roasting

For this batch of Blue Mountain Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster faced a dilemma: whether to highlight the Blue Mountain flavor or the Geisha flavor. If it tasted like Blue Mountain, what would be the point of using Geisha variety? If it emphasized Geisha flavor, wouldn't that contradict the Blue Mountain name? However, to highlight the characteristics of Geisha coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster ultimately chose medium-light roasting to emphasize floral and fruity aromas. The beans enter the roaster at 180°C with heat at 130 and damper at 3. The return point is at 1'32", and the temperature is 97°C with unchanged heat. At 3 minutes, the damper is adjusted to 4, and at 4 minutes, the heat is increased to 140. When the bean surface temperature reaches 153.5°C, the beans turn yellow, and the grassy aroma completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. At 8'36", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toasted bread aroma clearly transforms into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'31", with 1'28" of development after first crack, and the beans are discharged at 192°C.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Experience

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing experience for washed Typica Blue Mountain coffee and washed Geisha Blue Mountain coffee:

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Geisha Brewing Notes:

Dose: 15g; Grind size: Medium-fine (78% passing through 20 standard mesh); Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15; Water temperature: 91°C; Dripper: V60#01

FrontStreet Coffee's segmented brewing method:

1. First pour 30g of water for 30 seconds of blooming. 2. After blooming, inject the second pour, spiraling from the center outward with 100g of water. This pour can be done slowly; Geisha coffee is very extraction-resistant and requires sufficient pouring time to extract its aromas. Wait for the water level to drop to half. 3. When the coffee bed is about to be exposed, inject the third pour of 95g, for a total of 225g. Wait for the coffee to finish filtering, then remove the dripper. Total brewing time: 1 minute 52 seconds.

Brewing flavors:

Initial taste has citrus acidity, pomelo sweetness, middle notes of jasmine flowers, with a finish of honey and caramel sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Geisha Brewing Notes:

Dose: 15g; Grind size: Medium-coarse (74% passing through 20 standard mesh); To enhance the body of washed Blue Mountain, Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:13; Water temperature: 89°C; Dripper: Kono

FrontStreet Coffee's segmented brewing method:

1. First pour 30g of water for 30 seconds of blooming. 2. After blooming, inject the second pour, spiraling from the center outward with 80g of water. Wait for the water level to drop to half. 3. When the coffee bed is about to be exposed, inject the third pour of 85g, for a total of 195g. Wait for the coffee to finish filtering, then remove the dripper. Total brewing time: 1 minute 55 seconds.

Washed Blue Mountain coffee bean brewing flavors:

Initial taste has dark chocolate and nutty flavors, high clarity, very bright, excellent body, with balanced sweet-sour-bitter notes.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473