Is Chinese Blue Mountain Coffee Fake? The History and Story of Authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Cafe_Style (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

Blue Mountain Coffee: The Legendary Premium Coffee

"Blue Mountain Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain" is renowned and should be the most prestigious specialty coffee in China.

In the early years, there were no legitimate import channels in China, and some unscrupulous merchants used other coffee beans to create "Blue Mountain flavored coffee beans" and "Blue Mountain grade coffee" to confuse consumers. As a result, statements like "Blue Mountain coffee in domestic cafés is fake" and "Blue Mountain coffee cannot be purchased in China" have circulated to this day. This claim originated from a 2010 CCTV program. Although Blue Mountain flavored coffee still exists on Taobao today, the notion that there's no genuine Blue Mountain in China is outdated information from a decade ago.

Since 2011, Jamaica has attached great importance to the Chinese market, and you can even see prominent red five-star symbols on the homepage of CIB (The Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica) at http://www.ciboj.org/. Now, purchasing Blue Mountain coffee beans in China is no longer difficult.

The Origin of the "Blue Mountain" Name

The Blue Mountain Range is located in the eastern part of Jamaica. The mountain gets its name because, on clear days, when the sun shines directly on the azure Caribbean Sea, the peaks reflect the brilliant blue light of the seawater.

The Blue Mountain Range is situated in Jamaica, with its highest peak reaching 2,256 meters above sea level, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region. Located in the coffee belt, it boasts fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, and a humid climate with year-round fog and rain (average precipitation of 1,980 mm and temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

Green Bean Grading of "Blue Mountain Coffee"

In 1950, the Jamaican government established the CIB (Jamaica Coffee Industry Board), which is the government agency responsible for coffee affairs in Jamaica, overseeing, regulating, and guiding coffee cultivation, processing, and trade. The board has set quality standards for Jamaican coffee:

Only qualified coffee beans from the above legally designated regions can bear the round "Blue Mountain Coffee" label!

There used to be a belief that "only coffee grown in the Blue Mountain area above 1,800 meters altitude can be called Blue Mountain coffee." In fact, there is only one estate on the mountain crown above 1,800 meters in the Blue Mountain Range, which is Amber (row 5 in the table below). It belongs to the Lyn family of Chinese descent from Guangdong, China. This estate has only 30 hectares of land with very limited production. The legal producing area for Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed across five mountainous areas of the Blue Mountain Range: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak, and Blue Mountain Peak, with 21 authorized distributors.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online services at https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473