Why is Blue Mountain Coffee packaged in wooden barrels? Introduction to Jamaica Blue Mountain Clifton Coffee Estate

The Authentic FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee

Genuine FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee is among the world's most superiorly cultivated coffees. Jamaica's weather, geological structure, and topography collectively provide an exceptionally ideal environment. Designated Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee can only be grown in the Blue Mountain region, located in the eastern northern part of Kingston, Jamaica. The mountain range stretching across Jamaica extends to the eastern part of the island, with the Blue Mountains reaching heights of over 2,100 meters. The cool, foggy, and frequently rainy weather makes this fertile land well-balanced with moisture. Here, people use mixed cultivation methods to grow coffee trees, planting them alongside banana and avocado trees on terraced slopes. They typically grow on steep mountain slopes, sometimes with gradients as steep as 60 degrees, requiring manual harvesting. Its characteristics include exceptionally high aroma and delicate taste. Due to its high aroma, it is often blended with other raw beans, with over 80% exported to Japan.

The Rarity and Value of Blue Mountain Coffee

In the past, we often heard statements like "Blue Mountain Coffee is too expensive to drink" and "Only Blue Mountain Coffee from Japan is authentic." These rumors originated from the coffee contract signed between Jamaica and Japan in the 1970s.

Before the 1960s, Jamaican coffee beans were already very popular in the entire specialty market. In 1969, Jamaica was severely affected by hurricane disasters, and multiple industries fell into difficulties, including the coffee industry. At this time, Japan's UCC company provided financial assistance to the Jamaican coffee industry and introduced scientific ecological cultivation methods. The Jamaican government, grateful for the help, signed a 30-year contract with Japan, agreeing to allocate 90% of high-quality Blue Mountain Coffee quota to Japan, with the remaining 10% distributed to European and American countries. After the contract expired, coinciding with the global economic crisis, Japan's economy was depressed with declining purchasing power. Additionally, Jamaican coffee farmers were unwilling to let Japanese merchants monopolize the market anymore, so they significantly increased the prices of raw coffee beans. Currently, Japan's purchase of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee has decreased from the previous 90% to less than 60%.

Although there are many fake Blue Mountain coffees in the domestic market, it doesn't mean authentic Blue Mountain doesn't exist. In fact, our country had records of directly importing Blue Mountain Coffee from Jamaica as early as April 2011. At that time, Zhejiang DUNN'S RIVER Import and Export Trading Company, representing the "Hangzhou Coffee and Western Food Association," purchased a total of 1000*70kg from Jamaica, with a total value of two million US dollars. Today, Jamaica also values the Chinese market very much, and many domestic authorized exporters can be found on the CIB official website.

Coming to today's booming coffee culture, we can now directly import Blue Mountain Coffee beans from Jamaica. At FrontStreet Coffee, you can enjoy authentic FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee. FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 is sold at 158 yuan/100g per package, with hand-brew tasting at 60 yuan/cup, which is considered a relatively affordable price point.

Why Only Blue Mountain Coffee Beans Are Packaged in Wooden Barrels

Among all raw coffee beans, only Blue Mountain Coffee is packaged in barrels, while other coffees are exported in jute bags. This actually originates from the mid-18th century during the British colonial period, when flour was transported from Britain to Jamaica, and empty barrels were recycled to transport coffee and rum. Today's wooden barrels are made from wood from temperate forests in the United States. The advantage of wooden barrels is their ability to absorb and release internal and external humidity without significant changes, which can alleviate sudden temperature changes during transportation. Additionally, barrel packaging seals and isolates coffee aroma, maintaining the best coffee quality, though the additional costs are relatively high.

Blue Mountain Coffee Shines on the World Stage

In 1953, the Jamaican government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB) to manage the quality of locally produced coffee. Jamaica was the first country in the world to distinguish coffee names by region. Like French wine, cheese, and cream, it is named by its origin of production. All coffee exported from Jamaica must go through the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, especially coffee harvested from the Blue Mountain region with legal authorization, which is absolutely 100% Blue Mountain Coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1

FrontStreet Coffee's imported FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 comes from Clifton Farm. Clifton Farm is the largest estate in this region, and by international standards, it's still considered small-scale cultivation, with many estate owners being small landholders whose families have worked on this land for two centuries. FrontStreet Coffee, through comparison, believes that Clifton Farm's FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 performs exceptionally well and can serve as one of the outstanding representatives of Blue Mountain Coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee): Jamaica FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans
Region: Blue Mountain Region
Farm: Clifton
Altitude: 1310m
Variety: Typica
Processing Method: Washed or Natural
Grade: NO.1

Processing Methods

Before this year, FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 was only available in washed processing. The method uses washing and fermentation to remove the fruit pulp and mucilage. Farms using the washed method must build washing pools and have access to a continuous supply of fresh water. During processing, the fruit pulp is first removed, then fermented for 12-18 hours. The completed fermented beans are then placed in the pool 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 enclosed in the parchment with a moisture content of 50%. They must be sun-dried to reduce the moisture content to 12-14%, otherwise they will continue to ferment, become moldy and spoil. After this, the coffee beans are sorted and then stored in special warehouses. These procedures must be strictly controlled, otherwise the quality of the coffee will be affected.

In 2020, the Blue Mountain region also exported a batch of natural processed FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee. FrontStreet Coffee also imported and roasted it at the first opportunity.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee believes in roasting FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee "thoroughly" from inside out, using excellent roasting techniques on top of thorough roasting to express the flavor of FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee.

Caramelization is the most significant step affecting coffee flavor. After six to seven minutes of roasting, raw beans absorb a large amount of heat energy, initiating pyrolysis reactions and the first cracking sound. Some sugars convert to carbon dioxide, moisture continues to evaporate, new aromatic components gradually develop, forming so-called coffee oils, which combine with hundreds of aromatic substances including nicotinic acid, citric acid, quinic acid, malic acid, acetic acid, and caffeine.

Roasting Curve: Heat to 170°C, open air damper to 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 140°C, air damper unchanged. At 5'10'', temperature reaches 153°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat to 115°C, air damper to 4. At 8'00", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast smell clearly transforms to coffee aroma, which 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, fully open air damper (heat adjustment must be very careful, not so low as to stop cracking sounds). Remove from heat at 201.3°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions

Parameters: 15g coffee, water temperature 86-88°C, water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, medium-coarse grind (Chinese standard 20-mesh sieve pass rate 70-75%)

Filter cups generally include several options: V60, Kalita wave, and Kono. FrontStreet Coffee mainly demonstrates brewing with the Kono filter cup. FrontStreet Coffee chose the Kono filter cup mainly considering that FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee uses a dark roast level, and high temperatures can easily lead to over-extraction. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee chose 86°C for water temperature. At this temperature, using V60 or other faster-flowing filter cups would easily lead to under-extraction, while the Kono has fewer and shorter ribs, which can isolate the gap between filter paper and filter cup, increasing water residence time and providing immersion functionality. Therefore, considering all brewing parameter test results, FrontStreet Coffee ultimately chose the Kono filter cup.

In terms of brewing technique, FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, namely the three-stage pouring method. Use 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30s. In the first stage, pour with small water flow in a circular motion to 125g, then stop pouring. When the liquid level drops to just about to expose the coffee bed, continue with the second stage pour, ending extraction at 225g. The total extraction time (including blooming) is 2'00".

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473