Jamaican Coffee Grades: How to Classify the Levels of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Introduction to Professional Coffee Knowledge

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One of the World's Most Expensive Coffees: Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Bean Grade Classification? How Can It Be Called "Authentic FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain"?

Blue Mountain Coffee is the world's most superior coffee. The Blue Mountains are located in eastern Jamaica. When the weather is clear, the sun shines directly on the azure Caribbean Sea, and the peaks reflect the brilliant blue light of the seawater, hence the name. The highest peak of Blue Mountain reaches an altitude of 2256 meters, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region and a famous tourist destination.

This area is located in the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air without pollution, humid climate, and year-round fog and rain. Such climate has created the world-renowned Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, while also creating the world's highest-priced coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee possesses all the characteristics of good coffee - not only is it rich and mellow in taste, but because the coffee's sweet, sour, and bitter flavors are perfectly balanced, it has no bitterness at all, only moderate and perfect acidity.

Generally, it is consumed as a single-origin coffee, but due to its extremely limited production and incredibly expensive price, coffee with similar flavors is typically used as a substitute in the market. Among these, Blue Mountain Coffee and High Mountain Coffee are each divided into two grades. From top to bottom in terms of quality, they are: Blue Mountain No. 1, Blue Mountain No. 2, High Mountain No. 1, High Mountain No. 2, and Jamaica Coffee. Only coffee grown between altitudes of 457 to 1524 meters can be called Blue Mountain Coffee. Coffee grown between altitudes of 274 to 457 meters is usually called Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans. In terms of price, Blue Mountain Coffee is several times more expensive than High Mountain Coffee.

Jamaica Blue Mountain Region Coffee Grades

There are three grades of coffee in the Jamaica Blue Mountain region:

Blue Mountain Coffee

Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans

Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans

The "Secret" Behind Blue Mountain Coffee's Pure Flavor

All their coffee trees grow on rugged mountain slopes, making the harvesting process extremely difficult - only skilled local female workers can handle it. Selecting perfectly ripe coffee beans during harvesting is crucial, as underripe or overripe beans will affect the coffee quality. After harvesting, coffee beans must be hulled the same day, then fermented for 12-18 hours. Following this, the coffee beans are washed and sorted. The next step is drying, which must be done on concrete floors or thick blankets until the coffee bean moisture content drops to 12%-14%. They are then stored in special warehouses. When needed, they are taken out for roasting and then ground into powder. These procedures must be strictly controlled, otherwise, the coffee quality will be affected.

Jamaica Coffee Industry Board

In 1950, the Jamaican government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, which sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervises the implementation of these standards to ensure the quality of Jamaican coffee. The board grants special official seals to Jamaican exported raw and roasted coffee, making it the world's highest-level national coffee institution. Currently, there are 6 marks that can represent the origin of Blue Mountain Coffee: Mavis Bank Central Factory (MBCE), Mavis Hill Coffee Co-operative (MHCCT), Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative (PXXSH), Coffee Industry Board (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Board (St. John's Peak), and JABL.

By 1969, the situation had improved as Japanese loans were used to enhance production quality, thereby guaranteeing the market. Today, this coffee has reached a status of fanatic devotion. By 1981, Jamaica had opened approximately 1,500 hectares of land for coffee cultivation, followed by investment in another 6,000 hectares of coffee land. In fact, today's Blue Mountain region is a small area with only 6,000 hectares of cultivation, making it impossible for all coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to be grown there. An additional 12,000 hectares of land are used for growing the other two types of coffee: High Mountain Supreme Coffee and Jamaica Prime Washed Coffee.

Historical Development

In 1717, French King Louis XV ordered coffee to be planted in Jamaica. In the mid-1720s, Jamaica's Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes imported Arabica seeds from Martinique and began promoting cultivation in the St. Andrew area. To this day, St. Andrew remains one of Jamaica's three major Blue Mountain coffee-producing regions, with the other two being Portland and St. Thomas.

Within 8 years, Jamaica exported over 375 tons of pure coffee. In 1932, coffee production reached its peak, with over 15,000 tons of coffee harvested.

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Characteristics

True FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee is made from the finest local raw coffee beans, which is where the connoisseur's pleasure lies. Its flavor is rich, balanced, and fruity with acidity, satisfying people's various needs. In addition, high-quality fresh FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee has a particularly long-lasting flavor, just as wine drinkers would say - an endless aftertaste. The best FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee beans are NO.1 peaberry, also called pearl beans, which are carefully selected small round beans from products grown at 2100 meters altitude - the best of the best. Flavor: extremely rich aroma with lasting fruity notes.

Bean size: relatively full. Recommended roasting method: medium roast. FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee has very low caffeine content, less than half that of other coffees, meeting modern health concepts. The same coffee tree species, whether planted in similar climates like Hawaii, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, or any other place, cannot produce the taste of Blue Mountain Coffee beans.

Pure Jamaica FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee perfectly blends the unique sour, bitter, sweet, and mellow flavors of coffee, forming a strong and enticing elegant aroma that other coffees cannot match.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing Method

Dripper: KONO dripper

Water temperature: 88°C

Grind size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 4

Brewing method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:14, 17g coffee grounds, first pour 25g water for 30s pre-infusion, second pour to 238g water, extraction time around 2:30 seconds

Analysis

The KONO dripper has relatively few ribs at the bottom, and the filter paper fits tightly against the dripper, achieving the purpose of restricting airflow. This allows water and coffee grounds to have longer contact and soaking time in the dripper, ensuring extraction time and extraction rate for coarse grinding. This allows the coffee grounds to be fully extracted, enhancing the mellow mouthfeel and making the flavor more concentrated.

Flavor: high balance, clean, thick and solid mouthfeel, with persistent dark chocolate aftertaste.

Related Recommendations

Jamaica Blue Mountain pour-over recommendations, temperature, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio introduction, flavor and mouthfeel description

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