Which is Better: Green Mountain Coffee or Blue Mountain Coffee? What Are the Flavor and Taste Differences? Why Are Blue Mountain Coffee Beans So Much More Expensive?

Green Mountain Coffee vs. Blue Mountain Coffee

Although Green Mountain Coffee and Blue Mountain Coffee differ by just one word, their actual differences are numerous. FrontStreet Coffee will introduce these two coffees to break down their unique characteristics.

Green Mountain Coffee from America

Green Mountain is not a coffee-growing region. Green Mountain Coffee is a coffee brand founded in Vermont, USA in 1981 and went public in 1993.

While both are coffee brand marketing, unlike Starbucks' "high-taste" premium coffee, Green Mountain Coffee sells high-quality Arabica coffee beans at lower prices. Additionally, Green Mountain Coffee has made achievements in environmental protection. Since 2002, Green Mountain Coffee has sold certified fair trade coffee, all of which is organic coffee. (To obtain fair trade coffee certification, coffee merchants must pay coffee farmers more than $1.26 per pound of coffee beans and provide technology for coffee farmers to cultivate coffee using organic methods, which is a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and healthy organic cultivation method).

Due to the rapid development of the coffee market in recent years, various single-origin coffees can be dazzling, but Green Mountain Coffee still adheres to an environmentally friendly and practical approach. Among the many products sold by Green Mountain Coffee, K-Cups are an exceptionally practical option. According to the design philosophy of KEURIG founder Peter Dragone and John Sylvan—"no need to brew a whole pot of coffee, just one cup at a time is enough"—they invented the Keurig K-Cup for brewing single servings, along with compatible single-serving packaging. Later, Keurig also developed specialized single-cup coffee machines.

K-Cup advertising presents: place the K-Cup in the coffee machine, and in just one minute, you'll have a cup of fragrant hot coffee—no need to grind coffee beans, no measuring, no cleaning, and no coffee grounds. Most importantly, each K-Cup sells for only 50 cents, just one-tenth the price of a Starbucks coffee. The K-Cup design philosophy significantly boosted Green Mountain Coffee's sales, and Green Mountain consequently applied for multiple K-Cup-related patents, requiring other manufacturers to pay licensing fees to Green Mountain when using K-Cup packaging.

Blue Mountain Coffee from Jamaica

As seen on the map, Jamaica is an island nation located in the Caribbean region of North America, belonging to the tropical zone. Cuba is to the north, and Central America is nearby. The coffee-growing areas are mainly distributed around the Blue Mountains in eastern Jamaica. When the weather is clear, direct sunlight on the blue sea surface reflects blue light onto the mountains, hence the name Blue Mountain. The Blue Mountains have the highest mountains in the local area, with the highest peak approximately 2,256 meters. Only areas below 1,700 meters can grow coffee trees, with higher elevations designated as protected forest land.

The high-altitude Blue Mountain growing area is shrouded in clouds and mist, with fertile volcanic soil. The climate is humid and rainy throughout the year, with an average temperature around 27°C. Combined with the almost complete absence of industrial pollution locally, these factors contribute to growing excellent quality Blue Mountain coffee beans. At this point, FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone can see that the commercial brand Green Mountain Coffee and the high-quality Blue Mountain Coffee are essentially unrelated. FrontStreet Coffee will now discuss what causes Blue Mountain Coffee's high price.

The Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB) has established strict production standards. Only Arabica coffee grown in specific areas at elevations between 910-1,700 meters can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. It is divided into four regions: St. Mary, St. Thomas, St. Andrew, and Portland, with a total area accounting for one-third of the entire Blue Mountain growing area. The remaining two-thirds of the land is used for growing Jamaica High Mountain coffee and Jamaica Prime coffee. Additionally, steep mountain slopes make manual harvesting difficult, further affecting production. In recent years, less than 15% of coffee beans produced in Jamaica can bear the Blue Mountain Coffee label.

We often hear that in the early days, Japan almost monopolized Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee market. Due to storm damage on Jamaica Island in 1969, the growing areas suffered severe losses. Japan's UCC Coffee Group provided substantial assistance to help them overcome difficulties, and continued investing in Jamaica's coffee industry in later years. In 1972, Jamaica signed a 30-year agreement with Japan, granting Japan priority purchasing rights for Blue Mountain Coffee. During this period, 90% of Blue Mountain production was supplied to Japan, with the remaining 10% allocated to countries in Europe, America, and Asia. This is why we often hear that Blue Mountain Coffee was so expensive during that era. In earlier years, authentic Blue Mountain Coffee was rarely available domestically, or its price was too high for ordinary consumption, leading to the appearance of many low-priced "Blue Mountain flavored instant coffee" and lower-quality "Blue Mountain blended coffee" on the market.

As the agreement between Jamaica and Japan expired, Jamaica hoped to expand its buyer market and allocated more Blue Mountain Coffee quotas to other coffee markets. In 2010, China imported its first batch of Blue Mountain green coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee also added the highest grade Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee to its regular coffee menu for everyone to enjoy.

The so-called Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee is Jamaica's national treasure-grade Blue Mountain coffee beans, featuring green beans of 17 screen size or larger, with a defect rate below 3%, moisture content of 10-12.5%, and a perfectly balanced flavor of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, body, and aroma. The green beans have uniform color and well-formed particles, belonging to a very rare premium batch.

FrontStreet Coffee: Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans

Origin: Jamaica Blue Mountain

Estate: Clifton Mountain Estate

Altitude: 1,310m

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Typica

Flavor Notes: Chocolate, Nuts, Cream, Cocoa, Toffee

Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Suggestions

To enjoy coffee with full, rich aroma, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing. Since coffee requires 4-7 days of resting after roasting, FrontStreet Coffee ships coffee beans roasted within 5 days, ensuring that the coffee beans you receive after ordering are the freshest, just in time for the optimal tasting period. If you don't have a grinder at home, FrontStreet Coffee provides grinding services. However, ground coffee releases aroma faster than whole beans, so if conditions permit, FrontStreet Coffee suggests having your own grinding equipment to better enjoy the coffee's aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the excellent flavor of Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee lies in its balanced acidity and sweetness, high body, and full aroma. For roasting, FrontStreet Coffee chose medium-dark roast to highlight the coffee beans' nutty and cocoa aromas. Using a KONO dripper can provide better body.

First, wet the KONO dripper to ensure the filter paper fits snugly against the coffee dripper. Pour out the water from the sharing pot while adding 15g of coffee powder. After blooming with 30g of water for 30 seconds, begin pouring in small circular motions from the center until reaching 125g, then start the second stage. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's position, then pour the second stage using the same technique until reaching 225g. Once all dripping is complete, remove the dripper.

After grinding, Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee releases a very rich aroma. During brewing, it carries caramel sweetness. The first sip reveals the richness of nuts and chocolate, with moderate acidity and sweetness, clean taste, and persistent aftertaste.

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Important Notice :

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