World's Three Great Coffees: Flavor Characteristics of Blue Mountain Coffee, Gesha Coffee, and Kopi Luwak

If you're a coffee enthusiast, you're likely familiar with three highly representative and renowned coffee beans: Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, Panama Geisha Coffee, and Indonesia's Kopi Luwak. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will satisfy all three of your curiosities at once, exploring every aspect of what makes them so premium, along with their distinctive flavor characteristics.

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee

As one of the representatives of high-quality coffee, Blue Mountain Coffee benefits from the weather, geological structure, and terrain of Jamaica's Blue Mountains, which together provide an ideal environment for coffee beans.

The mountain ridge running through Jamaica extends to the eastern part of the island. The Blue Mountains reach elevations of over 2,100 meters, but Blue Mountain Coffee is only cultivated at altitudes between 910-1,700 meters, as areas above 1,700 meters are nature reserves. In these regions, the weather is cool, foggy, and experiences frequent precipitation. The combination of fertile soil and rainwater, along with the mixed cultivation method where coffee trees are planted on terraces alongside banana and avocado trees, provides shade for the coffee trees.

Excellent growing environment + fertile volcanic soil + the oldest coffee variety Typica have endowed Blue Mountain Coffee with a very balanced and clean flavor. FrontStreet Coffee sells a washed Blue Mountain Coffee from Jamaica's oldest coffee estate—Clifton Estate, grown at 1,310 meters. Through cupping after medium-dark roasting, we found that Blue Mountain Coffee achieves a perfect balance of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. Within the rich dark cocoa thickness, there's a subtle lively fruit acidity and a noticeable sweet aftertaste, making every person who has tasted Blue Mountain Coffee unforgettable.

Why is Blue Mountain Coffee so expensive?

One reason is that Jamaica's coffee industry faces a series of challenges, including hurricane impacts, increasing labor costs, and the difficulty of mechanizing operations on terraced fields. Many small estates and farms find it difficult to rationalize cultivation, resulting in limited annual production of Blue Mountain Coffee.

Another reason is that Japan has consistently invested in Jamaica's coffee industry. Before 2012, most Blue Mountain Coffee was controlled by Japanese interests, who also obtained priority purchasing rights. In 1992, Jamaica sold 688 tons of Blue Mountain Coffee to Japan, 75 tons to the United States, and 59 tons to the United Kingdom. Today, 90% of Blue Mountain Coffee is purchased by Japan. Since the rest of the world can only access 10% of Blue Mountain Coffee, it remains in high demand regardless of price.

It wasn't until 2012 that the Jamaican government canceled Japan's priority purchasing rights, giving other countries more opportunities to import Blue Mountain Coffee. Additionally, Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee harvest period runs from June to November each year, typically using hand-picking methods. After harvesting, the beans undergo washing, pulping, fermentation, dehydration, drying, hulling, and roasting processes before becoming finished Blue Mountain Coffee beans.

Throughout the raw bean processing, each step has dedicated personnel responsible for quality supervision. For the precious Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica's packaging and transportation methods are also distinctive. Unlike other coffees packaged in 60kg burlap bags, Blue Mountain Coffee is packaged and transported in wooden barrels following standards of 15, 30, or 70 kilograms per barrel.

Jamaica is also the last country still using traditional wooden barrels for packaging and transporting coffee. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee beans must receive a quality certification from the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board, which is the only organization authorized to issue such certificates in Jamaica. Furthermore, for each export batch, dedicated quality supervision experts are responsible for sampling, roasting, grinding, and brewing the coffee before making a final determination on whether it meets standards.

Although Blue Mountain Coffee prices are slightly higher compared to many other coffee-growing regions, they are significantly cheaper than ten years ago. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is priced at 158 RMB per 100g, available for purchase at FrontStreet Coffee stores and FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

Panama Geisha Coffee

How much do you know about Geisha coffee beans? In fact, Geisha is just a coffee variety, with its name derived from the translation of "Geisha." It belongs to the same category as Typica and Bourbon. Geisha originally grew in the forests of Ethiopia. In 1931, it was introduced from Geisha Mountain in southwestern Ethiopia to coffee research institutes in Kenya and Tanzania, then later transplanted to Uganda and Costa Rica. During the 1960s-70s, Don Pachi Estate introduced it from Costa Rica to Panama for cultivation.

At that time, due to low yield, tall plants, and difficult harvesting, it was far less popular than varieties like Caturra and Catuai. Geisha trees were often used as windbreaks. It wasn't until Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda separated it from other varieties in 2003 and it became the champion of the BOP competition in 2004 that the Geisha variety truly entered the public spotlight.

In reality, Geisha coffee trees have high requirements for their growing environment and are quite "picky." They need to be planted in areas with high altitude, cloud and shade cover or numerous shade trees, and fertile soil to develop rich and captivating floral aromas, delicate and elegant fruit acidity, and tea-like sweet aftertaste.

Panama's climate environment is exceptionally suitable for growing Geisha coffee. Bordering Costa Rica and Colombia, Panama's east-west environmental pattern allows cold air currents to flow through the central mountain range and converge at altitudes above 1,900 meters. This creates a unique microclimate in the Boquete and Piedra de Candela regions, with temperatures and rainfall perfect for plant growth. This microclimate area is the main production region for Panama's coffee. Beyond climate, the surrounding land is rich in nutrients, and fertile soil provides perfect growing conditions for coffee, shaping numerous unique, high-quality coffees. FrontStreet Coffee believes that it's precisely these factors in the Panama region that allow Geisha coffee beans to develop delicate and elegant fruit acidity and distinct floral aromas, and it's these very flavors that have made Panama's Geisha coffee popular worldwide.

Since Geisha coffee became famous in Panama, it has been cultivated worldwide, with even Yunnan now growing Geisha coffee. Although many regions cultivate Geisha coffee—such as Ethiopia, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and even China's Yunnan—the climate, altitude, temperature and humidity, sunlight duration and intensity, soil fertility, cultivation water, growers, and other factors all contribute to flavor variations, yet none match the excellence of Panama Geisha's flavor. Therefore, while Geisha varieties are diverse and each has its characteristics, Panama remains mainstream, but FrontStreet Coffee believes that Geisha coffees from other producing countries and regions are also worth trying.

FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha offerings include not only those from Panama but also Ethiopia's Gesha Village Red Label, Colombia's Hanami Coffee, and Costa Rica's Mirasu Coffee—all very popular single-origin coffees!

As the "talent scout" that discovered Geisha, Hacienda La Esmeralda began dividing its estate into plots early on and established a series of product positioning strategies. Initially consisting of three Geisha brands and two non-Geisha brands: Esmeralda Special, Private Collection, and Geisha 1500. The Catuai varieties had two brands: Diamond Mountain and Palmyra.

Later, due to changes in the international market, Geisha's global popularity, and other Panama estates also exploring the upper limits of Geisha, Hacienda La Esmeralda made corresponding product adjustments between 2020-2022. These included separating auction batches from the Red Label to establish an independent product line—Auction Batches. The Red Label retained its original attribute of traceability to specific plots, representing the highest-grade product in non-auction sales. The Green Label doesn't emphasize specific plots but is a blend harvested from various plots between 1,600-1,800 meters, still maintaining the characteristic Esmeralda Geisha flavor. The Blue Label series, which offered the best value, was discontinued.

Because Geisha coffee features floral aromas, fruit notes, honey sweetness, and a clean, bright mouthfeel, Geisha coffee beans are typically roasted to medium-light levels. In terms of price, they're quite accessible. For those wanting to taste the highest-grade single-plot Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee recommends La Esmeralda Red Label at 350 RMB/100g. For those pursuing high-quality Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee's La Esmeralda Green Label is available at 168 RMB/100g. Both can be purchased at FrontStreet Coffee stores and FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

Indonesia Kopi Luwak

Kopi Luwak (also known as civet coffee), is already a household name in the coffee world. Everyone knows that the world's most expensive coffee is "Kopi Luwak," which is also the coffee with the lowest production. Its annual production is limited because the coffee beans undergo fermentation within the animal's body, developing special herbal aromas and excellent body thickness. Thus, Kopi Luwak became a favorite among the wealthy circle, and its price is extremely expensive. Although the price is high, generally speaking, the bean variety quality is average.

The Asian palm civet primarily inhabits tropical rainforests and subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest edges, including shrublands and grasslands in hills and mountains below 2,100 meters altitude. They select rock caves, burrows, or tree hollows as their habitats. These coffee beans are typically Robusta varieties because the civets' activity range is at low to medium altitudes, so most coffee varieties are Robusta. High-altitude Arabica Kopi Luwak is rare.

What does Kopi Luwak taste like?

The Asian palm civet has an omnivorous diet. Animal foods include small mammals and birds, while plant foods include stems and leaves of Solanaceae plants, seeds of various figs, and fruits like Lansium parasiticum and Physalis. However, civets have poor plant digestion ability, so eating berries is equivalent to their dessert, while their main food consists of meat. Because of their poor plant digestion, they mainly live in the broadleaf forests, shrublands, and agricultural areas of South Asia and Southeast Asia—environments also suitable for coffee tree growth. Therefore, many of the Physalis fruits that civets consume are coffee cherries. What civets can digest are only the fruit skin and pulp parts; the fruit seeds inside—meaning the coffee beans—are eventually excreted. Since the civet's habitat is in Indonesia's low-altitude regions and the coffee variety is the low-quality Robusta bean, Kopi Luwak has the earthy and herbal flavors characteristic of Robusta beans. Combined with its special processing method, the coffee has high viscosity, with a syrup-like texture when drunk—rich and substantial.

Kopi Luwak's Special Processing Method—In-Body Fermentation

Early on, local people would collect wild civet droppings from the forest, extract the undigested coffee seeds, and process them into raw beans. Due to limited production and its unique in-body fermentation method, many businessmen later targeted the business opportunity and began large-scale capturing and caging of civets. The civets, which should eat meat, could only consume coffee cherries. However, the nutritional content in coffee cherries cannot maintain the civets' health.

They believe that although coffee beans aren't digested in the civet's digestive tract, the highly corrosive digestive fluids have corroded their surface. These digestive fluids contain a special protease that can break down the coffee beans' original protein chains, decomposing long-chain proteins into small particles, forming short-chain peptides and amino acids. In reality, because they only consume coffee cherries long-term, civets excrete coffee beans perhaps just one or two hours after consumption. Coffee beans spending only one or two hours in a civet's stomach is insufficient to produce the series of changes mentioned above. The beans remain essentially the same as when consumed, and even if there are flavor changes, they're minimal.

FrontStreet Coffee's Neutral View on Kopi Luwak

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the natural formation of Kopi Luwak itself isn't problematic—civets use their noses to identify ripe coffee cherries, similar to how Ethiopia's red cherries are harvested when fully mature; both approaches achieve similar results. The problem lies with people who cage civets. Forcing them to eat coffee cherries regardless of ripeness solely to increase Kopi Luwak production constitutes cruel acts that fall outside our discussion of coffee.

Consider this: if passing through the digestive tract truly makes coffee taste better, then feeding them large amounts of coffee beans regardless of ripeness should also produce good-tasting coffee, which explains the prevalence of farmed Vietnamese Kopi Luwak, Yunnan Kopi Luwak, and Indonesian Kopi Luwak. FrontStreet Coffee believes that only coffee beans from mature coffee cherries will taste good. Therefore, even if Kopi Luwak production continues, it should only be done by establishing a large activity area where civets can freely select the coffee cherries they deem appropriate to eat, while also providing other nutritional food sources.

Can Kopi Luwak's In-Body Processing Method Be Replaced by Technology?

Excessive pursuit of this type of coffee and its extremely high price may lead to the consequences of wild animals being forcibly imprisoned and forced to produce coffee beans. It's unnecessary to persecute wild animals for gustatory pleasure.

According to online reports, with the development of microbial technology, people are also attempting more environmentally friendly methods to ferment raw coffee beans. For example, some are dedicated to developing modern technology and microbial techniques to simulate civet digestive systems to process coffee cherries. If this research succeeds, this simulated Kopi Luwak would neither threaten wild animals nor produce superior-quality coffee.

Considering its scarcity and expensive price, FrontStreet Coffee doesn't recommend everyone to drink Kopi Luwak. Although genuine Kopi Luwak has excellent flavor, coffees from other producing countries are also outstanding. For those who enjoy floral flavors, FrontStreet Coffee recommends Panama Geisha Coffee—one of the world's most expensive coffees. For those who prefer fresh, acidic coffee, FrontStreet Coffee recommends Ethiopia's Buku coffee beans, with black tea and berry notes. For those who enjoy balanced nut and caramel flavors—that is, coffee that's neither acidic nor bitter—FrontStreet Coffee recommends Brazil coffee beans. If you still love the rich, thick texture of Indonesian coffee, we suggest purchasing the highest-grade FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling, which undergoes multiple hand-sortings to minimize defect rates, resulting in clearer coffee aromas and better aftertaste. All these coffee beans can be purchased at FrontStreet Coffee stores and FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

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