Green Mountain Coffee and Blue Mountain Coffee | Green Mountain Coffee is Not a Counterfeit of Blue Mountain Coffee

Blue Mountain Coffee is certainly a name that everyone often hears, but what exactly is Green Mountain Coffee? While Blue Mountain Coffee has captivated countless coffee enthusiasts with its rich, mellow aroma, what makes Green Mountain Coffee stand out? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss these two coffees with you.

What is Green Mountain Coffee?

First, Green Mountain is not the name of a coffee-growing region. Green Mountain Coffee is a coffee brand founded in Vermont, USA in 1981 and went public in 1993. Although both are coffee brand marketing strategies, unlike Starbucks' "high-quality" expensive coffee, Green Mountain Coffee sells high-quality Arabica coffee beans at lower prices. At the same time, Green Mountain Coffee has also made achievements in environmental protection. Since 2002, Green Mountain Coffee began selling organic coffee and is certified as Fair Trade 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 to enable coffee farmers to cultivate coffee using organic methods - a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and healthy organic cultivation method)

Due to the booming coffee market in recent years, related coffee products can be dazzling, but Green Mountain Coffee still adheres to its environmentally friendly and practical approach. Among the many products sold by Green Mountain Coffee, coffee K-Cups are an extremely practical product. According to the design philosophy of KEURIG founders Peter Dragone and John Sylvan - "no need to brew a pot of coffee, just one cup at a time is enough" - they invented the Keurig K-Cup that brews only one cup at a time, along with single-serve packaging compatible with this cup design. Later, Keurig also developed specialized single-cup coffee machines.

K-Cup advertising shows: Place the K-Cup in the coffee machine, and in just one minute, you'll have a cup of hot coffee with an enticing aroma. 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 greatly increased Green Mountain Coffee's sales, and Green Mountain consequently applied for multiple K-Cup related patents, so other manufacturers must pay Green Mountain related licensing fees when using K-Cup packaging.

From this perspective, Green Mountain Coffee and Blue Mountain Coffee seem to have no real connection.

Jamaica Blue Mountain

Jamaica's coffee cultivation history begins in the 18th century during British colonial rule. At that time, Governor Nicholas Lawes brought back a coffee tree from Martinique and began promoting cultivation in the St. Andrew area. Since then, coffee began to be widely cultivated throughout Jamaica, including introduction to the Blue Mountain range for cultivation.

As can be 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. Coffee cultivation areas are mainly distributed around the Blue Mountain range in eastern Jamaica. When the weather is clear, direct sunlight hits the blue sea surface, and the mountain reflection also appears blue, hence the name Blue Mountain. The Blue Mountain range has the highest mountains in the area, with the highest peak approximately 2256 meters. Only areas below 1700m can cultivate coffee trees, with areas above designated as protected forest.

In addition to suitable cultivation altitude, Blue Mountain has fertile volcanic soil, humid and rainy climate throughout the year with an average temperature around 27°C, plus virtually no industrial pollution locally - all these factors contribute to cultivating high-quality Blue Mountain coffee beans.

Blue Mountain Coffee Grade Standards

Since 1932, Jamaica has encouraged local coffee cultivation, primarily focusing on promoting coffee quality rather than increasing yields to enhance the income from coffee. In 1953, the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board established standards for Blue Mountain Coffee, laying the foundation for later high-quality Blue Mountain Coffee.

According to the board's standards, only Arabica Typica coffee from growing regions at 910-1700 meters altitude, including St. Andrew, St. Mary, St. Thomas, and Portland, can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. Coffee grown below 910 meters and above 460 meters is called Jamaica High Mountain Coffee, while that below 460 meters is Jamaica Prime Coffee.

Among these, Blue Mountain coffee beans also have grade classifications, mainly distinguished by altitude, defect rate, and bean size. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee is selected from the highest grade Blue Mountain coffee beans with a defect rate below 2%, 17 mesh or larger, and altitude between 910-1700 meters.

Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee has found many coffee products on the market labeled as "Blue Mountain flavor," "Blue Mountain special blend," "Blue Mountain blend," etc. at low prices. Are these real Blue Mountain Coffee? Let's first understand the development of Blue Mountain Coffee in the market~

We all know that in the early days, Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee market was almost monopolized by Japan. In 1969, when Jamaica suffered storm damage with severe losses in cultivation areas, Japan's UCC Coffee Group provided extensive assistance to help overcome the difficulties. They also continuously invested in Jamaica's coffee industry later on. In 1972, Jamaica signed an agreement with Japan, allocating 90% of Blue Mountain Coffee quota to Japan, with European countries and the United States each receiving 5%. Japan would then sell some Blue Mountain Coffee at high prices to other regions such as South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Therefore, in earlier years, it was difficult to drink authentic Blue Mountain Coffee domestically, or Blue Mountain Coffee was too expensive for ordinary people to afford. So the low-priced "Blue Mountain flavor" instant coffee on the market is not what we call Blue Mountain Coffee.

Later, as the agreement between Jamaica and Japan expired, hoping to expand the buyer market, Jamaica began distributing Blue Mountain Coffee quotas to more countries. Our country imported the first batch of Blue Mountain green coffee beans from Jamaica in 2010.

Blue Mountain Coffee also has very unique packaging - it's the only coffee in the world that uses wooden barrels to pack green coffee beans. They believe that wooden barrel packaging can maintain the aroma and flavor of coffee beans. On the Blue Mountain Coffee barrels from Clifton Farm purchased by FrontStreet Coffee, you can see the bold text "Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee" with the officially certified BLUEMOUNTAINCOFFEE® trademark from the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board. There's also a green frog logo on the barrel - this is the Rainforest Alliance certification标识, only those meeting "Sustainable Agriculture System Standards" receive this rainforest certification.

FrontStreet Coffee purchases Blue Mountain Coffee beans from original barrels from Clifton Farm every year, which is the Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee currently on our shelves.

FrontStreet Coffee: Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans

Origin: Jamaica Blue Mountain, Clifton Manor
Altitude: 1310m
Processing: Washed
Variety: Typica
Flavor: Chocolate, Nut, Cream, Cocoa

Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Suggestions

To enjoy coffee with full, rich aroma, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing. Since coffee needs 4-7 days of resting after roasting, the coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days, ensuring that the coffee beans received 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 allow, FrontStreet Coffee suggests equipping yourself with a grinding device to better enjoy the coffee's aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the excellent flavor of Blue Mountain Coffee lies in its balanced acidity and bitterness, high body, and full aroma. For roasting, FrontStreet Coffee chose medium-dark roast to highlight the nutty and cocoa notes of the coffee beans. Using a KONO dripper can achieve better body.

First wet the KONO dripper to ensure better contact between the filter paper and coffee dripper. Pour out the water from the sharing pot while adding 15g of coffee powder. After blooming with 30g of water for 30s, start pouring water in small circular motions from the center until reaching 125g, then wait for the coffee powder bed to drop to half the dripper's height before starting the second pour with the same technique until reaching 225g. Once all dripping is complete, remove the dripper.

Because Blue Mountain coffee beans have a relatively loose texture, if we use a manual grinder, we can feel the crisp sound of the coffee beans. After grinding, we can smell a very rich aroma. During the brewing process, it carries caramel-like sweetness, with nutty and chocolate richness on entry, moderate acidity and sweetness, balanced and clean taste, with a long-lasting aftertaste.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style)

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat, ID: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473