How to Properly Brew Blue Mountain Coffee - The Best Way to Make Blue Mountain No.1 Drip Bag Coffee Delicious

Many friends have asked FrontStreet Coffee how to brew Blue Mountain coffee and whether drip bag coffee can still deliver the distinctive flavor of Blue Mountain coffee beans. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share their brewing method for Blue Mountain coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans, whose full name is "FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans," are Grade 1 coffee beans from the core growing region of Jamaica's Blue Mountains. In the 1970s, Jamaica began revitalizing its coffee cultivation industry, establishing the CIB (Coffee Industry Board) to uniformly manage the coffee sector while introducing investment led by Japanese consortiums including UCC. By the 1980s, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans had already become world-renowned, with premium Grade 1 Blue Mountain coffee beans fetching astronomical prices.

Of course, in the current era dominated by Geisha coffee, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans may seem somewhat overshadowed, but they remain one of the most expensive, famous, and delicious coffees available. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans come from the Clifton Mountain Farm, one of the oldest coffee plantations in the entire Blue Mountain region, with over 200 years of history. It is also the only organic farm within the Blue Mountain region certified by the "Rainforest Alliance."

Brewing Method for FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee

Traditionally, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans are deep-roasted to highlight the rich, mellow mouthfeel and the traditional coffee charm of sweetness emerging after bitterness. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee adopts the following pour-over method.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends choosing a Kono dripper. This helps better enhance the rich mouthfeel of the coffee beans.

Use a standard 15g for one serving. It's recommended to let the coffee beans rest for 4-7 days (counting the roast date as day one) for better flavor development in the brewed coffee.

Grind Size

For coffee grind size, when brewing FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee, the grind should be slightly coarser than that for light roast coffee beans. Because FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling uses deep roasting, its structure becomes more porous and more easily absorbs water to release coffee substances. If ground to the fineness of light roast beans, it can easily produce burnt bitterness; if ground even coarser, the coffee will become thin and tasteless, with a water-like body. The appropriate fineness level is 75% pass-through through a #20 sieve.

Water Temperature

For water temperature, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 87-88°C water for brewing. Many cases of burnt bitterness come from water temperature being too high. Of course, water temperature that's too low will also make the coffee flat and tasteless.

Coffee-to-Water Ratio

For the brewing ratio, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 1:15. Although some brewing methods might suggest using 1:13 or an even smaller ratio for a richer taste, this approach of reducing the coffee-to-water ratio is partly to avoid the bitter and impure flavors in the final extraction, which consequently affects the aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee believes that as long as the relationship between water temperature and grind size is properly managed, using a 1:15 ratio can better express the overall flavor profile of FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.

Brewing Technique

The brewing method uses the common three-stage pouring technique. Dividing the pour into three stages can better express the rich mouthfeel of FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee as well as its caramel sweetness. The specific water distribution is: first stage bloom with 30ml of water to fully wet the coffee grounds and allow degassing for better subsequent flavor extraction; second stage with 100ml to bring out all the golden foam from the coffee grounds.

The final stage involves a gentle center pour of 95ml, which enhances the coffee's sweetness, overall expressing a thick, rich mouthfeel, caramel sweetness with chocolate and nut flavors, as well as balanced sweet-sour-bitter characteristics.

Is FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Drip Bag Coffee Good?

Blue Mountain drip bag coffee is actually made from Blue Mountain coffee beans ground into powder and packaged in drip bag form. Theoretically, as long as it's made from genuine FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain coffee, it can definitely deliver Blue Mountain flavor. However, drip bag coffee belongs to pre-ground coffee, so compared to fresh ground and fresh brewed, it loses more flavor and lacks aroma.

How to Brew FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Drip Bag Coffee?

The equipment needed is very simple: just one drip bag coffee packet, a tall glass, and a thermos filled with boiled hot water from the morning. Using a tall glass is also to prevent continuous soaking of coffee grounds in water, which would cause bitterness.

① First, tear open the drip bag coffee packet and hang it over the cup.

② Open the thermos and pour the first stage of hot water into the center of the drip filter bag, filling to 1/2 of the entire bag, and wait for 15 seconds.

③ For the second stage, continue pouring hot water until the filter bag is 9/10 full, stopping at approximately the small card strip attached to the top of the filter bag.

④ After all the coffee liquid has flowed into the cup, continue with the third stage by pouring hot water until the filter bag is 9/10 full, then stop pouring.

⑤ After all the coffee liquid has flowed into the cup, continue with the fourth stage by pouring hot water until the filter bag is 9/10 full. After the coffee liquid flows into the cup, you can remove the drip filter bag.

⑥ In total, there are four pouring stages: the first stage fills to 1/2, while the other three stages each wait until all coffee liquid has finished flowing before refilling to 9/10 full. After numerous tests, FrontStreet Coffee found that with this pouring method, the total water amount is typically around 150ml.

Actually, brewing a cup of FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain drip bag coffee doesn't require complex operations or equipment. Just this simple, ordinary approach can yield a delicious cup of drip bag coffee.

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

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473