Which Brand of Blue Mountain Coffee is Most Authentic - Are Real Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee Beans Bitter and How to Drink

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Without FrontStreet Coffee's emphasis, everyone should have heard of the fame of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. Top-grade Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has a perfectly harmonious balance of sweet, sour, and bitter flavors. The so-called top-grade Blue Mountain coffee is Jamaica's national treasure coffee—FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans, which is the FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain coffee beans located in the lower left corner of FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean list.

What are the characteristics of authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee?

Unlike the "Blue Mountain blended coffee" and "Blue Mountain flavored coffee" on many shopping platforms, authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee belongs to high-quality single-origin coffee beans, produced in Jamaica's Blue Mountain range, with extremely rare production.

According to Jamaica's "Coffee Industry Management Law," the planting area of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed in four administrative regions: St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Portland, and St. Mary. It clearly stipulates that only Typica coffee grown at altitudes between 910-1700 meters can be named Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. The high-altitude Blue Mountain range has steep terrain, making management and harvesting difficult, with high labor costs, so the coffee price won't be too low. If the "Blue Mountain beans" we purchase cost only a few dozen yuan, they are very likely fake. For reference, FrontStreet Coffee sells FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans at 158 yuan/100g.

In terms of aroma, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans have rich, dense, and lasting chocolate and roasted hazelnut aromas, which are difficult for general dark roast blended coffees to match. In terms of flavor, authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has a balance of sweet, sour, bitter, and aromatic notes, with no single flavor being more prominent. The body and sweetness are just right.

If we cannot distinguish through the above two points, ask the merchant to show Blue Mountain-related certificates and the wooden barrels of raw Blue Mountain beans. Jamaican Blue Mountain is the only producing region that uses wooden barrels for raw beans. This FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee in FrontStreet Coffee stores also has a quality certificate issued by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, an authorized sales certificate issued by the Blue Mountain coffee manufacturer, and a certificate of origin for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The documentary evidence and handcrafted wooden barrels are all displayed in FrontStreet Coffee stores. This FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 obtained by FrontStreet Coffee is produced by Clifton Estate and uses the traditional washed processing method, which is also the most common raw bean processing method for Jamaican Blue Mountain.

What grade does Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 belong to?

To stabilize the quality of Blue Mountain coffee, the Jamaican government established the "Jamaica Coffee Industry Board" (CIB) in 1948, regulating the cultivation, production, and sales of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee to improve coffee quality, standardize coffee production and processing procedures, and coordinate the market sales of Blue Mountain coffee. The CIB is also responsible for grading coffee produced in the Blue Mountains and quality testing. This means that Blue Mountain coffee sold worldwide must be certified by the CIB and carry its label.

Before export, Blue Mountain coffee beans are packaged and sent for quality testing, graded according to size specifications and defect rate after processing: Blue Mountain No. 1, Blue Mountain No. 2, Blue Mountain No. 3, and Blue Mountain Peaberry. Bean size is determined using various mesh sieves, and coffee beans that do not pass through the sieve openings meet the specifications for that standard.

Top-grade Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 raw beans must meet specifications of size 17 or larger, defect rate below 3%, moisture content around 13%, and exhibit rich coffee aroma in cupping, with smooth, balanced flavor, low acidity, and lasting aftertaste.

To ensure that Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans maintain better quality until roasting and avoid moisture infiltration during transportation, Jamaicans insist on using handcrafted wooden barrels as carriers for Blue Mountain raw beans. Handcrafted oak barrels have also become one of the important symbols of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy aims to present the most classic flavor profiles of coffee. For example, the bright lemon acidity of FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe, the rich, caramelized flavor of FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Mandheling coffee, and FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain naturally emphasizes the classic Blue Mountain flavor. FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-dark roast to maximize the presentation of chocolate and nut aromas while preserving soft acidity and sweetness, making the overall flavor tend toward balance.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Brewing Suggestions

When brewing coffee with different roast levels, FrontStreet Coffee selects corresponding brewing parameters. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans brewed today belong to medium-dark roast, which has more caramelization reactions than light roast beans, making it easier to extract large molecular substances that cause bitterness. To avoid extracting excessive off-flavors, FrontStreet Coffee lowers the water temperature slightly. The brewing water temperature for light roast coffee is 91-93°C, while FrontStreet Coffee recommends 87-88°C for medium-dark roast coffee beans.

The finer the grind, the more soluble substances are released from the coffee during the same extraction time. To prevent the extraction rate of FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee from being too high, which would result in concentrated, bitter coffee, FrontStreet Coffee adjusts the grind to be coarser, using medium grind, store EK43s - setting 10.5, with 75% pass-through rate on Chinese standard sieves.

FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over extraction parameters for FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee: Kono dripper, 88°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g coffee dose, grind size (75% pass-through rate on No. 20 standard sieve).

First, gently pour 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. Second, pour to about 125g of water, circling evenly and steadily outward. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it drops to half, pour the final water to reach 225g. Wait for all the coffee to drip through. The total extraction time is generally around 2 minutes.

The flavor profile of pour-over FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee: the entry presents flavors of dark chocolate, roasted nuts, and toffee, with caramel sweetness and soft, elegant acidity. Each flavor is balanced, with a smooth and rich mouthfeel. As the temperature decreases, the aroma becomes more transparent, with rich layers of various aromas.

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