Introduction to Authentic Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee Bean Varieties and Regional Characteristics: How to Brew Delicious Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee with Pour-Over Method?

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Blue Mountain coffee beans are a world-renowned and expensive variety of coffee beans. However, products labeled as "Blue Mountain Coffee" on the market vary significantly in price, ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan, with some even costing over a thousand yuan. Consequently, many friends worry about purchasing counterfeit products. Regarding this, FrontStreet Coffee will guide you on how to identify authentic Blue Mountain coffee beans.

What are Blue Mountain Coffee Beans?

What we refer to as Blue Mountain coffee beans are those produced in the central region of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. Jamaica is a small island in the Caribbean Sea. On the southwest side of this island stands the tallest mountain range (2,256 meters) on the island. When the sun shines directly on the sea surface, the peaks reflect the azure color of the seawater, hence the name "Blue Mountains."

Jamaica first began cultivating coffee in the 18th century, but it wasn't until the mid-20th century that the focused cultivation of Blue Mountain coffee truly began. At that time, Jamaica planned to develop the coffee cultivation industry as a pillar of its national economic development. Consequently, the government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, responsible for setting quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervising the implementation of these standards to ensure the quality of Jamaican coffee.

Jamaica is the only country in the world with a government coffee management authority—the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB), which operates under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Jamaica. The functions of the CIB include technical cultivation guidance, processing training, fair trade practices, quality supervision, and other matters related to the quality and brand of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The board members of the CIB are all plantation owners who possess a certain scale of coffee plantations in Jamaica (due to industry shifts, newly certified Jamaican Blue Mountain plantations now require an area of over 50 hectares).

The CIB stipulates that only coffee beans produced in regions above 910 meters in the Jamaican Blue Mountains can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain. Their grades are classified by bean size into NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and hand-selected PB (Peaberry). The basic standards for NO.1 Blue Mountain green beans include beans larger than 17 screen size, a defect rate below 3%, and a moisture content of approximately 13%. Additionally, to date, the only processing method for Blue Mountain green beans is washed processing, with no natural (although a batch of natural processed Blue Mountain was produced in 2020) or other processing methods.

Therefore, authentic Blue Mountain coffee should be coffee beans produced above 910 meters in the Jamaican Blue Mountains. Although the CIB does not explicitly state this in their official documents, they use another phraseology to convey this meaning: Coffee grown in planting areas in the Jamaican Blue Mountains that have been certified and inspected by JACRA is the true Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The lowest elevation of this certified area is approximately 910 meters (3,000 feet).

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans are divided into NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB. PB refers to selected round beans, sized between 14-15 screen size. The highest grade belongs to NO.1, which is what we call Blue Mountain No.1 coffee, sized between 17-18 screen size. Generally, what is sold on the market is predominantly Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans.

All Blue Mountain green beans are packaged in three standard wooden barrels of 15kg, 30kg, and 70kg. Each barrel will bear plantation information registered with the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Industry Board (CIB), production batch numbers, and barrel numbers. The barrel lid is stamped with black ink featuring the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee logo pattern and a number indicating the grade of the beans inside. Inside each barrel, there is also a uniformly printed circular product certificate that matches the diameter of the barrel opening.

With the application of new technologies, in recent years, when exporting Jamaican Blue Mountain green beans, a green grain insurance bag is also added inside the barrel to maintain the moisture content of the coffee beans. Jamaica is the last country in the world that still uses traditional wooden barrels for packaging and transporting coffee.

How to Identify Authentic vs. Fake Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

Currently, the Jamaica Coffee Board can issue certificates for all exported Blue Mountain coffee.

There are three types of certificates:

(1) Quality Proof Certificate issued by the Jamaica Coffee Board

(2) Authorized Sales Certificate issued by Blue Mountain coffee manufacturers.

(Blue Mountain coffee is distributed by 4 Jamaican government-licensed processing manufacturers and exported by 16 licensed exporters)

(3) Certificate of Origin for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Quality proof certificates all indicate the time and quantity. The Jamaica Coffee Board randomly selects a package from the submitted Blue Mountain coffee for inspection. If it meets the conditions for Blue Mountain coffee, a certificate is issued.

Taking the Blue Mountain coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee as an example, Frontsteet's Blue Mountain coffee beans are selected from Clifton Mount Estate, which is located in the St. Andrew Parish and has been in operation for over 200 years. FrontStreet Coffee possesses the certification certificate issued by Clifton Mount Estate, which can prove that the Blue Mountain coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee are produced at Clifton Mount Estate in Jamaica.

FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee Beans

Origin: Jamaica, Blue Mountain, Clifton Mount Estate

Altitude: 1300 meters

Variety: Typica

Processing Method: Washed

How to Brew Delicious Blue Mountain Coffee Beans?

When brewing Frontsteet's Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a Kono dripper. This helps enhance the rich mouthfeel of the coffee beans.

Use 15g for a standard one-person serving. It is recommended to let the coffee beans rest for 4-7 days (counting the roast date as day one), as this will result in better flavor when brewed.

In terms of coffee grind size, when brewing Blue Mountain coffee, the grind should be slightly coarser than that for light roast coffee beans. This is because Blue Mountain coffee beans use dark roast processing, which makes their structure more porous and easier to absorb water and release coffee substances. If ground to the fineness of light roast beans, it's easy to extract a burnt, bitter taste; if ground even coarser, the coffee will become thin and tasteless, with a watery mouthfeel. The grind size should be such that 70% passes through a #20 sieve.

Regarding water temperature, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using water at 87-88°C for brewing. Many cases of burnt, bitter taste are caused by excessively high water temperatures. Of course, water temperatures that are too low will also make the coffee flat and tasteless.

For the coffee-to-water ratio, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 1:15. Although some brewing methods might suggest using 1:13 or an even smaller ratio, which would result in a richer taste. However, one reason for reducing the coffee-to-water ratio is to avoid the bitter and miscellaneous tastes in the later extraction stages, 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 showcase the overall flavor profile of Blue Mountain coffee.

The brewing method uses the common three-pour technique. Dividing the water into three pours can better express the rich mouthfeel of Golden Mandheling coffee as well as its caramel sweetness. The specific water distribution is: first pour of 30ml for blooming, which fully wets the coffee grounds and allows them to degas for better extraction of flavor compounds in subsequent pours; second pour of 100ml, which mainly brings out the golden crema of the Blue Mountain coffee grounds.

The final pour is a gentle center pour of 95ml, which enhances the coffee's sweetness, overall presenting a rich, full-bodied mouthfeel, caramel sweetness with chocolate and nutty flavors, and a balance of sweet, sour, and bitter notes.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473