Relationship Between Blue Mountain and Arabica Coffee Beans: Is Blue Mountain Coffee a Sub-variety of Arabica in Flavor and Taste?

In the past, whenever coffee was mentioned, adults always said that Blue Mountain coffee was the best - not only rich and mellow in flavor, but also balanced and full-bodied with a long-lasting aftertaste. Today, when we talk about good coffee, we emphasize Arabica varieties more, because they offer many choices and pure flavors. Have you ever wondered about the relationship between these two, or whether Blue Mountain is considered an Arabica? Today, let FrontStreet Coffee reveal the answer for everyone.

Is Blue Mountain a Variety or a Place Name?

Once known as the "King of Coffee," Blue Mountain coffee originates from Jamaica, and its name comes from its cultivation area - the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountain Range is located in the eastern part of Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea. Surrounded by seawater, the mountains reflect a blue luster under sunlight, hence named "Blue Mountain." This area is far from cities, with peak elevations reaching over 2,000 meters, making it a well-known tourist destination locally. Fertile volcanic ash soil, abundant sunlight, and rainfall provide rich nutrients for crops grown here. Locals grow coffee alongside bananas and avocados.

Compared to other crops, coffee is a more particular and delicate plant, requiring not only a warm, humid, frost-free environment with adequate nutrients but also proper shade. The peaks of Blue Mountain are often shrouded in clouds and mist, surrounding the coffee plantations and providing ideal natural conditions for coffee growth. The Blue Mountain coffee variety is also a "pampered" Arabica variety called "Typica." By this point, you likely have an initial answer to FrontStreet Coffee's opening question. Since the Blue Mountain coffee variety belongs to the Arabica category, in other words, Blue Mountain is indeed Arabica coffee.

What Are the Characteristics of the Typica Variety?

As the purest Arabica variety, Typica coffee trees are relatively tall, with bronze-colored leaves at the top. The coffee beans are larger, longer, with pointed ends, somewhat resembling eggs. Typica coffee beans often have citrus acidity with a sweet aftertaste, praised by many as elegant and clear coffee beans. Unfortunately, Typica trees grow very tall, making harvesting difficult. Typica coffee trees are quite tall, approximately 5 meters/16.5 feet. They form a conical shape with slightly inclined branches, with lateral branches forming 50-70° angles with the vertical stem. Its trunk is slender, and branches are thin. Due to its height and long branch characteristics, sufficient spacing between plants is required when cultivating Typica trees.

Additionally, Typica has poor disease resistance, struggling against common diseases such as leaf rust and berry disease... among others. Its yield is also very scarce. As an economic crop, coffee struggles to achieve profitability, causing many growers worldwide to abandon it in favor of planting other varieties with better disease resistance. To grow exceptional Typica coffee beans requires more labor costs and technical expertise, which is why Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is so precious.

Typica Originated from Ethiopia

Between the 15th and 16th centuries AD, Typica was moved from southwestern Ethiopia to Yemen through human collection and processing. With the pilgrimage journeys of various religions, it spread throughout the world. For example, the earliest coffee trees in China's Yunnan province were bred from Typica seeds brought by French missionaries, though later, to increase production, large areas were converted to growing the Catimor variety.

Unlike many coffee varieties, the "delicate" Typica is very particular about its growing environment, requiring cultivation in high-altitude areas without frost. Higher altitudes create significant temperature differences, slowing the maturation of coffee cherries and allowing for better accumulation of flavor compounds and fuller aroma development. Besides high altitude, Typica also needs abundant rainfall, sunlight, well-draining loose soil, and fertile soil. From a cultivation perspective, it has strong regional limitations. The reason Blue Mountain Typica coffee can possess such exquisite aroma is not only due to the efforts of Jamaican growers but, most importantly, thanks to the excellent terroir of the Blue Mountains.

In 1720, French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu painstakingly transported Typica seedlings to Martinique in the Caribbean. In 1725, the British Governor of Jamaica transplanted 7,000 Typica seedlings from Martinique to Jamaica's Blue Mountains. After over two hundred years of domestication, Blue Mountain Typica has evolved better disease resistance, particularly showing superior resistance to coffee berry disease compared to typical Typica.

After the mid-20th century, it was transplanted to Papua New Guinea, Kenya, and even Sulawesi in attempts to replicate the sweet and elegant characteristics of Blue Mountain coffee. While the high-quality Typica variety did bring positive elegant flavor profiles to the coffee, it did not achieve excellence comparable to Blue Mountain. Among the Typica variety coffees sold at FrontStreet Coffee stores, Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans are the most renowned, becoming the "gold standard" in many people's eyes for their full aroma and balanced taste. Additionally, there is "Frontsteet 2013," a coffee grown by FrontStreet Coffee itself in Yunnan, also selected from premium Typica.

What Are the Flavor and Taste of Blue Mountain Typica Coffee?

The high quality of Blue Mountain coffee is naturally inseparable from the advantages of its growing environment. The Blue Mountain Range is surrounded by Caribbean Sea waters, creating a unique island tropical rainforest microclimate. During rainy seasons, rainfall is concentrated with good drainage. Volcanic ash from active volcanoes makes the soil rich in nutrients, so coffee trees require minimal irrigation and fertilization. With abundant year-round sunshine, surrounded by light mist, the cool and comfortable high-altitude growing area is suitable for various crops. Locals typically grow coffee trees alongside banana trees on the slopes of Blue Mountain.

The CIB (Coffee Industry Board) has designated an area of approximately 6,000 hectares in the Blue Mountain Range, strictly stipulating that only Typica coffee produced in this region can be called "Blue Mountain Coffee." According to the area demarcated by CIB, the forest area where Blue Mountain coffee is grown is located at altitudes between 910-1,700 meters. The high altitude combined with just-right climate characteristics allows coffee cherries to fully absorb nutrients and transform into various aromatic compounds. The higher the altitude environment, the more prominent the Typica flavor expression.

However, Typica has poor disease resistance and is very susceptible to diseases, coupled with low fruit yield per plant, requiring more meticulous care. Additionally, the high-altitude areas of Blue Mountain have uneven terrain, making management and harvesting very difficult. This requires high skill levels from harvesters, further affecting production. In recent years, less than 15% of coffee beans produced in Jamaica can carry the Blue Mountain Coffee label, approximately 900 tons. After harvesting, coffee cherries are immediately transported to processing plants for processing, using the washed method to remove the coffee cherry pulp and then dried.

When FrontStreet Coffee receives Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 green coffee beans, they are uniform, plump, and consistent in size, displaying a translucent blue-green color. FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-dark roasting to maximize the presentation of Blue Mountain's chocolate and nutty aromas while preserving soft acidity and sweetness, making the overall taste balanced.

Freshly roasted Blue Mountain coffee beans were immediately cupped by FrontStreet Coffee. The dry fragrance revealed nuts, melon, and chocolate. After adding hot water, notes of oolong tea, caramel, honey, and dark chocolate were detected. The taste is rich dark chocolate, roasted hazelnuts, cream, and brown sugar, with clean and clear flavors, full-bodied texture, and lasting aroma. To allow everyone to experience these aromas, FrontStreet Coffee ensures that all shipped coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days, so when received, they are at their optimal flavor stage. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will explain the key factors for hand-pouring Blue Mountain coffee according to store standards.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No.1 Hand-Pour Reference

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses a KONO dripper for extracting medium-dark roasted coffee beans. The upper part of the KONO dripper has a smooth curved surface that allows better filter paper adhesion. Compared to the V60 dripper, the coffee extraction method mainly relies on immersion extraction, increasing the overall coffee concentration and enhancing the body. Besides KONO, common equipment with slower flow rates like the Kalita wave dripper or flannel filters are also suitable.

Additionally, considering that medium-dark roasted coffee has undergone a certain degree of roasting, the internal structure of the beans will be looser than lightly roasted coffee, thus having better water absorption. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a coarseness level of 75% through rate using a #20 standard sieve, along with 88°C water temperature, paired with FrontStreet Coffee's customary three-stage pour method.

Hand-pour parameters: 88°C water temperature, coarseness of raw sugar (75% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve), 15g coffee beans, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, three-stage extraction.

In the first stage, gently pour 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. In the second stage, pour to approximately 125g of water, evenly and steadily spiraling outward. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it reaches halfway, pour the final stage of water to 225g. After waiting for all the coffee to finish dripping, the total extraction time is typically around 2 minutes.

Blue Mountain No.1 coffee flavor: At high temperatures, Blue Mountain No.1 coffee enters with dark chocolate aroma, very full-bodied, with distinct almond aftertaste. As the temperature decreases, roasted hazelnuts and creamy sweetness emerge, smooth and silky, accompanied by a hint of soft acidity and caramel sweetness, with the aroma lingering persistently in the mouth.

Important Notice :

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