Blue Mountain Coffee | Blue Mountain Coffee Characteristics | Brief Overview of Blue Mountain Coffee Features

This piece is part of our professional coffee knowledge exchange, shared so more readers can explore great beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Introduction to Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Blue Mountain coffee? Let's talk about it today.

Jamaica's weather, geological structure and terrain together provide a uniquely ideal environment. Certified Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee can only be grown in the Blue Mountain region, northeast of Kingston on the island of Jamaica.

The coffee grows on mountains reaching up to 1,800 meters (roughly 6,000 feet), which is high for Arabica. The terrain is also extremely rugged, making the harvest very demanding (the pickers are almost exclusively women). The trees are mainly of the Arabica "Geisha High Bred" variety.

Seeds from these trees have been exported to places such as Hawaii, Kenya and Papua New Guinea, but nowhere else has managed to recreate the distinctive flavor of Blue Mountain beans.

It is called Blue Mountain coffee because there really is such a mountain. The Blue Mountains lie in Jamaica, a Caribbean nation in Central America. The area sits within the coffee belt and has fertile volcanic soil. The air is fresh and unpolluted, and the average altitude is around 1,800 meters.

The climate is humid, with year-round fog and rain and an average of 1,980 millimeters of precipitation. The temperature hovers around 27 degrees Celsius. These conditions created the world-renowned Blue Mountain coffee. The Jamaican government keeps extremely strict rules on the use of the "Blue Mountain" name: only legally certified estates may process Blue Mountain beans centrally, which safeguards quality.

Blue Mountain coffee has all the hallmarks of fine coffee, with a rich, mellow flavor. It offers a seamless blend of sweet, acidic and bitter notes that deeply satisfies the senses. In the cup it is not bitter, only slightly acidic, with no throat irritation - just smoothness.

FrontStreet Coffee's Philosophy

In summary, FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research establishment dedicated to sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation because we want more friends to fall in love with coffee. We also hold three coffee discount events every month, because FrontStreet Coffee wants to offer the best coffee at the lowest possible prices to more friends - that has been our mission for the past six years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Not every coffee grown in Jamaica is Blue Mountain. Strictly speaking, only coffee grown in the designated parts of Jamaica's Blue Mountain range and certified by the Jamaican authorities may be called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. The Blue Mountains are the highest range in the Caribbean, with the tallest peak reaching 2,256 meters, and the whole Jamaican Blue Mountain region produces less than 2,500 tons a year, only a tiny share of the world's coffee. For decades Japan bought more than 70% of that output, which left even less for the rest of the world. Formal exports of Jamaican Blue Mountain green beans to China began in 2003, so certified beans are now available through proper channels.

What sets Blue Mountain apart is balance. It has no obvious weak points: not the sharp fruit acidity of some African coffees, not the heavy bitterness of a dark roast, but an excellent equilibrium of acidity, sweetness, bitterness and aroma. A good cup shows cream, caramel, chocolate, nuts, honey and a hint of fruit, smooth and round on entry, sweet through the middle, with a clean, long finish. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 comes from the historic Clifton Mount estate, where coffee has been grown since around 1750 at an average of 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters). It is roasted medium-dark so the classic balance shines through, pouring out layers of nut, dark chocolate, cream caramel and gentle sweetness. Genuine Blue Mountain is also easy to recognize by its packaging: it traditionally ships in wooden barrels of 15, 45 and 70 kilograms, each stamped with batch details, and FrontStreet Coffee supplies the estate certificates and used barrels along with the beans. To brew it, FrontStreet Coffee suggests a Kono dripper, since its shape lifts the coffee's body, with 15g of coffee rested 4-7 days, a ratio of 1:15, water at 87-88 degrees Celsius, and a grind coarser than for a light roast, about the texture of granulated sugar. Use three pours: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 120g with a slow vertical circling stream, then pour to 225g a little faster to avoid clogging the dripper and over-extracting.