Types of Arabica Coffee Beans and Characteristics of Blue Mountain Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee - Blue Mountain Coffee Introduction

Coffee beans fall, broadly, into two great categories: Arabica and Robusta. Of the two, Arabica carries less caffeine, and virtually every premium coffee in the world belongs to this species - roughly 70% of global coffee production. Its flavor is rich, with lovely acidity and floral notes, which makes it the natural choice for black coffee drinkers who take their cup without additives and want to taste coffee in its purest form.

Typica: high sweetness, a pure mouthfeel, and pleasant acidity. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is, in fact, a Typica coffee.

Blue Mountain Coffee grows on the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, and its singular character is inseparable from the region's exceptional geography and climate. The mountains sit within the coffee belt between 25 degrees north and south latitude, blessed with fertile volcanic soil, fresh unpolluted air, year-round rainfall, and wide day-night temperature differences. Most remarkably, every afternoon clouds and fog wrap the entire mountaintop, providing natural shade for the coffee trees while delivering abundant moisture - together giving Blue Mountain Coffee its outstanding taste and aroma.

Pure Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee blends all of coffee's signature qualities - sour, bitter, sweet, and mellow - into an elegant character that is at once intense and captivating, unmatched by any other origin. Devotees like to say that Blue Mountain is a "coffee beauty" who combines every virtue a good coffee can have.

The Blue Mountain growing region today is tiny: just 6,000 hectares under cultivation. Scarcity breeds value, and with annual production never exceeding 900 tons of green beans, it stands unchallenged as one of the world's most coveted coffees.

Thanks to Japan's sustained investment in Jamaica's coffee industry, Blue Mountain Coffee is largely controlled by Japanese buyers, who hold priority purchasing rights. They buy 90% of the crop, leaving just the remaining 10% for the rest of the world.

Only coffee grown in the Blue Mountain region above 1,800 meters may be called Blue Mountain Coffee. Beans raised at lower altitudes or in other parts of the island can only be sold as "Jamaican High Mountain Beans" or "Jamaican Washed Beans," and their flavor is worlds apart from true Jamaican Blue Mountain. Those secondary regions are twice the size of the genuine Blue Mountain area and account for 75% of national production - which is why "Jamaican coffee" is by no means the same thing as pure "Blue Mountain Coffee."

In Summary

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research institute that loves sharing what it knows, and its open-handed sharing exists for one reason: to help more people fall in love with coffee. To that end it runs three low-discount coffee events every month, so that more friends can enjoy great coffee at the lowest possible price - this has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for 6 years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For the genuine article, look no further than FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 - the highest grade, sourced from the historic Clifton Estate, where coffee has been grown since around 1750 at an average 4300 feet (1310.64 meters). It arrives with complete origin certification and the traditional wooden barrel packaging, and its medium-dark roast reveals the classic Blue Mountain balance: nuts, dark chocolate, creamy caramel, and a soft, persistent sweetness with no harsh edges.