Tasting the Classic Flavor and Characteristics of Blue Mountain Coffee

True Blue Mountain coffee is made from the finest local Blue Mountain green beans, which is where the connoisseur's pleasure lies. Its aroma is full-bodied, with a rich and balanced taste that fulfills all kinds of fantasies about good coffee. In addition, high-quality fresh Blue Mountain coffee has a particularly lasting flavor, just as wine drinkers would say - endless aftertaste.

Many people nowadays find Blue Mountain coffee to be quite ordinary, without any special characteristics. FrontStreet Coffee believes this statement isn't wrong. In the era of Blue Mountain, people hadn't yet started talking about flavor - a good coffee was one that was mellow, clean, not burnt or bitter, not sour, and left a sweet aftertaste. Blue Mountain perfectly embodied these characteristics. In today's coffee culture that pursues acidity and diverse flavors, Blue Mountain does seem somewhat out of place. However, for those who enjoy traditionally defined coffee, Blue Mountain coffee remains the unparalleled choice.

Geographical Characteristics of Blue Mountain Origin

Blue Mountain coffee is the world's most superior coffee. The Blue Mountains are located in the eastern part of Jamaica Island. Because the mountain is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, whenever the weather is clear, direct sunlight hits the azure sea surface, and the peaks reflect the brilliant blue light of the seawater, hence its name.

The highest peak of Blue Mountain reaches 2,256 meters above sea level, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region and a famous tourist destination. This area is located in the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, humid climate, and year-round fog and rain (average rainfall of 1,980 mm, temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, as well as the world's highest-priced coffee.

Here, coffee trees are grown using mixed cultivation methods, making them coexist with banana and avocado trees on terraced fields. Some small estates also grow coffee. But even the largest estate owners in this region are considered small-scale by international standards, with many being small landowners whose families have been working for two centuries. Jamaica's coffee industry faces a series of problems, such as hurricane impacts, increasing labor costs, and difficulty in mechanizing terrace operations. Many small estates and farms find it difficult to rationalize their cultivation. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans come from Clifton Farm, which is located on "Clifton Hill," a secondary peak of the Blue Mountains. This farm has been operating since the 18th century and has only 20 hectares of cultivation area.

Completely adopting manual cultivation and harvesting operations, Blue Mountain coffee not only has a rich and mellow taste but also has no bitterness at all due to the perfect combination of coffee's sweet, sour, and bitter flavors, with only moderate and perfect acidity. It's generally consumed as a single-origin coffee, but due to extremely limited production and incredibly high prices, the market typically uses coffee with similar flavors for blending.

The "Secret" Behind Blue Mountain Coffee's Pure Flavor

All their coffee trees grow on rugged mountain slopes, making the harvesting process extremely difficult - only skilled local female workers can handle this task. It's crucial to select appropriately ripe coffee beans during harvesting, as underripe or overripe beans will affect the coffee quality. After harvesting, coffee beans must be hulled the same day, then fermented for 12-18 hours. Afterward, the coffee beans are washed and sorted. The next step is drying, which must be done on concrete floors or thick blankets until the coffee bean moisture content drops to 12%-14%. Then they are stored in special warehouses. When needed, they are taken out for roasting and then ground into powder. These procedures must be strictly controlled; otherwise, the coffee quality will be affected. Later, with the concept of fresh roasting, Jamaica gradually opened up green bean exports.

Due to Japan's continuous investment in Jamaica's coffee industry, most Blue Mountain coffee is now controlled by the Japanese, who also have priority purchasing rights for Blue Mountain coffee. In 1992, Jamaica sold 688 tons of Blue Mountain coffee to Japan, 75 tons to the United States, and 59 tons to the United Kingdom. Now, 90% of Blue Mountain coffee is purchased by the Japanese. Since other parts of the world can only obtain 10% of Blue Mountain coffee, regardless of price, Blue Mountain coffee is always in short supply. However, this situation began to change after the 2008 financial crisis. In seeking more stable partners, Jamaica signed a Blue Mountain coffee general agency agreement with the Hangzhou Coffee and Western Restaurant Association in 2010, and in May 2011, the first container of Blue Mountain coffee beans arrived at Ningbo Port.

Grades of Blue Mountain Coffee

Not all coffee produced in the Blue Mountains can be called Blue Mountain coffee. The Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB) stipulates that only coffee beans grown in the approximately 6,000-hectare core area of the Blue Mountains can be called Blue Mountain coffee beans. According to FrontStreet Coffee's translation of CIB's official documents and maps, only coffee grown in areas of the Blue Mountains above 910 meters (3,000 feet) in altitude can be called Blue Mountain coffee beans.

Blue Mountain coffee beans are divided into 4 grades: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and PB. Among these, No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 are classified by bean size - No. 1 is the largest, between 17-18 mesh; No. 2 is around 16 mesh; No. 3 is around 15 mesh. Therefore, the best is No. 1 coffee, and what we usually call Blue Mountain coffee specifically refers to Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans.

The PB grade is quite special - it consists of peaberries selected from green coffee beans and sold separately. These coffee beans are about 14-15 mesh in size, but because of their different appearance, they are selected separately and can be sold at the price of No. 1 grade.

How to Identify Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

1. Look at the Blue Mountain barrel: Authentic Blue Mountain coffee is packaged in wooden barrels with specifications of 15kg, 30kg, and 70kg. For example, the wooden barrel displayed at FrontStreet Coffee's store is a 15kg Blue Mountain barrel. This barrel is quite special - it contains Blue Mountain Geisha coffee beans from 2020, but except for the text information标识, there's not much difference from ordinary Blue Mountain No. 1 barrels.

2. Check certificates: Currently, the Jamaica Coffee Board can issue certificates for all exported Blue Mountain coffee on the market.

There are three types of certificates:

First type: Quality certification issued by the Jamaica Coffee Board

Second type: Authorized sales certificate issued by Blue Mountain coffee manufacturers (Blue Mountain coffee is distributed by 4 Jamaican government-licensed processors and exported by 16 licensed exporters)

Third type: Certificate of origin for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

The certificate displayed at FrontStreet Coffee's store is the second type, issued by Clifton Farm.

3. Examine the bean appearance: True Blue Mountain coffee has a very low defect rate, with basically uniform bean size, flat, long, and full. Green beans appear light green, roasted beans deep brown, with uniform color.

Important Notice :

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