What Variety is Blue Mountain Coffee? Introduction to the Origin, Grade, and Flavor Characteristics of Blue Mountain No. 1

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee variety is the most ancient Arabica species—Typica, which has integrated into Jamaica's unique terroir to create its world-renowned exceptional aroma. The distinctive microclimate and terroir of the Blue Mountains have played an indispensable role. FrontStreet Coffee believes that FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee perfectly balances acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. With flavors of dark chocolate, nuts, and cream in perfect harmony, it stands as one of the world's most aromatic coffees, leaving an endless aftertaste.

Typica on Blue Mountain

The exceptional flavor of FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain Typica coffee is closely related to its Blue Mountain growing region. It's often said that even if Blue Mountain coffee trees were planted in Hawaii, they wouldn't produce the characteristic Blue Mountain flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee tastes remarkably clean and ranks among the world's sweetest coffees. Jamaica is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea that began cultivating coffee in the early 18th century, with a history spanning nearly three hundred years. During Jamaica's colonial period under British rule, the then-governor Nicholas Lawes brought a coffee tree from Martinique in the Caribbean Sea and began promoting its cultivation in the St. Andrew region.

Typica was introduced to this country by Sir Nicholas Lawes in the 18th century and soon spread to Blue Mountain cultivation, with over two hundred years of history. The Blue Mountain Typica has also adapted to the local island tropical rainforest climate, evolving stronger disease resistance—particularly against coffee berry disease, which is significantly more robust than typical Typica varieties. Excellent varieties, growing conditions, green bean quality, and processing methods together create FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain Typica coffee's exceptionally balanced and harmonious taste.

Authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is among the world's most ideally cultivated coffees. Jamaica's weather, geological structure, and topography together provide a uniquely ideal environment. Designated Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee can only be grown in the Blue Mountain region, located northeast of Kingston on the eastern side of the island. The mountain range extending across Jamaica reaches heights exceeding 2,100 meters. The cool, foggy, and frequently rainy weather creates a perfectly balanced rainfall in this fertile land. Here, people use mixed cultivation methods, growing coffee trees on terraces alongside banana and avocado trees.

It's said that the higher the altitude, the better the coffee flavor, as with Panama's Gesha coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee is no exception. The Blue Mountain terrain is extremely rugged, making harvesting very difficult (harvesters are almost exclusively women). All coffee trees grow on steep mountain slopes, making picking extremely challenging—a task that only skilled local women workers can accomplish. Selecting properly ripe coffee beans during harvesting is crucial, as under-ripe or overripe beans can affect coffee quality.

Moreover, among all coffee beans, only FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain beans are packaged in wooden barrels, which feature a green tree frog logo. What does this mean? FrontStreet Coffee explains: Blue Mountain coffee is the only coffee growing region that uses wooden barrels to package green beans, while other regions use jute bags. The green tree frog indicates Rainforest Alliance certification. This logo signifies that Clifton Estate meets "Sustainable Agriculture System Standards" and is certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

FrontStreet Coffee purchases Blue Mountain coffee of the highest grade—FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1—sourced from the historic Clifton Estate growing region, harvested from Typica coffee trees at specific elevations between 910-1,700 meters. The green beans must meet specifications of 17 screen or larger, with defective beans not exceeding 2%, moisture content around 10-12.5%, and exhibit appropriate acidity, sweetness, bitterness, body, and aroma during cupping.

Clifton Estate

Clifton Estate is one of the Rainforest Alliance certified estates and the most ancient estate in Jamaica. Clifton Estate's Blue Mountain production history can be traced to the mid-18th century (around 1750), and it has been managed by the current Sharp family since 1978. Clifton Estate is situated on the scenic Clifton Mountain, with coffee cultivation and green bean processing facilities at an average elevation of 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters). Sufficient altitude, daytime mist, abundant sunshine, rainfall, and mineral-rich growing soil provide excellent conditions for coffee trees while slowing the maturation of coffee cherries, allowing ample time for the formation of more aromatic compounds. Coffee grows on rugged mountain slopes, making harvesting extremely difficult. During the spring harvest season each year, the Sharp family arranges for skilled workers to manually harvest appropriately ripe coffee cherries on the mountain.

After the Sharp family took over Clifton Estate, they began by transforming the wild, overgrown jungle within the farm, then introduced various processing equipment, investing in solar power plants, sewage treatment facilities, and BMCP processing plants. As the only coffee estate with the "Rainforest Alliance" certification, every aspect of the estate adheres to environmental principles. Water used in green bean processing is repurposed for agricultural irrigation, while removed fruit pulp is fermented and converted into organic fertilizer for flower cultivation.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Bean Processing Method

Clifton Estate places harvested fresh cherries in water tanks, using the flotation method to separate ripe from unripe beans, then uses water flow on conveyor belts to send ripe coffee cherries to depulping. Coffee beans with mucilage and parchment are then placed in water tanks for fermentation. After mucilage fermentation, water agitation removes residual mucilage, and the clean coffee beans with parchment are dried until reaching 11-12% moisture content, then sent to the BMCP processing plant to rest for one month. This step allows for flavor maturation and stabilization of internal structure and water activity.

The classic Blue Mountain flavor features rich chocolate and roasted nut aromas, with soft acidity and full body. To restore this classic flavor, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters choose medium-dark roasting, highlighting roasted aromas while preserving some acidity. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee tastes that FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 exhibits balanced flavors of acidity, sweetness, aroma, bitterness, and body. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas also develop corresponding brewing approaches based on this flavor profile.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Parameters

Regarding coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans is a crucial factor affecting coffee flavor. Coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are roasted within 5 days, because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that bean freshness significantly impacts flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "Freshly Roasted Quality Coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee possible. The coffee bean degassing period is around 4-7 days, so when customers receive their coffee, it's at peak flavor.

Of course, some customers request FrontStreet Coffee to grind their beans, which is perfectly fine, but FrontStreet Coffee must remind you: once coffee beans are pre-ground, they no longer need a degassing period. During transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide buildup in the packaging also helps round out the coffee flavor, so you can brew immediately upon receiving ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly, as coffee grounds oxidize quickly when exposed to air, meaning the flavor dissipates more rapidly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends purchasing whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better appreciate the coffee's flavor.

Both FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee and FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling coffee tend toward full-bodied profiles, so in roasting, FrontStreet Coffee chooses medium-dark roasting to highlight the beans' nut, cocoa, and caramel aromas. Using a KONO dripper can achieve better body.

First, moisten the KONO dripper to ensure better adherence between the filter paper and coffee dripper. After pouring out the water from the sharing pot, place 15g of coffee grounds into the KONO dripper. Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then begin pouring in small circular motions from the center until reaching 125g, where you'll pause. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then begin the second pour using the same technique until reaching 225g. Once all dripping is complete, remove the dripper. Start timing from the first pour—the total extraction time should be 2'00". Next, take the entire pot and swirl gently to mix evenly before pouring into cups for tasting.

FrontStreet Coffee's washed Blue Mountain coffee features rich dark chocolate and nut flavors, with a creamy smooth texture and perfectly balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee combines all the advantages of coffee, making it the most balanced coffee. FrontStreet Coffee believes that every coffee has its own characteristics, representing the flavor profile of each growing region. By tasting coffees from different regions, one can experience the diverse terroir and cultural aspects of coffee growing areas. FrontStreet Coffee offers over fifty different single-origin coffee beans, satisfying everyone's coffee exploration needs and allowing coffee enthusiasts to select beans that match their preferences!

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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