The Difference Between Blue Mountain Coffee and American Coffee | Which Country Produces Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

The aroma of coffee always soothes the weary hearts of working professionals. However, while many people drink coffee, how many truly understand what Blue Mountain coffee is, or what Americano coffee is? Next, let FrontStreet Coffee explain the differences between Blue Mountain coffee and Americano coffee.

What is Blue Mountain Coffee?

Blue Mountain coffee beans are a type of single-origin coffee bean. Blue Mountain coffee is so named because the coffee beans are produced in the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica. The Blue Mountain range in Jamaica is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. When the weather is clear, sunlight directly hits the azure ocean, and the brilliant blue light reflects on the Blue Mountain range, hence the name "Blue Mountain."

However, not all coffee produced in the Blue Mountain region can be called Blue Mountain coffee. Blue Mountain coffee beans are further classified by growing altitude into Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, Jamaica High Mountain coffee, and Jamaica Prime coffee, and then by size and quality of the raw beans into four grades: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and PB.

Among these, Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans refer to beans grown at altitudes between 1,000 and 1,700 meters, with raw bean sizes of 17/18 mesh, and a defect rate not exceeding 2%. These are the highest grade Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee. Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans have superior quality, which is also reflected in their price.

Authentic Blue Mountain coffee is expensive. This world-class coffee bean grows in fertile volcanic soil with suitable environmental temperatures and has rich nutty flavors with a balanced, mellow taste. Blue Mountain coffee beans are typically used for pour-over coffee. Many coffee enthusiasts worry they cannot brew a cup of Blue Mountain coffee with balanced sweet, sour, and bitter notes and a mellow texture, so they visit FrontStreet Coffee's stores to seek help from FrontStreet Coffee's baristas.

When FrontStreet Coffee brews Blue Mountain coffee, the brewing parameters are as follows:

Filter: KONO filter
Water temperature: 88 degrees Celsius
Coffee amount: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: 75% pass-through rate on China standard No. 20 sieve

To highlight the mellow texture of Blue Mountain coffee, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a filter with steeping functionality. The KONO filter has smooth walls in the upper part, while the lower part has short ribs. When the filter paper is wet, it can adhere tightly to the filter walls, while the ribs in the lower part serve to guide water flow, allowing coffee grounds to fully contact with hot water, extracting more flavor compounds. Coffee brewed with a KONO filter shows significant improvement in mouthfeel and body compared to Hario V60.

Since Blue Mountain coffee beans use a relatively dark roast level, FrontStreet Coffee uses a 75% pass-through rate on China standard No. 20 sieve when grinding these beans. Due to the darker roast, the structure is more porous, and coffee compounds extract more easily, so the grind size is coarser than lightly roasted coffee beans to avoid brewing bitter, burnt flavors.

When brewing Blue Mountain coffee, FrontStreet Coffee first pours 30 grams of hot water for a 30-second bloom. After the bloom ends, they pour with a fine stream from the center and slowly circle to 125 grams. When the water level in the filter drops to just above the coffee bed, they continue circular pouring to 225 grams. The total extraction time is about 2 minutes.

After brewing, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee has rich nut and dark chocolate flavors, with balanced sweet, sour, and bitter notes and a mellow texture.

FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans
Region: Jamaica Blue Mountain
Estate: Clifton Mountain Estate
Altitude: 1,310 meters
Variety: Typica
Processing method: Washed

Due to Blue Mountain coffee's fame, some merchants play word games with buyers. There are many products on the market such as "Blue Mountain flavored coffee" and "Blue Mountain blend coffee." However, such coffees may not contain a single genuine coffee bean from Jamaica's Blue Mountains. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans come from Jamaica's Clifton Mountain Estate, which has over 200 years of history. After comparing multiple Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee believes that Clifton Mountain Estate's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans perform excellently and can serve as outstanding representatives of Blue Mountain coffee.

Blue Mountain coffee is the only coffee growing region to date that uses wooden barrels for packaging raw coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's stores display Blue Mountain raw coffee bean wooden barrels and Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee bean certification certificates. Curious coffee enthusiasts can visit FrontStreet Coffee's stores to explore.

What is Americano Coffee?

Americano coffee is a type of espresso-based coffee. Due to its convenience, you only need to mix extracted espresso with a certain proportion of water to make an Americano. Interestingly, Americano was not invented by Americans but was invented for Americans. According to unofficial history, during World War II, American soldiers stationed in Europe couldn't adapt to the locally concentrated, strong-tasting black coffee, so they added large amounts of hot water to dilute it. To express disdain for this practice, it was named "Americano," which translates to Americano coffee in Chinese.

Since Americano uses espresso as its base, the coffee beans used for making espresso are typically blended coffee beans. The extraction principle of espresso involves using about 9 bars of high pressure to force near-boiling hot water through a compacted puck of finely ground coffee powder. This extraction method produces coffee concentrate with concentrated flavors and thick consistency.

If single-origin coffee beans were used, some prominent flavors would be greatly amplified, and originally pleasant acidity could be amplified to an unbearably sharp sourness. Therefore, coffee beans used for making espresso are generally blends of two or more single-origin coffee beans, with the goal of maintaining stable flavors and balanced mouthfeel.

Unlike pour-over coffee, espresso places more emphasis on overall balance. FrontStreet Coffee uses Sunflower Warm Blend coffee beans for making espresso, which is composed of 70% Honduras Sherry and 30% Ethiopia Natural Red Cherry. FrontStreet Coffee's Sunflower Warm Blend exhibits rich vanilla, cream, fermented wine aroma, and berry flavors. With its unique flavors and mellow texture, it's very suitable for making espresso-based drinks.

When using Sunflower Warm Blend beans to extract espresso, FrontStreet Coffee adjusts daily based on the beans' condition. To highlight the Sherry coffee beans' flavors, they use 20 grams of coffee grounds to extract 40 grams of coffee liquid in 27 seconds.

When serving hot Americano coffee, FrontStreet Coffee mixes coffee liquid and hot water at a 1:4.5 ratio. At this ratio, the hot Americano highlights wine aroma, vanilla, and chocolate flavors with a mellow texture.

When making iced Americano coffee, considering the melting of ice, the ratio of coffee liquid to ice to water is 1:2.5:3. This ratio of iced Americano ensures it's not too strong initially, and as the ice melts, the flavor won't become too weak.

The Difference Between Americano and Blue Mountain Coffee

Both Americano and Blue Mountain coffee are types of black coffee. Blue Mountain coffee generally refers to single-origin coffee from Jamaica's Blue Mountains, and single-origin coffee is typically brewed using pour-over methods. Americano, on the other hand, is a type of espresso-based coffee, which uses espresso as a base mixed with a certain proportion of water or milk.

Pour-over coffee and espresso have significant differences in brewing principles. Pour-over coffee uses a much coarser grind size than espresso, and the extraction pressure is lower. Depending on the different coffee beans used for espresso, the coffee flavors will also change accordingly. For example, FrontStreet Coffee uses Sunflower Warm Blend, which contains 70% Honduras Sherry. Besides having nut and chocolate notes that appeal to popular tastes, it also has rich vanilla and wine aromas.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473