What are the characteristics of Blue Mountain Coffee? What is its grade level? Where does it originate from?

A popular saying on the internet goes that Blue Mountain Coffee is like the Rolls-Royce of cars and the Rolex of watches. As soon as the prestigious name of Blue Mountain Coffee is mentioned, people inevitably associate it with high-quality adjectives like "best," "most expensive," and "rarest." Even today in the 21st century, its popularity hasn't diminished, as evidenced by related legends we can see on major media websites.

Since the contract between Jamaica and Japan expired in 2008, Blue Mountain Coffee is no longer monopolized by the Japanese. More and more coffee shops offline have started selling Blue Mountain Coffee, and those who have longed for it finally have the opportunity to taste its deliciousness. But the moment Blue Mountain Coffee enters their mouths, most people's beautiful fantasies accumulated over the years are completely shattered! Oh my, this is not quite the Blue Mountain I imagined. Besides being a bit smoother, isn't this just an ordinary dark roast coffee? Is it really worthy of being hailed as some kind of coffee emperor?

Indeed, when we examine the taste of Blue Mountain Coffee from today's perspective, it's not outstanding. It doesn't have stunning floral aromas that amaze everyone, nor does it have rich, diverse layers. However, if we press the rewind button and turn back the clock to look at the history of how Blue Mountain Coffee became famous, then you'll understand that its reputation is truly well-deserved.

The Origins of Blue Mountain Coffee

At that time, coffee naming was very straightforward. No matter what variety of coffee, it would be directly named after its place of origin. Because the concept of specialty coffee had not yet spread, people paid more attention to region than variety. Blue Mountain Coffee was no exception! Blue Mountain Coffee, naturally, is coffee produced in the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are located in the eastern part of the island nation of Jamaica. As of today, its history of coffee cultivation spans nearly three hundred years. But we need to know that Blue Mountain Coffee was not like a genius who emerged out of nowhere and could become the supreme existence upon its first appearance. Instead, it achieved this lifetime of glory after a sudden awakening.

Early Coffee Cultivation in Jamaica

In 1728, Jamaica's Governor Nicholas Lawes received Typica plants gifted by the governor of Martinique and subsequently planted them on the high-altitude mountainous areas of the St. Andrew region. With the excellent island-type climate, several Typica plants grew very smoothly and began to flower and bear fruit not long after. However, coffee was not a major economic crop at that time—it was just a "substitute" invested by the British to make mountainous areas unsuitable for sugarcane cultivation also valuable, coupled with the extremely high taxes imposed by Britain on coffee to encourage tea trade. Therefore, coffee was not widely cultivated in Jamaica at first. Until 1790, when Britain reduced coffee taxes, Jamaica's coffee industry began to flourish. With its excellent climate and strict management, in just a few decades, Jamaica joined the ranks of major coffee-producing countries. At that time, Jamaica had more than 600 coffee plantations, with an annual production of as much as 15,000 tons.

The Rise and Fall of Jamaican Coffee Industry

By 1834, Britain abolished slavery. For various reasons, some newly freed people made Jamaica their new home. They opened up wasteland and became self-reliant. The land originally requisitioned by many coffee plantations was also returned to the original farmers, who regained control over their land. Since sugarcane was priced slightly higher than coffee at the time, many places that originally grew coffee were converted to sugarcane plantations. But as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, some places were not suitable for growing sugarcane, and most people lacked experience, so not only coffee but even Jamaican sugarcane began to show a cliff-like decline. This led to Jamaica, having gained liberation, lagging completely in various aspects of development for a long time compared to when it was colonized.

(Image from internet) But the Jamaican government had no intention of giving up the coffee industry. So in 1891, the government dispatched professional cultivation instructors to provide local farmers with guidance on coffee cultivation and green bean processing, hoping to revive the glory of the former coffee industry. Unfortunately, this didn't have much effect. So the Jamaican government focused its attention on improving coffee quality, trying to find a new breakthrough from the aspect of quality. Therefore, in 1948, the Jamaican government established the Coffee Industry Board, whose main business was to manage the quality of all green beans exported from Jamaica and revive export business. Subsequently, through cupping, they discovered that coffee produced in certain areas of the Blue Mountains had richer flavors than coffee produced in other locations, with higher quality in all aspects. Thus, they promulgated the "Coffee Industry Regulation Law" and delineated cultivation regions for Blue Mountain Coffee.

The Coffee Industry Regulation Law

The regulation law states: Only Typica variety coffee grown within the four administrative regions of St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Portland, and St. Mary, and at altitudes between 3,000 feet (approximately 915 meters) and 5,500 feet (approximately 1,700 meters), can be sold under the name "Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee." Coffee grown outside this range would be classified as High Mountain Coffee and Jamaica Select Coffee. By 1950, Jamaica's Coffee Industry Board was upgraded to the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB).

The CIB and Grading System

After the establishment of CIB, the "Coffee Industry Regulation Law" was formally implemented, and a very strict grading system was applied to coffee grown in the Blue Mountain region to guarantee the quality of Blue Mountain coffee beans! The evaluation items included: coffee bean size, color, uniformity, defect rate, moisture content, and cupping score. They were graded as No.1, 2, 3, PB. Details are shown in the image below!

That's right, this was precisely the turning point for Blue Mountain Coffee to reach the top! At this time, there were still more than 20 years before Ms. Erna Knutsen introduced the concept of specialty coffee (introduced in 1974). In other words, when major coffee-producing regions hadn't yet begun to focus on coffee quality, Blue Mountain Coffee had already achieved specialty coffee standards. Under such refined management, Blue Mountain Coffee was a crushing presence compared to other coffees. (Blue Mountain No.1 green beans)

Blue Mountain's Unique Position and Traditional Roasting

Also being dark roast, other coffees basically exhibit: bitterness, harshness. Only Blue Mountain Coffee exhibits rich but not strong, mellow and sweet, soft acidity, and long aftertaste. Although this difference narrowed after the concept of specialty coffee was introduced, other coffees still maintain a considerable distance from Blue Mountain Coffee because the degree of refined management is completely different. So we can know that Blue Mountain Coffee was absolutely a well-deserved coffee emperor in its time (Japanese marketing also played a certain role). Although the wave of the times has pushed people's preference for coffee toward light roast with floral and fruity notes, you'll find that the merchants selling Blue Mountain Coffee on the market still use the same roasting degree as always—the most traditional and classic dark roast, and FrontStreet Coffee does the same.

The Standard "Coffee Taste"

People have not deliberately used light roast for Blue Mountain Coffee to cater to the current pursuit of flavor. This is not because of CIB constraints (because the treaty would restrict buyers' roasting degree for Blue Mountain), but to interpret the most original "coffee taste" for people in this era dominated by light roast. What did original coffee taste like?

Perhaps everyone can easily elaborate on various floral aromas and fruity notes. But only, they just can't describe what "coffee taste" tastes like. And Blue Mountain Coffee can precisely serve as this "indicator"—its dark-roasted taste is the most standard "coffee taste."

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