What Makes the World's Top-Ranked Blue Mountain Coffee So Special? What Tier Does Blue Mountain Coffee Belong To? What Are the Characteristics and Flavors of Blue Mountain Coffee?

Because FrontStreet Coffee is one of the few coffee shops that sells Blue Mountain coffee offline, many coffee enthusiasts specifically come to visit and taste the flavor of what was once the "top star" of the coffee world—Blue Mountain coffee. Yes, they come for Blue Mountain's reputation...

Interestingly, after actually tasting Blue Mountain coffee, these enthusiasts mostly show a confused expression: slightly furrowed brows, gently squinted eyes, and mouths moving as if searching for something.

Although no one said it explicitly, FrontStreet Coffee believes that what everyone was thinking without exception was wondering what makes Blue Mountain coffee so good. FrontStreet Coffee had a similar experience when first tasting Blue Mountain coffee. Although it was very pleasant to drink, it seemed like just an ordinary high-quality coffee. Neither in taste nor flavor did it stand out exceptionally, nor did it reach the level of being worthy of the title "Coffee King."

Indeed! When we consider Blue Mountain coffee today, it might just be an ordinary good coffee. But Blue Mountain's reputation is well-deserved, and you can understand this by reviewing its history of fame. Moreover, the taste of Blue Mountain coffee is actually not as simple as what people experience in tasting. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share with everyone what makes Blue Mountain coffee so good~

What Makes Blue Mountain Coffee Special?

Blue Mountain coffee's rise to fame was not immediate. As early as 1728, coffee took root and sprouted in the Blue Mountains through the efforts of Jamaica's Governor Nicholas Lawes. However, due to various reasons, it wasn't until the 1950s that Blue Mountain coffee began its "path to kingship." (The reasons behind this are detailed in the article "Portal")

In 1952, to expand Jamaica's coffee industry, the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board, established four years earlier in 1948, was upgraded to the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (abbreviated as CIB). The CIB's main responsibilities were setting coffee management standards and supervising the production quality of Jamaican coffee. Because Jamaica is an island nation with limited land suitable for coffee cultivation and cannot compete through volume, if it wanted to develop the local coffee industry, Jamaican coffee could only move toward the specialty direction. This choice laid a solid foundation for Blue Mountain coffee's future reign.

After its establishment, the CIB immediately began grading coffee grown in the Blue Mountains. The grading assessment projects were extremely complex, including bean size, color, uniformity, defect rate, moisture content, and more, which demonstrates the rigor of its grading system. In addition, through cupping, the CIB discovered that coffee beans grown in certain areas of the Blue Mountains had superior flavor and texture compared to other regions. Therefore, the CIB delineated this area within the Blue Mountains, stipulating that only coffee grown in this region could be sold under the name "Blue Mountain Coffee," while coffee grown outside this area could only be sold as "Jamaica High Mountain Coffee" and "Jamaica Prime Coffee."

The same applies to coffee cultivation and processing! Jamaica not only insists on growing low-yield but high-flavor Arabica Typica but also consistently uses washed processing to ensure lower defect rates and higher quality in the resulting coffee. Since the concept of specialty coffee didn't exist at that time, and many regions were still focused on quantity over quality in coffee cultivation and processing methods, this approach directly made Blue Mountain coffee's quality far exceed that of coffee from other regions at the time, becoming one of the most popular coffees.

FrontStreet Coffee believes everyone has probably heard the subsequent story countless times—by the late 1960s, Jamaica's coffee industry was devastated by the category 5 Hurricane Gilbert that swept across the entire country, and it was only with the help of loans provided by several Japanese trading companies that it was able to recover. Then, to express gratitude for Japan's assistance, the Jamaican government signed a 30-year contract with the Japanese government in 1972. The contract stipulated that 90% of Blue Mountain coffee produced over the next 30 years would be prioritized for allocation to Japan, with the remainder available to other countries. Due to the already scarce production and near-monopoly by Japan, the rarity of Blue Mountain coffee increased exponentially. Finally, through Japan's marketing efforts, the Blue Mountain coffee craze spread worldwide, and its price and rarity rose to unprecedented heights. Thus, Blue Mountain coffee became the "Coffee King" of its time due to its extremely high quality, extremely high price, and extremely high rarity.

Although Blue Mountain coffee is no longer monopolized by Japan and is no longer rare or expensive, its quality remains undiminished. Therefore, in 2025, we can taste in this small cup of coffee the flavor it had when it once dominated the world. Of course, beyond this, Blue Mountain coffee's flavor is also quite unique.

A Unique Terroir Flavor

"Orange trees grown south of the Huai River produce sweet oranges, while those grown north produce bitter citrus"—this is a phrase FrontStreet Coffee often mentions when sharing about coffee origins. Because different terroirs nurture different flavor characteristics, and this is also true for coffee. The terroir where Blue Mountain coffee is grown is quite special—it's an island nation. Not only is it located in the "coffee golden growing belt" with fertile volcanic soil, but more importantly, it possesses an island-style climate that most regions don't have (therefore, coffees grown on islands like Blue Mountain are also known as "island coffees").

The growing environment for Blue Mountain coffee is humid with suitable temperatures, cloudy and rainy throughout the year, making it an excellent environment for coffee cultivation. With the added advantage of the island-style climate, Blue Mountain coffee's growing environment provides benefits far exceeding most regions at the same altitude. Naturally, Blue Mountain coffee's quality is far higher than most other continental region coffees grown at the same altitude.

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned, in addition to the superior growing environment, the CIB further enhanced Blue Mountain coffee's quality through strict management. Therefore, with the combination of these advantages, Blue Mountain coffee possesses three outstanding characteristics: exceptional balance in flavor, ultimate smoothness in texture, and an extremely unique elegant fragrance.

The FrontStreet Coffee Clifton Estate·Blue Mountain Coffee in FrontStreet Coffee's bean selection possesses these three characteristics. Clifton Estate is one of the earliest estates in Jamaica to grow coffee, and locally, it's the only estate that has received Rainforest Alliance certification, allowing it to imprint the Rainforest Alliance's tree frog logo on the oak barrels used for packaging exported Blue Mountain coffee (learn about Rainforest Alliance→"Portal").

FrontStreet Coffee: Jamaica·Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee

Country: Jamaica
Estate: Clifton Estate
Altitude: 1300 meters
Variety: Blue Mountain Typica
Processing Method: Washed
Grade: NO.1

Flavor: Dark chocolate, nuts, cream

Brewing parameters: 15g coffee grounds, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 90°C water temperature, grind size of 75% passing through a #20 sieve, three-stage pour brewing method, Kono dripper, brewing time of 2 minutes.

Upon tasting, FrontStreet Coffee first experiences the ultimate balance in flavor, with sour, sweet, and bitter notes in perfect harmony, complementing each other. This is followed by traditional coffee flavors of dark chocolate, nuts, and cream—prominent yet gentle, not overpowering. Then comes the texture, which as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, is rich and smooth. Finally, there's the aftertaste after swallowing—long-lasting and persistent, with careful tasting revealing that rumored elegant fragrance. Overall, it's truly very pleasant and excellent to drink~

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Tel:020 38364473