Blue Mountain Coffee: Processing Methods for Premium Specialty Coffee

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

When it comes to coffee, the most famous should be FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. Not all coffee labeled as "Blue Mountain" is genuine Blue Mountain coffee beans. In fact, today's Blue Mountain region is a small area with only 6,000 hectares of cultivation, so it's impossible for all coffee marked with "Blue Mountain" to be grown there.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee comes from Clifton Estate, located on Clifton Mountain. It is the oldest coffee-producing area in Jamaica that is still in normal operation, and only Clifton Farm in Jamaica has the "Rainforest Alliance" certification.

FrontStreet Coffee · Jamaica Clifton Estate Blue Mountain No. 1

• Farm: Clifton Farm
• Estate Owner: The Sharp family
• Certificate: Rainforest Alliance Certification
• Location: Newcastle region
• Total Area: 250 acres
• Coffee Cultivation Area: 180 acres
• Average Altitude: 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters)
• Processing Method: Washed
• Variety: Typica

As early as the mid-18th century (around 1750), Clifton Farm began planting and producing coffee. Today's Clifton Farm is the largest estate in this area. By international standards, it's considered small-scale cultivation, with many estate owners being small landholders. The Sharp family has been working on this land for two centuries. Here there is sufficient altitude, gentle afternoon clouds and mist surrounding the mountain forests for shade, ample sunlight, and mineral-rich cultivation soil, providing good growing conditions for coffee trees and extending the maturation period of coffee cherries.

CIB stipulates that only coffee produced above 666 meters in Jamaica's Blue Mountains can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. Coffee produced below 666 meters in the Jamaica Blue Mountain region is called [Jamaica High Mountain Coffee]. Its grades are divided into NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and hand-selected PB according to bean size. Among them, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain green beans have basic standards of NO.1 grade: beans above 17 mesh, defect rate below 3%, moisture content around 13%, etc.

Jamaica is the last country to use wooden barrels for packaging and transporting coffee. Only after meeting this series of stringent standards set by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica (C.I.B) can coffee receive the government-awarded certificate and be officially named "Blue Mountain."

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee harvest period is from June to November each year, typically harvested by hand. Since all coffee trees grow on rugged mountain slopes, the harvesting process is extremely difficult, and only skilled local female workers can handle it. It's very important to select appropriately ripe coffee beans during harvesting - underripe or overripe beans will affect the coffee quality.

Processing Methods

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee has always used washed processing for coffee treatment until 2020, when Clifton Farm pioneered the introduction of natural processed Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain washed processing involves using a depulper to separate most of the fruit pulp from the coffee beans, then guiding the parchment beans to a clean water tank where they are soaked in water for fermentation to completely remove the remaining fruit pulp layer. Through water processing, underripe and defective beans are selected out due to buoyancy differences, then depulping (also called pulping) is performed - the coffee cherries are passed through a machine to remove the skin, leaving coffee beans with mucilage that are placed in fermentation tanks for 1-2 days to decompose the mucilage attached to the beans. Then the coffee beans are cleaned with clean water, and the parchment beans are dried until the moisture content reaches 12% before being stored in warehouses. The parchment is removed before export.

Clifton Estate also has high requirements for natural processing. First, strict red cherry selection is performed after harvesting, removing overripe, underripe, and damaged beans. The selected coffee cherries are spread evenly on raised beds for drying. During the drying process, management personnel turn them to ensure even sun exposure. Drying is completed when the coffee moisture drops to around 12%, then hulling and polishing are performed before storage for export.

Why did FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee previously only use washed processing and not other processing methods? FrontStreet Coffee believes that the advantage of the washed processing method is that it can stably control the flavor of each batch of coffee beans, maintaining Jamaica Blue Mountain's reputation for high quality. In recent years, due to updates and iterations in natural processing methods, refined natural processing can also stabilize coffee flavor very well. Additionally, the international specialty market's taste preferences have shifted from rich and mellow to fresh, sweet, and sour. Blue Mountain has also begun innovative processing.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is not high-altitude, and the traditional Typica variety makes the green beans relatively soft. Due to its high-temperature characteristics, if too much energy is applied during roasting, the temperature rise rate becomes very high. At this point, if the roast degree is not properly controlled, smoky and burnt flavors will appear. To highlight Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee's mellow mouthfeel and chocolate, caramel flavors, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a medium-dark roast degree.

Charge temperature: 170°C, Yellowing point: 5'10" at 153°C, First crack start: 8'12" at 182.5°C, First crack development: 4'00" at 201.3°C, then drop.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Because this is a medium roast, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a KONO dripper to brew FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.

The KONO's ribs stop at less than half the height of the dripper. This design is actually to ensure that after wetting the filter paper, it clings tightly to the dripper wall, restricting airflow for the purpose of increasing the water absorption time of coffee powder particles. This results in more evenly extracted coffee overall and enhances the mellow mouthfeel. Additionally, the concave skeleton at the bottom of the KONO dripper is a key design that allows siphon effects to occur during subsequent brewing.

Dripper: KONO, Dose: 15 grams, Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:14, Water temperature: 87°C, Grind size: Medium grind (65% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve).

Segmented Extraction

Use 30g of water to bloom for 30 seconds, then use a small water flow to pour in the center until reaching 125g for the first segment. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring until reaching 225g and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the dripper. Total extraction time is 2:00.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473