Jamaica Blue Mountain High Peak Coffee Introduction - Premium Coffee Beans from St. Thomas Growing Region

Introduction to FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is renowned even among those who don't regularly drink coffee. Many people know that Blue Mountain Coffee is among the finest coffees in the world. Coffee literature describes Blue Mountain as the only coffee in the world that perfectly balances acidity and bitterness in a way that brings true enjoyment to the drinker—an experience that becomes immediately apparent upon tasting. Due to the fame of Jamaica Blue Mountain, many coffees on the market are labeled as Blue Mountain Coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that purchasing authentic Blue Mountain Coffee was indeed quite difficult in the past, as Japan held preferential purchasing rights for Blue Mountain coffee beans before 2009, monopolizing over 80% of the supply. However, after 2009, the Jamaican government ended Japan's preferential purchasing rights. Due to China's enormous market demand, normal imports of Blue Mountain have been ongoing for several years, and Blue Mountain coffee plantation owners have recently visited China to further educate Chinese consumers about Blue Mountain coffee beans. Blue Mountain Coffee in the Chinese market is not as rare as to be predominantly counterfeit. Today's Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee production area is larger than before, and with Japan's weakened consumption power, authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is available in China—as long as one knows how to identify genuine products.

FrontStreet Coffee invites you to learn about our Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee:

What is Blue Mountain Coffee?

Blue Mountain Coffee refers to coffee brewed from coffee beans grown in Jamaica's Blue Mountains. It is categorized by grade into Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee and Jamaica High Mountain Coffee. The Blue Mountain Range is located in the eastern part of Jamaica. When the weather is clear, the sun shines directly on the azure Caribbean Sea, and the mountain peaks reflect the brilliant blue light of the seawater—hence the name. The highest peak of Blue Mountain reaches 2,256 meters, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region and a famous tourist destination.

This area is situated in a seismic zone with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air free from pollution, and a humid climate with year-round fog and rainfall (average precipitation of 1,980 mm and temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, as well as one of the world's most expensive coffees. This coffee possesses all the characteristics of excellent coffee—not only is it rich and mellow in flavor, but it also has a perfect balance of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness, making it completely free from harsh bitterness with only moderate and perfect acidity. Therefore, Blue Mountain Coffee is considered the most aromatic and mellow coffee in the world.

Quality Standards and Certification

While Blue Mountain Coffee tastes exceptional, it also has extremely strict requirements for coffee beans. In 1950, the Jamaican government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, which sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and oversees their implementation to ensure the quality of Jamaican coffee. The board grants special official seals to both green and roasted coffee exported from Jamaica, making it one of the highest-level national coffee institutions in the world.

There are six official marks that can represent Blue Mountain Coffee's origin: Mavis Bank Coffee Factory (M.B.C.F), Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative (M.H.C.C.T), Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative (P.X.X.S.H), Coffee Industry Association (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Association (St. John's Peak), and J.A.S. Some estate-level coffees will also be indicated on wooden barrels.

The Three Major Growing Regions

The Blue Mountain region is a small area with only 6,000 hectares of planting area, making it impossible for all coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to be grown there. Another 12,000 hectares are used for growing two other types of coffee (non-Blue Mountain): High Mountain Supreme coffee and Jamaica Prime coffee.

Today's St. Andrew growing region remains one of the three major Blue Mountain Coffee regions, with the other two being Portland and St. Thomas regions. Some small estates also grow Blue Mountain Coffee, such as Wallenford Estate, Silver Hill Estate, and J. Martinez's Atlanta Estate. Even the largest estate owners in this region are considered small-scale by international standards, with many being small landowners whose families have worked this land for two centuries.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee Characteristics

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee beans are full and slightly larger than average beans. Their flavor is very subtle, with balanced and intense acidity, aroma, richness, and sweetness, with a slight bitterness, harmonious mouthfeel, and excellent flavor—suitable for single-origin coffee. It uses medium roasting to preserve the original flavor to the greatest extent while enhancing its aftertaste.

The FrontStreet Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee sources come from Clifton Mount Estate. The basic standards for FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 green coffee beans include: beans above 17 screen size, defect rate below 2%, moisture content around 13%, appearing full, uniform in size, and blue-green in color. In terms of flavor, it simultaneously possesses comfortable acidity, sweetness, bitterness, aroma, and richness. Clifton Mount Estate is the oldest continuously operating coffee estate in Jamaica and is the only one with the "Rainforest Alliance" certification. It is recognized as one of the excellent and world-renowned Blue Mountain Coffee estates.

Classification of Blue Mountain Coffee

Let's examine the classification of Blue Mountain Coffee to understand which type you usually drink:

Blue Mountain Coffee

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is divided into four grades from highest to lowest quality: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB (Peaberry). According to CIB standards, only coffee grown at elevations above 666 meters can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee.

High Mountain Coffee

Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans are produced in the Blue Mountain region below 666 meters elevation and are considered second only to Blue Mountain Coffee in quality. Industry insiders refer to it as the brother variety of Blue Mountain Coffee. Due to the extremely limited production of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, if you want to taste Jamaican-style coffee, Jamaican High Mountain Coffee is your best choice.

Jamaica Prime Coffee

Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans refer to coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain range. Previously, Chinese coffee professionals generally had a misconception that only coffee grown in the Blue Mountain region above 1,800 meters could be called Blue Mountain Coffee. In fact, there is only one estate on the Blue Mountain peaks above 1,800 meters: Amber, owned by a descendant of Chinese immigrants with the surname Lin, whose ancestral home is Guangdong, China. This estate has only 30 hectares of land with very limited production. Blue Mountain Coffee is mainly distributed in five mountainous areas: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak, and Blue Mountain Peak.

Blue Mountain Coffee Varieties

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee belongs to the Typica variety, which is a pure-flavored Arabica variety with a long cultivation history. The Typica Blue Mountain Coffee has black chocolate flavor—not milk chocolate, but dark chocolate with purity above 92%—a flavor brought by the pure Typica variety. Typica coffee is very susceptible to leaf rust disease. Originally, Typica coffee widely planted in Central and South America was continuously replaced due to rampant leaf rust, but Jamaica, due to its unique geographical advantages, still maintains Typica as its main cultivated variety, with a very low incidence of leaf rust.

Typica trees are tall with bronze-colored young leaves at the top, so they are often called red-topped coffee. Typica has pure and elegant flavor but is physically weak with poor disease resistance and very low yield per plant. This is why Typica variety coffee is becoming increasingly rare. Typica was introduced to Blue Mountain for cultivation in the 18th century and has been there for over two hundred years. The Typica in Blue Mountain has also adapted to the local island-style terroir, evolving better disease resistance, particularly stronger resistance to coffee berry disease compared to general Typica.

Blue Mountain Coffee Processing Methods

Previously, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee was only available in washed processing, but with the advancement of specialty coffee, Clifton Mount Estate first attempted to launch a natural processed Blue Mountain batch in 2019. Although natural Blue Mountain Coffee is rare, FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed Blue Mountain Coffee better reflects the essential flavor of coffee. Therefore, most of FrontStreet Coffee's daily selection beans use washed processing. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee offers both natural and washed processed Blue Mountain Coffee.

All Blue Mountain Coffee trees grow on rugged mountain slopes, making harvesting extremely difficult—only skilled local female workers can accomplish this task. It's crucial to select properly ripe coffee beans during harvesting, as underripe or overripe beans will affect the coffee's quality. After harvesting, coffee beans must be hulled the same day, then fermented for 12-18 hours. Afterward, the coffee beans are washed and sorted. The next step is drying, which must be done on concrete floors or thick blankets until the moisture content of the beans drops to 12%-14%. They are then stored in special warehouses. When needed, they are taken out for roasting and then ground into powder. These procedures must be strictly controlled; otherwise, the coffee's quality will be affected.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Blue Mountain Coffee beans are exceptionally beautiful, whether green or roasted. Faced with such beautiful coffee beans, one doesn't want to waste a single one. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee believes that no matter what coffee beans, we should try not to waste them and must brew a delicious cup of coffee properly!

To brew a good cup of coffee, besides the coffee variety, the freshness of the coffee beans is crucial. FrontStreet Coffee believes that bean freshness is a very important part of brewing. FrontStreet Coffee ships coffee beans roasted within 5 days because we deeply understand that bean freshness greatly affects flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The coffee's resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive their coffee, it's at its peak flavor.

Of course, some customers need FrontStreet Coffee to grind the beans, which is fine. However, FrontStreet Coffee must remind you: once coffee beans are ground in advance, there's no need for a resting period, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide buildup in the package also helps round out the coffee's flavor, so you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly because it oxidizes quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee's flavor will dissipate faster and won't be as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends purchasing whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better appreciate the coffee's flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Brewing Parameters:

When brewing FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio and a grind size of 75% pass-through on a #20 standard sieve. Because FrontStreet Coffee aims to highlight the balance, richness, and soft fruit acidity of FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee, we use 88°C water temperature. When choosing a dripper, FrontStreet Coffee first considers the KONO dripper. Considering that both FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain beans use a darker roast level, and darker roasts dissolve coffee substances faster, to avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee uses lower water temperature for extraction while also using the slower-flow KONO dripper to ensure maximum extraction of coffee substances under low-temperature conditions.

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing parameters are: KONO dripper, 88°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g coffee dose, and grind size (75% pass-through on #20 standard sieve).

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, specifically a three-pour method: using 30g of water for blooming with a 30-second bloom time, then the first small-water-flow circular pour to 125g before stopping. When the liquid level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed, continue with the second pour to 225g to complete extraction. The total extraction time (counting from the beginning of pouring) is 2'00".

Blue Mountain Coffee Flavor Descriptions

FrontStreet Coffee Natural Blue Mountain Coffee Flavor: Slight berry acidity, reminiscent of dark plums and mulberries, with excellent overall balance, rich dark chocolate and nut flavors, and a slight fermentation sensation.

FrontStreet Coffee Washed Blue Mountain Coffee Flavor: Rich dark chocolate and nut flavors, creamy smooth mouthfeel, with balanced sweetness, acidity, and bitterness.

After reading FrontStreet Coffee's introduction to Blue Mountain Coffee, do you now know which type of Blue Mountain Coffee you usually drink? Of course, while FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee is delicious and memorable, making it an excellent choice for those who don't like acidity or bitterness, not everyone may prefer FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. Alternatively, if you're not sure what flavor of coffee you like, you can choose FrontStreet Coffee's daily selection series, which features representative coffees from different producing countries and offers excellent value! Choosing your preferred coffee through FrontStreet Coffee's daily selection beans is an excellent option!

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