Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Flavor Profile and Price Guide

When people want to understand specialty coffee, they typically start with well-known coffee beans. As a standout in the premium coffee circle, Blue Mountain Coffee's reputation is absolutely top-tier. The high price of FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans is etched in the memory of a generation, especially the long-standing stories like "All Blue Mountain coffee was bought by Japanese people" and "There's no real Blue Mountain coffee in the country." Today, FrontStreet Coffee will explain the truth about these matters one by one.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow the official WeChat account: FrontStreet Coffee

It's true that FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans are rare and expensive, but not to the point of being outrageously priced. Based on FrontStreet Coffee's roasted bean prices, 100g costs 158 yuan, and some top-tier Geisha coffee beans are already more expensive than this. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee is not as expensive as one might imagine.

Debunking Common Myths About Blue Mountain Coffee

Regarding the statements "All Blue Mountain coffee was bought by Japanese people" and "There's no real Blue Mountain coffee in the country," this was indeed true through legitimate channels in earlier years. In the early days, Japan assisted Jamaica with coffee cultivation plans, and Jamaica's CIB gave Japan priority purchasing rights, so 90% of Blue Mountain coffee beans went to Japan. However, by 2011, this priority right expired, meaning that after 2011, Japanese people no longer actually monopolized the trade rights to Blue Mountain coffee beans.

The claim "There's no real Blue Mountain in the country" originally came from a CCTV program in 2010. However, in 2011, Lou Boyin, then Secretary-General of the Hangzhou Western Restaurant Association, ordered 70 tons of Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans in the name of the Hangzhou Western Restaurant Association—though it should have been 20 tons, with the first batch delivering 1.6 tons. This means that since then, there have been legitimate channels introducing authentic Blue Mountain coffee beans to the country.

Identifying Fake Blue Mountain Coffee

Regarding "good fake Blue Mountain coffee on the market," this issue needs analysis and understanding. Because Blue Mountain is so famous, many merchants use its name to sell other coffee beans. Generally, we call this riding the popularity wave, and such cases are relatively easy to identify. On packaging labels, the "Blue Mountain" text will be particularly prominent, followed by words like "blend," "flavor," or "taste." Products with these words are not genuine Blue Mountain, and Blue Mountain coffee cannot appear in instant form.

Another type is "hanging a sheep's head but selling dog meat"—the package says Blue Mountain coffee, but what's inside isn't. This belongs to "selling fake goods" and can be directly reported to 12315.

Blue Mountain Coffee Grades

After discussing the authenticity of Blue Mountain coffee, let FrontStreet Coffee continue to explain Blue Mountain's grades.

Coffee from Jamaica's Blue Mountain region has three grades: Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans, and Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans. Both Blue Mountain Coffee and High Mountain Coffee are each divided into two sub-grades. Ranked by quality from highest to lowest: Blue Mountain No. 1, Blue Mountain No. 2, High Mountain No. 1, High Mountain No. 2, and Jamaica Prime Coffee. In terms of quality grading, it's NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB, where PB stands for Peaberry. Simply put, the higher the grade, the better the coffee quality, and naturally, the corresponding price is also higher.

According to CIB standards, the basic requirements for NO.1 Blue Mountain green beans include beans larger than 17 mesh, defect rate below 3%, moisture content around 13%, etc. Only coffee beans produced according to these standards can guarantee their flavor.

Flavor Profile of Blue Mountain Coffee

You may have heard descriptive words about Blue Mountain coffee's flavor. You'll often see many merchants describing Blue Mountain coffee this way on their packaging bags: Pure Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee perfectly blends the unique sour, bitter, sweet, and mellow flavors in coffee, forming a strong and elegant aroma. With its manually cultivated process and high quality but rare production, it's unmatched by other coffees.

FrontStreet Coffee believes there's nothing wrong with this description because everyone's perception of the same coffee bean is different. To truly know a coffee bean's flavor, you can't just rely on others' descriptions—you must taste it yourself to know if what others say is correct. Those who love Blue Mountain coffee call it the "coffee beauty" that combines all the advantages of good coffee. Jim, general manager of America's Pete's Company, famous for coffee and tea, described Blue Mountain coffee: "Blue Mountain coffee has an aromatic, smooth, and rich flavor, giving me the feeling that it's as precious as a gem." It's precisely because Blue Mountain coffee's flavor is moderate and perfect that it's generally consumed as black coffee. Blue Mountain coffee's caffeine content is very low—less than half that of other coffees—making it very suitable for modern health concepts.

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is the best representative among classic coffee beans in the Caribbean region, truly the cream of the crop among coffees. Unfortunately, some operators have recently adopted speculative processing methods, mixing lower altitude-grown coffee beans with high altitude ones, reducing the original quality standards. This has made Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee increasingly less remarkable, making many coffee enthusiasts cautious when purchasing and many unwilling to spend large sums to buy it.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee Flavor

Without exaggeration, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee performance is the most balanced coffee in the world,堪称 a standard cup of black coffee. If you want to know what classic black coffee tastes like, FrontStreet Coffee recommends you must try authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee at least once. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee comes from Jamaica's Clifton Farm, which is one of the earliest areas in the Blue Mountain region to grow and produce Blue Mountain coffee, and also one of the first sources of Blue Mountain coffee introduced to the country. Its green bean quality is very high, with uniformly full and plump beans. FrontStreet Coffee procured the highest grade—FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1—processed using traditional washed methods.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 Coffee Beans

Region: Jamaica Blue Mountain
Altitude: 1310m
Processing: Washed
Variety: Typica
Flavor: Chocolate, Nuts, Cream, Cocoa

FrontStreet Coffee used cupping for evaluation, with medium-dark roast levels, and all samples were cupped simultaneously 8 hours after roasting. The entry shows dark chocolate and nut flavors, with high clarity, very brightness, good body, and balanced sweet-sour-bitter notes.

How to Brew FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee for Best Taste

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using pour-over brewing to best express FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee's clean and balanced flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing to maximize the rich flavors. Coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all roasted within 5 days because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that coffee 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 upon receipt. The coffee's resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's at peak flavor and ready for direct brewing.

Brewing Parameters:

15g coffee grounds
Powder-to-water ratio: 1:15
Water temperature: 88°C
Grind size: 70% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve
Dripper: KONO dripper

The brewing method uses three-stage water pouring. Dividing the water injection into three stages can better express FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee's rich body and caramel sweetness. The first stage is bloom pouring 30ml—this stage fully wets the coffee grounds for degassing, allowing better extraction of coffee flavor compounds in subsequent stages. The second stage injects 100ml—this stage mainly brings out Mandheling's golden foam and raises the coffee bed. The final stage gently pours 95ml in the center. Wait until all coffee liquid has filtered through, remove the dripper, and gently shake the coffee in the pot to mix evenly.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473