Distinguishing Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee!

Before the concept of specialty coffee was officially promoted, the market was dominated by rich and mellow coffee. At that time, Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica enjoyed worldwide reputation for its extraordinary fame, even earning the title of "premium coffee." However, nowadays when people mention FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans, the first question that comes to mind is not about its flavor, but rather whether it's authentic. Why is this? As consumers, how should we identify the authenticity of FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee? This article by FrontStreet Coffee will answer these questions one by one.

Blue Mountain Flavored Coffee ≠ Blue Mountain Coffee

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned at the beginning, Blue Mountain's great reputation, coupled with its high price and scarcity, means there are few genuine and fake products mixed in the market, and various inferior coffees that incorporate "Blue Mountain" terminology always mislead consumers. For example, we often see on shopping platforms: Blue Mountain flavor, Blue Mountain blend, Blue Mountain dark roast... Although they all bear the prestigious "Blue Mountain" name, they are actually far from authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans. The main reason for this situation is that early Blue Mountain coffee beans were rare and expensive, so some merchants, seeking profit, created products close to Blue Mountain's taste by blending mixed beans with dark roasting based on Blue Mountain's flavor profile, making it difficult for many coffee enthusiasts to distinguish between genuine and fake.

Actually, it's quite simple to determine whether a product is genuine Blue Mountain. Since Jamaica is the only producing region in the world that uses oak barrels as transport vessels for coffee beans, they believe that compared to coarse burlap sacks, oak barrels have the advantage of absorbing and releasing internal and external humidity, while preventing the coffee's aroma from escaping, maintaining more stable moisture content in the beans, and making roasting more stable. Therefore, as consumers, we can identify authenticity based on whether merchants have handcrafted oak barrels for transporting Blue Mountain green beans.

Additionally, the producers and distributors of Blue Mountain coffee must be licensed by the Jamaican government and authorized by the Jamaica Coffee Board. All Blue Mountain batches exported from there must undergo quality inspection and certification by the Coffee Board and carry its label. Therefore, we can ask merchants to show relevant Blue Mountain certificates to identify whether it's genuine Blue Mountain. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee is produced by Clifton Mountain Estate and comes with quality certification from the Jamaica Coffee Board, authorized sales certificate from Blue Mountain coffee manufacturers, and certificate of origin for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The Dongshankou store also displays the oak barrels containing Blue Mountain green beans.

What kind of coffee beans are authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee?

According to Jamaica's "Coffee Industry Management Law," Blue Mountain coffee is mainly grown in four administrative districts: St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Portland, and St. Mary, and explicitly stipulates that only Typica coffee grown at altitudes of 910-1700 meters can be named Jamaica Blue Mountain. The high-altitude Blue Mountain range has steep terrain, making management and harvesting difficult, with various high labor costs, so the coffee price won't be too low. If the "Blue Mountain beans" we purchase cost only a few dozen yuan, they are very likely fake. For reference, FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans are sold at 158 yuan/100g. If you want to directly taste hand-poured black coffee, the price is also very reasonable - just 60 yuan per cup.

The Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee purchased by FrontStreet Coffee comes from Jamaica's historic Clifton Mountain Estate, using washed processing. In terms of aroma, these Blue Mountain coffee beans have rich, dense, and lasting chocolate and roasted hazelnut aromas, which are difficult to compare with general dark roast blend coffees. In terms of flavor, it highlights Blue Mountain coffee's characteristic excellent balance of sour, sweet, bitter, fragrant, and sweet aftertaste, with no single taste being more prominent. The body and sweetness are perfectly balanced.

What variety is Blue Mountain coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee variety belongs to the ancient Typica. When planted at higher altitudes, Typica's flavor expression becomes more prominent. Additionally, the Typica variety has poor disease resistance and is prone to death, greatly affecting yield, thus requiring more careful human attention. Furthermore, Blue Mountain's terrain is not flat, making management and harvesting very difficult, so it requires highly skilled harvesting personnel. After harvesting, the coffee cherries are immediately transported to the processing plant for washing and drying.

The hand-picked coffee cherries are placed in water, with floating defective beans being sorted out. Then the pulp and skin are removed, allowing them to ferment in pools for 12-18 hours. The completed fermented beans are then placed in pools and moved back and forth, using the friction between beans and the power of water flow to wash the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean. Next, they are spread out under the sun for dehydration and drying until the moisture content reaches 12-14%, at which point they can be packed and stored in warehouses, and sent for quality inspection before export. The washed processing greatly reduces the defect rate and better restores the natural aroma of FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain coffee beans, with higher cleanliness in taste.

Why is it called "Blue Mountain No. 1"?

Compared to other coffee producing regions, Jamaica was the first country to recognize that coffee has "terroir taste." Local standards for evaluating Blue Mountain green bean quality cover multiple categories: green bean specifications, defect rate, color, uniformity, cupping performance after roasting (including dry aroma, wet aroma, acidity, flavor, body, cleanliness, etc.).

Bean specifications are determined using various screens with different hole sizes - coffee beans that don't pass through the openings meet the standard. Color evaluation includes visual observation and colorimeter readings, with blue-green being the highest grade. Combining these various standards, Blue Mountain coffee is divided into 4 grades, from high to low: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, PB, and blend. NO.1 is the highest grade top-tier Blue Mountain, known domestically as "Blue Mountain No. 1." FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee must meet specifications of 17 screen or larger, defect rate below 3%, moisture content around 13%, and exhibit rich coffee aroma in cupping, with smooth, balanced flavor, low acidity, and lasting sweet aftertaste.

In terms of roasting, CIB also has recommendations for roasting degree to bring out Blue Mountain's classic flavor, and FrontStreet Coffee's roasters follow this principle, using medium roast to allow FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee to present both rich chocolate sweetness while retaining appropriate soft fruit acidity.

How to brew authentic FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee?

With the popularization of specialty coffee culture, many coffee enthusiasts now have the conditions to brew coffee at home. Therefore, some friends who have purchased FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans consult FrontStreet Coffee on how to brew it well. Here, FrontStreet Coffee will explain our extraction approach based on how we serve it in our stores~

First, before brewing, FrontStreet Coffee confirms the freshness of the coffee beans. If the roasting date is more than a month old, FrontStreet Coffee will choose fresher coffee beans. Since coffee beans have an optimal flavor window after roasting, and the coffee's aroma accelerates loss with storage time, making it difficult to present the original flavor during brewing. This is also why FrontStreet Coffee insists on only shipping coffee roasted within 5 days - FrontStreet Coffee hopes every guest can enjoy the most complete flavor window of the coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee typically prioritizes KONO drippers when brewing coffee beans with bitter notes, aiming to highlight the coffee's rich body. The upper part of the KONO dripper allows better filter paper adhesion. Compared to V60 drippers, the extraction method is mainly immersion-based, increasing the overall concentration of the coffee to enhance its body. Similarly, KONO drippers are also suitable for brewing FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans and FrontStreet Coffee's Golden Mandheling coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's store parameters for brewing Blue Mountain No. 1 are:

Dripper: KONO dripper
Water temperature: 88°C
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Coffee grounds: 15g
Grind size: EK43s - setting 10.5 (75% pass-through rate on #20 standard screen)

FrontStreet Coffee first wets the KONO dripper, then aligns and places the filter paper for better fit with the dripper. After pouring out the water from the sharing pot, add 15g of coffee grounds. Use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then start center-circling with small water flow until reaching 125g, then pause. When the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, begin the second pour using the same technique until reaching 225g. Once all dripping is complete, remove the dripper.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee has the sweet aroma of dark chocolate, caramel sweetness, and soft, elegant acidity. Each flavor is balanced, with smooth and rich mouthfeel, exhibiting very typical Blue Mountain characteristics.

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Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473