Rich and Smooth Cuban Crystal Mountain Coffee: Flavor Description, Grind Size, Taste Profile, and Variety Characteristics

Cuban Coffee: The Premier Brands

Cuba has three major coffee brands, with Cubita the most representative.

Cubita's green beans are selected from pollution-free Crystal Mountain coffee grown in Cuba's high-altitude regions. All beans are strictly selected to a screen size of 17-19, producing large, high-maturity coffee. Cubita beans are entirely hand-picked and use the wet, washed processing method to remove defective beans and other impurities as fully as possible. Combined with careful roasting by experienced roasters, this creates a coffee of unique, world-class quality.

Cubita is Cuba's leading coffee export brand, famous for its mellow and aromatic profile. Its main export markets include Japan, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada and China. The Cubita that enters the Chinese market is all selected from pollution-free Crystal Mountain beans grown in Cuba's high-altitude regions: typical Caribbean-style coffee, refined through traditional washed processing.

Cuban Coffee Culture and Characteristics

Cuban coffee culture was introduced by French immigrants and was already common among Cuba's upper class in early times. Today most Cuban beans are bought by the Japanese and French markets, especially Japan. Cuban coffee is divided into 9 grades, with Crystal Mountain the highest. It has a sweet, refreshing taste, an aroma that reaches straight into the nasal cavity, delicate acidity, a rounded mouthfeel and excellent viscosity.

Cuban Blue Mountain is a coffee with Caribbean charm, fragrant, sweet and delicate in aroma, and its beans are quite large and very appealing to look at. The taste is somewhat similar to FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, with full aroma, medium texture and mild acidity, and it is considered a very well-balanced bean. Pure, high-quality Cuban Blue Mountain balances aroma, sweetness, acidity and bitterness, with a sweet, smooth and slightly acidic taste, a premium coffee genuinely able to stand beside FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain.

Siphon Coffee Brewing Guide

1. Add Water and Attach Filter

Fill the lower pot with hot water up to the "two cups" mark. Place the filter into the upper pot, holding the end of the chain and gently hooking it onto the end of the glass tube. Be careful not to release the hook suddenly with force, as that can damage the upper pot's glass tube.

2. Light the Flame and Insert Upper Pot at an Angle

Light the alcohol lamp and insert the upper pot at an angle, letting the rubber edge rest against the spout of the lower pot (don't worry, the upper pot will not fall off) so that the chain is immersed in the water below. Then heat the water and wait for continuous large bubbles to rise from the lower pot. Keep the upper pot tilted; do not let it seal tightly against the lower pot. Small bubbles do not count; wait for the large ones.

3. Straighten and Insert the Upper Pot

When large bubbles are rising continuously from the lower pot, straighten the upper pot, shake it gently from side to side while pressing slightly downwards, and insert it gently into the lower pot. Once it is in place you will see the water begin to climb upwards. If you have a coffee grinder, now is the time to grind. For two cups of water, use three scoops of coffee, about 24 grams, at a medium grind setting.

4. Let Water Rise Completely to Upper Pot

After the water has risen completely into the upper pot, do not rush. Wait a few seconds for the bubbles in the upper pot to subside before adding the grounds.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Cuban Blue Mountain's balance and Caribbean character appeal to you, the closest thing on FrontStreet Coffee's menu is Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, and comparing the two is rewarding. True Blue Mountain is neither as sharply fruity as some African coffees nor as heavily bitter as a dark roast: it finds an excellent balance among acidity, sweetness, bitterness and aroma. A good Blue Mountain usually shows cream, caramel, chocolate, nuts, honey and a light fruit note, entering soft and rounded with rich sweetness in the middle and a clean, long finish.

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 comes from the historic Clifton Estate, which has grown and processed coffee since around 1750. The growing and processing area sits at an average of 4,300 feet (1310.64 metres), and the altitude, the gentle afternoon cloud that shades the hillsides, the ample sunlight and the mineral-rich soil together give the trees good growing conditions and extend the ripening of the cherries.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends a Kono dripper, because it better brings out the coffee's full body. Use 15 g for one serving and let the beans rest 4-7 days after roasting, counting the roast date as day one. Grind a little coarser than you would for a light roast, roughly white-sugar size, and brew with water at 87-88°C, since too hot a temperature is the usual cause of a scorched, bitter cup, while too cool a temperature makes the coffee flat and tasteless. Use a 1:15 ratio, which FrontStreet Coffee finds expresses the whole flavour best.

Pour in three stages: 30 g of water for a 30-second bloom, then a vertical, slow circling pour to 120 g and pause, then a slightly faster pour and circling to 225 g to keep the grounds from clogging the dripper and over-extracting. The finished cup is clean and complex, very gentle, with chocolate sweetness and strong body, balancing sweet, acidity and bitterness with almost no harshness and a lasting fruit note at the end.