Authentic Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee Beans: Flavor Profile, Grind Size, and Water Temperature Parameters - Are Blue Mountain Coffee Beans Expensive?

For a long time, many media outlets have been perpetuating the notion that China has no genuine Blue Mountain coffee. In reality, this situation began to change in 2010. Blue Mountain coffee has a rich, mellow flavor, representing a very standard cup of black coffee. Due to its limited quantity, it's known as the "King of Coffee" and was indeed quite difficult to purchase in China for many years. This is why Blue Mountain coffee started being exported to our country years ago. Of course, many Taobao merchants or coffee professionals also sell "Blue Mountain flavor" and "Blue Mountain style" coffees. These merely borrow the Blue Mountain name to sell dark-roasted coffee that has little to do with actual Blue Mountain coffee, which is why these "Blue Mountain flavor" coffees are suspiciously inexpensive.

Not all coffees labeled "Blue Mountain" are genuine Blue Mountain coffee. The Blue Mountain No.1 coffee provided by FrontStreet Coffee comes with a certificate issued by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board. Additionally, the wooden barrels that package Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans feature a green frog logo (as seen in the image below showing FrontStreet Coffee importing Jamaican green beans). FrontStreet Coffee specifically chose Clifton Farm, a producer of Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 coffee with Rainforest Alliance certification. Jamaica is also the only origin that uses wooden barrels to package green beans. Furthermore, there's the most iconic Blue Mountain flavor—authentic Blue Mountain coffee has a very intense aroma and balanced taste, with no single flavor being overpowering or lacking. Genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is also more expensive than other coffees. FrontStreet Coffee believes there are three main reasons for this: limited quantity, excellent flavor, and strict quality control.

The Fame of Blue Mountain Coffee

When it comes to drinking coffee, many friends will immediately say, "Give me a cup of Blue Mountain." Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is renowned for its high reputation, limited production, and long history. It can be said that even those who have never tried specialty coffee have heard of Blue Mountain No.1 coffee. The market often features "Blue Mountain No.1 Coffee," "Blue Mountain Flavor Coffee," and "Blue Mountain Blend," which can be quite confusing. Not all coffees with "Blue Mountain" in their name are authentic Blue Mountain No.1 coffee. If you're not careful, you might end up drinking fake Blue Mountain coffee. So how can you distinguish which Blue Mountain coffees are genuine? First, FrontStreet Coffee will help everyone understand where Blue Mountain coffee comes from.

The Story of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Jamaica's coffee history can be traced back to the 18th century. In 1717, French King Louis XV ordered coffee to be planted in Jamaica. In the mid-1720s, Jamaica's Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes imported Arabica seeds from Martinique and began promoting cultivation in the St. Andrew area. Coffee trees were introduced to Jamaica and planted in the Blue Mountain range, which was further divided into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, High Mountain coffee, and Jamaican coffee, with different grades determining different prices.

Growing Altitude of Blue Mountain Coffee

The Blue Mountain range is located in the eastern part of Jamaica. When the weather is clear, direct sunlight hits the azure Caribbean Sea, and the mountain peaks reflect the brilliant blue light from the water, 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 lies within the coffee belt, featuring fertile volcanic soil, fresh air free from pollution, and a humid climate with year-round fog and rainfall (average precipitation of 1,980mm and temperature around 27°C). Such climate conditions have created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, as well as the world's highest-priced coffee.

True Blue Mountain coffee is one of the world's coffees grown under the most superior conditions. Jamaica's weather, geological structure, and topography together provide an exceptionally ideal venue. Designated Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee can only be grown within the Blue Mountain region in the eastern part of the island north of Kingston. The mountain ridge extending across Jamaica reaches over 2,100 meters in the eastern part of the small island. The cool, foggy, and frequently rainy weather makes this fertile land perfectly balanced in moisture. Here, people use mixed planting methods to grow coffee trees, cultivating them on terraces alongside banana and avocado trees.

Moreover, the mountains are extremely rugged, making the harvesting process very difficult (coffee harvesting is done almost entirely by women). Their coffee trees all grow on steep mountain slopes, making the picking process extremely challenging—only skilled local female workers can handle this work. It's crucial to select properly ripe coffee beans during harvesting, as underripe or overripe beans will affect the coffee quality.

Processing Methods for Blue Mountain Coffee

Before this year, Blue Mountain No.1 coffee was only available in washed processing. The washed and fermentation methods are used to remove the fruit pulp and mucilage. Farms using the washed method must build washing pools and have access to a continuous supply of fresh water. During processing, the fruit pulp is first removed, then fermented for 12-18 hours. The completed fermented beans are then placed in pools and moved back and forth, using the friction of the beans and the power of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean. After washing, the coffee beans are still encased in their parchment shell with a moisture content of 50% and must be sun-dried to reduce the moisture content to 12-14%, otherwise, they will continue to ferment, become moldy, and spoil. Afterward, the coffee beans are screened and then stored in dedicated warehouses. These procedures must be strictly controlled, otherwise, the coffee quality will be affected.

FrontStreet Coffee says that Blue Mountain coffee will soon not be limited to washed processing because FrontStreet Coffee will soon receive a batch of natural process Blue Mountain coffee beans, which of course is also certified and exported by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board.

Actually, the production of this natural process Blue Mountain coffee was quite challenging. Previously, there was only washed processing because washing ensures the most essential expression of Blue Mountain flavor, and changing the processing method would definitely alter its flavor structure. This is also why FrontStreet Coffee always recommends washed processed coffee beans when introducing coffee from a specific origin to customers—because washed processing best represents the flavor profile of that region. Of course, Blue Mountain coffee adopting natural processing is more about following market development trends, just as FrontStreet Coffee recently added a natural process Mandheling coffee bean, which differs from the traditional wet-hulled method.

Three Major Growing Regions of Blue Mountain Coffee

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

Today's St. Andrew growing region is still one of the three major Blue Mountain coffee growing regions, with the other two being the Portland region and the St. Thomas region. 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, and many of these estate owners are small landholders whose families have worked this land for two centuries.

Currently, organizations that can represent Blue Mountain coffee's origin include M.B.C.E (Mavis Bank Central Factory), M.H.C.C.T. (M.H.C.C.T. Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative), P.X.X.S.H. (Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative), Coffee Industry Board (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Board (St. John's Peak), and J.A.S. (Jamaica Agricultural Society), among other certification marks. Some estate-level coffees will also be indicated on the wooden barrels.

What Variety is Blue Mountain?

Blue Mountain coffee beans are of the Typica variety. Typica plants have bronze-colored new leaves, and the beans are oval or pointed in shape. The tree is tall with slightly inclined branches at angles of 50-70 degrees. The flavor is elegant, but the plant is relatively weak with poor disease resistance and low fruit yield per tree, contributing to its low production volume.

Typica variety trees have a characteristic feature—their leaf tips are copper-colored, giving them the name "red-topped coffee." The opposite leaves of the coffee tree are long oval-shaped with smooth surfaces. The terminal branches are long with few branches, while the flowers are white, blooming at the base where leaf stems connect to branches. Mature coffee cherries look like cherries and are bright red.

Why Did Japan Have Priority Purchasing Rights Back Then?

In 1950, the Jamaican government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, which set quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervised their implementation to ensure Jamaican coffee quality. The board grants special official seals to both green and roasted Jamaican coffee exports. Because Japanese loans were used to improve production quality, market access was guaranteed.

By 1981, Jamaica had another 1,500 hectares of land cleared for coffee cultivation, followed by investment in another 6,000 hectares of coffee land. In fact, today's Blue Mountain region is a small area with only 6,000 hectares of planting area, making it impossible for all coffees labeled "Blue Mountain" to be grown there. Another 12,000 hectares of land are used to grow two other types of coffee: High Mountain Supreme coffee and Jamaican Prime coffee.

According to 2013 export statistics from the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, of the limited Blue Mountain coffee bean quota, 85% is exported to Japan, 5% to the United States, 5% to Europe, and 5% to other countries. However, in global consumption of authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, China accounts for 15% according to International Coffee Association statistics. This is because some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee quotas from Japan, Australia, and Europe are exported to Taiwan through direct branch companies.

Jamaica is the only country in the world with a government coffee management agency—the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB), which is under the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. CIB's functions include planting technical guidance, processing training, fair trade, quality supervision, and other matters related to Jamaican Blue Mountain quality and brand. CIB board members are all estate owners who own a certain scale of planting estates in Jamaica (due to industry shifts, newly certified Jamaican Blue Mountain estates now need 50 hectares or more). CIB stipulates that only Blue Mountain coffee beans produced in regions above 2,200 feet in the Jamaican Blue Mountains can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain. Their grades are divided by bean size into NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and hand-selected PB (Peaberry). Among these, the basic standards for NO.1 Blue Mountain green beans are beans above 17 screen size, defect rate below 3%, moisture content around 13%, etc. Additionally, to date, Blue Mountain coffee green beans have only one processing method—washed processing—with no natural or other processing methods.

Another company worth mentioning is Coffee Trades, with the estate name CLYDESDALE. The company's coffee factory is located in the backyard of the CIB office building, and the estate is located at about 1,200 meters on the mid-slope of Blue Mountain. Jamaica's other two major Blue Mountain coffee companies are Wallenford and Mavis Bank. These two companies were originally state-owned enterprises. Wallenford's production exceeds 60% of all Jamaican Blue Mountain production, while Mavis Bank's production exceeds 20%. Moreover, Mavis Bank is one of the few Jamaican Blue Mountain companies that handles all three grades: Jamaican Blue Mountain, Jamaican High Mountain, and Jamaican Prime coffee.

Classification and Grading of Blue Mountain

Jamaica's coffee history can be traced back to the 18th century when the British introduced coffee trees to Jamaica and planted them in the Blue Mountain range. This was further divided into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, Jamaican High Mountain coffee, and Jamaican coffee, with different grades determining different prices.

(1) Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Both Blue Mountain coffee and High Mountain coffee are each divided into four grades by quality, from highest to lowest: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB (Peaberry). According to CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666 meters altitude can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. This is the cream of the crop among premium coffees—coffee produced in the Blue Mountain region at altitudes of approximately 2,000-2,256 meters. Due to its location on perilous mountain slopes, production is limited, but the beans are large with excellent quality and balanced flavor. It simultaneously possesses appropriate acidity, bitterness, aroma, richness, and sweetness, making it globally recognized as a supreme coffee. Therefore, the price of national treasure Blue Mountain No.1 is the highest among all Blue Mountain coffees.

(2) Jamaican High Mountain Coffee

Coffee produced in areas below 666 meters in the Jamaican Blue Mountain region is called High Mountain coffee. It's second only to Blue Mountain coffee in quality and is known in the industry as the brother variety to Blue Mountain coffee. Due to the extremely limited production of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, if you want to taste Jamaican-style coffee, then Jamaican High Mountain coffee is your best choice.

(3) Jamaican Prime Coffee

Coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain range is called Jamaican coffee. Originally, Chinese coffee professionals had a common misconception that only coffee grown in the Blue Mountain region above 1,800 meters altitude 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 someone of Chinese descent with the surname Lyn (Lin), whose ancestors came from Guangdong, China. This estate has only 30 hectares of land with very limited production. Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed across five mountain areas: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak, and Blue Mountain Peak.

Authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Has Certificate Authentication

The Jamaican government used to insist that all Blue Mountain coffee should be roasted in Jamaica to ensure consistent quality. In reality, roasting is a delicate art that requires experience, training, and expensive equipment. From a consumer's perspective, coffee beans should be obtained and consumed immediately after roasting. Roasting coffee in Jamaica cannot meet this requirement. Today, Jamaica's green coffee beans can now be exported.

FrontStreet Coffee imported Jamaican Blue Mountain from the origin. Currently, the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board can issue certificates for all exported Blue Mountain coffee on the market.

Certificates are divided into three types:

(1) Quality certificate issued by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board

(2) Authorized sales certificate issued by Blue Mountain coffee manufacturers (Blue Mountain coffee is distributed by 4 Jamaican government-licensed processing producers and exported by 16 licensed exporters)

(3) Certificate of origin for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Quality certificates indicate time and quantity. The Jamaica Coffee Industry Board randomly selects a package from submitted Blue Mountain coffee for inspection. If it meets Blue Mountain coffee conditions, a certificate is issued.

Blue Mountain Coffee Flavor

Blue Mountain coffee has a very clean taste, and it's one of the sweetest coffees in the world. This flavor has been described by Jim Reynolds in Peet's Coffee and Tea: "The best example of Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee is its aromatic, smooth richness, which gives me a feeling of gem-like quality. It's as precious as a gem. It's complex but very gentle. It's sweet and has very strong body. You must taste it to know what I'm talking about."

Unique growing conditions and extreme care in all production processes have made Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee very famous. The taste is rich and mellow, with a perfect balance of coffee's sweet, sour, and bitter notes. It has no bitterness at all, only moderate and perfect acidity with a persistent fruity aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Teaches You How to Identify Authentic vs. Fake Blue Mountain

1. Appearance: Blue Mountain coffee green beans are blue-green in color, very uniform in appearance, medium to small in size, with slightly upturned ends. They expand significantly after roasting and become very full.

2. Grinding: True Blue Mountain coffee beans grow at high altitudes, giving them a relatively loose cellular structure. When grinding by hand, they feel very crisp, smooth, and continuous, without any sense of resistance.

3. Aroma: The aroma is very intense and dense; so-called "Blue Mountain blend" coffees do not have this type of aroma.

4. Taste: True Blue Mountain coffee has a balanced, rich taste with no single flavor being overpowering or lacking. This is also something that no other coffee bean can achieve and is the most critical identification point. Blue Mountain Peaberry has a more reserved aroma but relatively stronger taste.

Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Suggestions and Parameter Sharing

Common filter cup choices include V60, Kalita wave, and Kono. FrontStreet Coffee primarily uses the Kono filter cup for brewing demonstrations. FrontStreet Coffee chose the Kono filter cup mainly because Blue Mountain coffee uses a dark roast level, and high temperatures can easily lead to over-extraction. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee selected a water temperature of 86°C. At this temperature, using a V60 filter cup or other faster-flowing filter cups would easily lead to under-extraction. The Kono has fewer and shorter ribs, which can create a gap between the filter paper and the filter cup, increasing water retention time and providing an immersion function. Therefore, considering all brewing parameter test results, FrontStreet Coffee ultimately chose the Kono filter cup.

Other parameters: 15g coffee, water temperature 86°C, water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, grind size BG#5J (Chinese standard 20-mesh sieve passing rate 80%)

In terms of brewing technique, FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, namely a three-stage pouring method. Use 30g of water for blooming, with a bloom time of 30 seconds. First, pour with a small stream in a circular motion to 125g, then stop pouring. When the liquid level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed, continue with the second pour, stopping at 225g to complete extraction. The total extraction time (including bloom) is 2'00".

After all that has been said, FrontStreet Coffee wants to make one final point: the market often features "Blue Mountain flavor" blended coffees. These so-called "Blue Mountain blends" actually have no connection to Blue Mountain coffee. This situation arose because early Blue Mountain coffee was rare and expensive. Operators created coffee with a flavor profile close to Blue Mountain by mixing different beans with dark roasting to imitate the Blue Mountain taste. Therefore, conscientious merchants in domestic and international markets will tell customers that these are "Blue Mountain blend," "Blue Mountain style," or "Blue Mountain-flavored" coffee beans, not genuine Blue Mountain coffee.

Authentic Blue Mountain and Blue Mountain flavor are two different concepts. Generally, Blue Mountain flavor uses other coffee varieties roasted to imitate the taste of Blue Mountain coffee. "Blue Mountain blend" beans are mixed with significant shape differences, making them relatively easy to identify. Also, don't believe in "premium Blue Mountain" that costs only a few dozen yuan per pound or "Blue Mountain coffee" that costs just over ten yuan per cup.

Important Notice :

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