Introduction to Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Premium Coffee Beans: Wallenford Estate Growing Region Varieties

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain Coffee has a very low caffeine content, less than half that of other coffees, which fits modern ideas of healthy drinking.

The same coffee varieties, grown in similar climates in Hawaii, Kenya, Papua New Guinea or anywhere else, cannot replicate the flavour of Blue Mountain beans.

Jamaican Coffee Varieties

There are three main varieties of Jamaican coffee:

Blue Mountain Coffee

(Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee) - Blue Mountain Coffee and High Mountain Coffee are each divided into four quality grades. From highest to lowest quality: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3 and PB (Peaberry). According to CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666 metres may be called Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee.

High Mountain Coffee

(Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans) - Coffee produced below 666 metres in the Jamaican Blue Mountain region is called High Mountain Coffee. It is second in quality only to Blue Mountain Coffee and is known in the industry as Blue Mountain's brother variety. Because Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is so limited in production, High Mountain Coffee is your best choice if you want to taste Jamaican coffee.

Jamaican Prime Coffee

(Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans) - Coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain region is called Jamaican Prime Coffee. Chinese coffee professionals once held the misconception that only coffee grown above 1800 metres in the Blue Mountain area could be called Blue Mountain Coffee. In reality, above 1800 metres on the Blue Mountain range there is only one estate: Amber, owned by a person of Chinese descent with the surname Lyn (Lin), whose ancestral home is Guangdong, China. That estate has only 30 hectares of land and 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.

From this you can picture the general production situation of Blue Mountain Coffee. It matters because 99.9% of the Blue Mountain Coffee available in China is grown only near the Blue Mountain region. A stricter reading holds that only coffee produced from the roughly 6,000 hectares above 1,600 metres elevation can be called Blue Mountain, and production has never exceeded 900 tons. Following the principle of 10% supply to Japan and the rest to the world, this coffee, of which the entire world can consume only 90 tons a year, would it really be available in any coffee shop for just tens of yuan?

The finest Blue Mountain Coffee is undoubtedly among the world's best. Price can guarantee an adequate supply of Blue Mountain, but it cannot guarantee the best flavour. This coffee also tastes far more expensive than it appears. To experience its best flavour you need more beans than with other coffees, otherwise the flavour does not quite match; to bring it out, use 10% to 15% more beans than for coffees that cost less.

True FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee is made from the finest local green beans, and that is where the connoisseur's pleasure lies. Its flavour is rich, balanced and fruity with acidity, satisfying a range of preferences. High-quality fresh Blue Mountain also has a particularly lasting flavour, just as wine connoisseurs say: an endless aftertaste.

The best Blue Mountain beans are the NO.1 peaberry, also called pearl beans, carefully selected small round beans from products grown at 2100 metres elevation, the finest of the fine.

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Coffee Characteristics

Flavor: Very intense aroma with lasting fruit notes; relatively full-bodied beans.

Roasting Method

Medium Roast

FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee blends the coffee's unique acidity, bitterness, sweetness and richness, creating a strongly attractive and elegant aroma that other coffees cannot match. Blue Mountain enthusiasts say it is the coffee beauty that combines all the advantages of good coffee. Jim, general manager of the American coffee and tea company Pete's, described it this way: "Its flavour is aromatic, smooth and rich, making me feel as precious as a gem. It is precisely because Blue Mountain Coffee's flavour is moderate and perfect that it is generally drunk as black coffee." The liquid looks golden in sunlight and drinks very smoothly. Coffee books say Blue Mountain is the only coffee in the world that combines both acidity and bitterness in a way people can enjoy. One taste and you will understand.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Buying Blue Mountain honestly is a matter of checking the paperwork as much as the flavour. Genuine FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain comes from Jamaica's Blue Mountain range with the certificate issued by the Jamaican government and proof of origin, so it is worth asking a seller for those documents first. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain is also shipped in the native wooden barrels used for Blue Mountain green beans, each printed with detailed batch information, and the barrel itself is a way to tell the real thing apart. The green beans are regular and plump, slightly upturned at both ends and green in colour, and the brewed coffee is rich, dense, clean and free of off-flavours, with an intensity that counterfeit Blue Mountain never reaches.

FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Mountain No. 1 is the highest grade, from the historic Clifton Estate. Clifton began growing and processing coffee as early as the mid-18th century, around 1750. Its cultivation and processing area sits at an average of 4,300 feet (1310.64 metres); the altitude, the gentle afternoon cloud shading the hills, the ample sunlight and the mineral-rich soil give the trees good conditions and extend the ripening of the cherries.

FrontStreet Coffee roasts it within 5 days of shipping, so the beans arrive still at full flavour and can be brewed straight away, and it uses a medium-dark roast to emphasise body and the traditional bitterness-turning-to-sweetness character. FrontStreet Coffee suggests a Kono dripper, which lifts the full body, with 15 g for one serving, beans rested 4-7 days from the roast date, a grind a little coarser than for a light roast at roughly white-sugar size, water at 87-88°C and a 1:15 ratio. Pour in three stages: 30 g of water for a 30-second bloom, then a slow vertical circling pour to 120 g and pause, then to 225 g at a slightly faster pace so the grounds do not clog the dripper and over-extract. The cup is very clean and complex, very gentle, with chocolate sweetness and strong body, a perfect balance of sweet, acidity and bitterness with almost no harshness and a lasting fruit note at the end.