Is Green Mountain Coffee the same as blue mountain coffee?
Green Mountain Coffee is a US brand founded in 1978 or 1981, headquartered in Vermont, and known for the Keurig machine and K-Cup system. Blue Mountain Coffee is an Arabica Typica grown in a defined region of Jamaica's Blue Mountains, with strict grading. Apart from similar translated names, the two share almost nothing: one is a company, the other a certified origin.
Jamaican coffee from the Blue Mountain region has been famous since the last century and is graded by bean size, altitude and defect count. The brand Green Mountain grew through single-serve brewing rather than bean sales, and its valuation rose after the Keurig pivot. For buyers, checking the region, grade and importer is the practical way to tell real Blue Mountain from lookalike branding.
Green Mountain Coffee has frequently appeared in the public eye in recent years, and many people mistakenly believe it is a counterfeit Blue Mountain or a type of coffee bean. In fact, Green Mountain Coffee is a coffee brand founded in the United States in 1978, which pioneered a new business model with the Keurig coffee machine and K-Cup system. Blue Mountain Coffee, on the other hand, is an Arabica Typica coffee produced in a specific region of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, with strict grading standards and a legendary history. Apart from the similar Chinese translated names, the two have almost no connection. This article will systematically sort out Green Mountain Coffee's brand positioning and business logic, explain in detail Blue Mountain Coffee's region definition, grade classification, historical changes, and key points for purchasing and identification, and attach Front Street Coffee's brewing suggestions for Blue Mountain No.1, helping coffee enthusiasts clarify concepts and make rational purchases.
Blue Mountain Coffee has been famous worldwide since the last century. Today, a brand called "Green Mountain Coffee" has come into public view. Many friends have asked Front Street questions like, "Is Green Mountain Coffee riding on Blue Mountain Coffee's popularity?" and "Is Green Mountain Coffee a fake Blue Mountain Coffee?" So Front Street decided to give everyone a popular science explanation about Green Mountain Coffee and Blue Mountain Coffee.
Green Mountain Coffee is not a coffee bean!
Green Mountain Coffee is not a type of coffee bean, but a coffee brand. Green Mountain was founded in the United States in 1981, headquartered in Vermont, listed on Nasdaq in 1993, and acquired by a German consortium for 13.9 billion dollars last December. The valuation of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters grew from 100 million dollars to 15 billion dollars, not because of its annual coffee sales of 12,000 tons, but because of 16 million coffee machines after its transformation.
At its founding, Green Mountain Coffee focused mainly on roasting coffee beans. The founder set a three-step strategy. The first step was to move from the low-end consumer market to the high-end consumer market, selling high-quality Arabica coffee beans. The second step was to establish an environmental stewardship committee, using environmental protection and fulfillment of social responsibility to improve the brand's awareness and reputation. The third step was to improve production specialization in order to enhance the quality and consistency of coffee roasting.
However, due to the continuously rising cost of raw coffee beans, Green Mountain Coffee's business model faced challenges. Therefore, Green Mountain Coffee opened up a new blue ocean by producing Keurig coffee machines and matching K-Cup coffee. The so-called "K-Cup" is Green Mountain's patented product, a container that looks like a paper cup, with a smaller paper-cup-shaped infusion device inside that only allows liquid to pass through, sealed on top with aluminum foil to ensure the coffee aroma will not escape.
Place the K-Cup into the Keurig coffee machine and press the button. The pressurized water injection tube will pierce the aluminum foil lid and enter the filter cup, injecting hot water. The coffee machine precisely controls the water volume, temperature, and pressure to maximize the coffee aroma. No need to grind coffee beans, no need to weigh, no need to clean, and no residue at the bottom of the cup. A cup of coffee can be made in one minute. KEURIG can be called the "idiot-proof" product of the coffee world.
Green Mountain Coffee does not make money from the machines. KEURIG coffee machines sell for only just over 100 dollars, while K-Cups are the real money tree. A 24-count pack of K-Cups usually sells for 12 dollars, equivalent to 0.5 dollars per cup. Although the price is not high, volume is key. At present, Green Mountain Coffee has a total installed base of 16 million units in American households and businesses. Calculated at one cup per day, annual K-Cup consumption is about 6 billion cups.
Green Mountain applied for multiple K-Cup-related patents. With these patents, Green Mountain's K-Cups are open to all beverage companies. Green Mountain allows other coffee, tea, or hot cocoa producers to use K-Cup packaging on Green Mountain's KEURIG coffee machines, and these companies must pay Green Mountain a licensing fee of 6 cents per cup. Therefore, apart from having very similar names, Green Mountain Coffee and Blue Mountain Coffee have almost no relationship. Blue Mountain coffee beans are also widely known for their reputation.
The rise of Blue Mountain Coffee
Blue Mountain is a mountain range located in the eastern part of Jamaica. Originally during the British colonial period, then-Governor Nicholas Lawes obtained a coffee tree from the governor of Martinique, and thus Jamaica began coffee cultivation. However, over the following 200-plus years, Jamaicans did not attach much importance to coffee cultivation, and Jamaican coffee remained mediocre.
It was not until 1932 that the Jamaican government decided to encourage coffee cultivation in order to reduce dependence on another cash crop, sugarcane. Jamaica's focus on coffee lay in improving quality, not increasing yield. This was reasonable, because the Blue Mountain range is small in area, and even if production doubled, it would still be less than a fraction of that of major coffee-producing countries. Developing high-quality coffee was Jamaica's only way out.
In 1953, the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, specifically responsible for coordinating coffee affairs, formulated the standards for Blue Mountain Coffee for the first time, also laying the foundation for the high quality of Blue Mountain Coffee in the future.
First, the board defined what truly counts as Blue Mountain Coffee . It is not simply coffee beans grown in the Blue Mountains that can be called Blue Mountain Coffee. Only Arabica Typica coffee produced in four districts at an altitude of 910-1700 meters—St. Andrew, St. Mary, St. Thomas, and Portland—can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee . The total area of the four districts is only 6,000 hectares. Coffee grown at an altitude of 460-910 meters is called "Jamaica High Mountain," while coffee below 460 meters is "Jamaica Supreme." Compared with Blue Mountain Coffee, both quality and price decrease in turn.
Blue Mountain Coffee also has internal grade classifications, divided from high to low as follows:
Blue Mountain No.1, also known as Blue Mountain No.1, is the top-grade Blue Mountain Coffee, screened with S-17/18 screens, with defective beans less than 2%.
Blue Mountain No.2, screened with S-16/17 screens, with beans slightly smaller than Blue Mountain No.1, and defective beans less than 2%.
Blue Mountain No.3, screened with S-15/16 screens, with beans smaller than No.2, and defective beans less than 2%.
Blue Mountain Peaberry, or Blue Mountain P.B, with more than 96% round peaberry beans and defective beans less than 2%. This is actually a specially selected bean. Many people believe this grade is actually above No.1, while others think it is between No.1 and No.2.
Blue Mountain Triage, also translated as Blue Mountain Blend, is a mixture of the above four, with defective beans less than 4%. In fact, these are beans that did not pass screening.
Purchasing and identifying Blue Mountain Coffee
Front Street has seen many online remarks such as "All Blue Mountain has been bought by the Japanese" and "There is no real Blue Mountain in China." Front Street just wants to say, "My lord, the times have changed." If this statement were made 10 years ago, it would be correct, but in 2022 today, earth-shaking changes have long since taken place.
Let us first explain why Blue Mountain Coffee was all bought by the Japanese. In 1969, Jamaica suffered a severe hurricane disaster, and the plantations suffered heavy losses. The Japanese company UCC provided large amounts of aid, allowing Jamaica's coffee industry to recover. In return, Jamaica signed an agreement with Japan in 1972, allocating 90% of the Blue Mountain Coffee quota to Japan, with Europe and the United States each receiving 5%. Thus the saying that the Japanese bought most of the Blue Mountain Coffee has been passed down to this day. However, although Japan monopolized the Blue Mountain Coffee market, not all of it was sold in Japan's domestic market. Some was sold at a premium to other places, such as South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. At that time, mainland China also had some private channels importing genuine Blue Mountain Coffee through Hong Kong and Taiwan, but such Blue Mountain was extremely expensive and basically unaffordable for ordinary people.
Until 2010, mainland China had no quota to purchase Blue Mountain Coffee directly from Jamaica. After the 2008 economic crisis, Jamaica tried to break away from dependence on a single coffee buyer. Coinciding with the expiration of the agreement with Japan, the quota for Blue Mountain coffee beans gradually opened to more countries. According to media reports, in July 2010, the Hangzhou Coffee and Western Cuisine Industry Association was invited to visit Jamaica and signed a letter of intent for cooperation as the only general agent for Blue Mountain Coffee green beans in China. In May 2011, the first container of Blue Mountain Coffee green beans arrived at Ningbo Port. This should have been the first time Blue Mountain coffee beans officially entered the mainland Chinese market. Since then, mainland China has received Blue Mountain Coffee arriving by direct flights from Jamaica every year, so claims like "China has no real Blue Mountain" are already old news.
Blue Mountain Coffee is exported in wooden barrels, which is also the most distinctive packaging method in the world. At present, there are two specifications: 70 kg large barrels and 15 kg small barrels. Front Street purchases Blue Mountain coffee beans from Clifton Farm in original barrels every year.
Clifton Farm is one of the older farms growing Blue Mountain Coffee in Jamaica, and it is also the only farm in the Blue Mountain region certified by the Rainforest Alliance. Original-barrel Blue Mountain coffee beans imported through official channels will have a Clifton Farm certificate to prove that these are Blue Mountain coffee beans from Clifton Farm. When purchasing Blue Mountain coffee beans, everyone can pay attention to whether they are packaged in original wooden barrels and whether there is certificate authentication.
Blue Mountain coffee beans are of the Typica variety. This variety is an excellent Arabica variety. Thanks to Jamaica being a closed small island, the genes of the Typica coffee variety remain pure. Traditional Blue Mountain coffee beans use washed processing. Two hundred years ago, washed processing was the newest processing technology at the time. Compared with natural processing, washed processing has higher quality, better bean appearance, and a cleaner taste.
When roasting Blue Mountain coffee beans, Front Street uses a medium-dark roast to highlight Blue Mountain's balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, as well as its full-bodied characteristics.
Specific roasting record: 500g green beans, roaster is Yangjia 600n semi-direct fire.
Charge at a drum temperature of 165°C, power 130, airflow opening 3; turnaround point at 1'32", when the drum temperature is 95.8°C, power remains unchanged; at 3 minutes, adjust airflow to 4, at 4 minutes increase power to 140. When the drum temperature is 153.3°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, and it enters the dehydration stage. At 8'36", ugly wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, it is necessary to listen clearly to the sound of the first crack point. First crack begins at 10'06". After first crack, develop for 3 minutes, and drop the beans at 198.5°C.
FrontStreet Coffee's brewing suggestions for Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans
Front Street recommends using freshly roasted coffee beans for brewing, so as to experience the coffee's rich flavors to the greatest extent. The coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all within 5 days of roasting, because Front Street deeply understands that the freshness of coffee beans has a great impact on flavor. Front Street's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," so that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee. The resting period for coffee is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it is exactly at its best flavor.
Dose 15g coffee powder, water temperature 87°C, water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, medium grind (75% passing rate on China standard No.20 sieve).
Use a KONO dripper.
First pour 30ml water and bloom for 30 seconds. In the second stage, pour in a small stream in circles until 125ml, then stop. When the liquid level drops to the point where the coffee bed is about to be exposed, continue pouring in the third stage until 225ml to finish extraction. The total extraction time, including blooming, is 2'00.
Blue Mountain No.1 coffee flavor: At high temperature, Blue Mountain No.1 coffee enters the mouth with a dark chocolate aroma, very full-bodied, with an obvious almond-like sweet aftertaste. As the temperature drops, roasted hazelnut and creamy sweetness become silky, carrying a hint of soft acidity and caramel sweetness, and the aroma lingers in the mouth.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
