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How to Identify Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

August 14, 2020
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Is your blue mountain coffee really the real thing?

Authentic Blue Mountain coffee can be identified through four checks: green beans that are uniform and medium to slightly small with slightly raised ends, a crisp and continuous feel when hand-grinding, a dense and rich aroma, and a cup with balanced flavor where no single note stands out or is missing. The balance in the cup is the most reliable sign.

So-called Blue Mountain flavor, Blue Mountain blend, or Blue Mountain-style coffee has nothing to do with real Blue Mountain beans. Those products came about because Blue Mountain coffee was expensive, so operators used mixed beans and dark roasting to imitate its taste. This is also part of why is blue mountain coffee so expensive and easy to counterfeit.

Blue Mountain coffee is hailed as a legend in the coffee world, but the market is full of mixed offerings, making it hard to tell the real from the fake. From the professional perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article teaches you how to accurately identify genuine Blue Mountain coffee through four dimensions: raw bean appearance, hand-grinding feel, aroma performance, and taste balance. At the same time, we will also clarify a common misconception: so-called "Blue Mountain flavor" or "Blue Mountain blend" has nothing to do with authentic Blue Mountain coffee. After reading this article, you will understand what makes Blue Mountain coffee unique, learn to avoid low-price traps, and buy Blue Mountain beans that truly live up to the name.

Front Street Coffee teaches you how to identify real versus fake Blue Mountain?

1, Appearance: Front Street Blue Mountain coffee's raw beans are green, very uniform in appearance, medium to slightly small in size, with slightly raised ends. After roasting, they expand greatly in volume and become very plump.

2, Grinding: Genuine Front Street Blue Mountain coffee beans grow at high altitude, and their cell structure is relatively loose. When hand-grinding, they feel very crisp, pleasant, and continuous, without any sense of resistance.

3, Characteristics of Front Street Blue Mountain coffee: The aroma is very rich and dense; so-called blended Blue Mountain coffee does not have this aroma.

4, Coffee flavor: Genuine Front Street Blue Mountain coffee has a balanced, rich taste, without any single flavor standing out or being lacking. This is also something no other coffee bean can match, and it is the most crucial point for identification. Blue Mountain estate beans have a more reserved aroma and a relatively stronger taste.

So, what is Blue Mountain flavor coffee?

The so-called "Blue Mountain blend" actually has nothing to do with Blue Mountain; the reason this situation arose is that in the early days Blue Mountain coffee was expensive, and operators, based on this flavor profile, used mixed beans plus dark roasting to create coffee close to Blue Mountain's taste. Therefore, conscientious merchants in domestic and international markets will tell customers that this is comprehensive Blue Mountain, blended Blue Mountain, Blue Mountain flavor, or Blue Mountain-style coffee beans, and not true Blue Mountain coffee.

True Blue Mountain and Blue Mountain flavor are two different concepts. Generally, other bean varieties are used and roasted to imitate coffee with a taste similar to Blue Mountain coffee. The beans in a "Blue Mountain blend" are mixed, vary quite a bit in shape, and are relatively easy to identify. Also, do not believe in "premium Blue Mountain" for a few dozen yuan a pound or "Blue Mountain coffee" for a dozen or so yuan a cup.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.

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