What Drives the Flavor and Price of Blue Mountain Coffee?

Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee sits at the top of the specialty market in both price and reputation. It offers a rich mouthfeel with a balanced mix of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness, and no harsh bite on entry. Grading, growing conditions, variety, and processing all shape what ends up in the cup and what it costs.

By CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666 meters can carry the Blue Mountain name. Blue Mountain and High Mountain coffees are each split into four grades, from the top grade down to No. 3 and PB peaberry. The Typica variety and the choice between washed and natural processing further influence flavor and the final price.

In the specialty coffee world, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has long occupied a dual high ground in both price and reputation. It brings together all the qualities a good coffee should have—a rich mouthfeel and a delicate balance of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness. It has no unpleasant bitterness on entry, but instead presents just the right acidity, and is therefore highly praised by coffee lovers. In this article, Front Street Coffee will systematically review Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee’s classification and grading, growing conditions, three major production regions, Typica variety characteristics, differences between washed and natural processing methods, and share the brewing parameters and flavor performance of Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans, while also introducing methods for identifying authentic Blue Mountain coffee.

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is one of the most expensive categories in the specialty coffee market. Its flavor combines all the advantages that high-quality coffee should have: a rich mouthfeel, and a just-right balance of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness. It has neither an off-putting bitterness nor a lack of moderate acidity, so it has a large following in the coffee world. In the article below, Front Street Coffee will talk about Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

Classification and grading of Jamaican Blue Mountain

The history of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee can be traced back to the 18th century. At that time, the British brought coffee tree seeds to Jamaica and began planting them in the Blue Mountain range. This system is further divided into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, Jamaican High Mountain coffee, and Jamaican coffee, with different grades and different pricing.

(1) Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Blue Mountain coffee and High Mountain coffee are each divided into four grades. If arranged from highest to lowest quality, they are No.1, No.2, No.3, and PB, where PB refers to peaberry. According to CIB standards, only coffee grown at an altitude above 666 meters can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. As the pinnacle of the pinnacle, coffee produced in the roughly 2,000–2,256 m high mountain area of the Jamaican Blue Mountains is limited in yield because it grows on steep mountainsides, yet the beans are plump, of outstanding quality, and harmonious in flavor, with suitable acidity, bitterness, aroma, body, and sweetness. It is recognized worldwide as a top-grade coffee, so the national-treasure-level Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 has the highest price among all Blue Mountain coffees.

(2) Jamaican High Mountain coffee

Coffee produced in the Jamaican Blue Mountain area below 666 meters is called High Mountain coffee. Its quality is second only to Blue Mountain coffee, and industry insiders often call it the sibling variety of Blue Mountain coffee. Because Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee production is extremely limited, if you want to experience the flavor of the Jamaican production region, Jamaican High Mountain coffee is a very good alternative.

(3) Jamaican coffee

Coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain range is called Jamaican coffee. In the past, there was a misunderstanding among domestic coffee professionals that only coffee produced in the Blue Mountain area above 2,000 meters could be called Blue Mountain coffee. In fact, there is only one estate in the mountain crown zone above 2,000 m in the Blue Mountain range, namely Amber. The estate owner is of Chinese descent, surnamed Lyn (Lin), with ancestral roots in Guangdong, China. The estate covers only 30 hectares and has a very small output. Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed across five mountainous areas in the Blue Mountain range: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak, and Blue Mountain Peak.

Growing conditions for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Front Street Coffee often says that the factors determining a coffee’s flavor include origin, variety, and processing method. Next, Front Street Coffee will introduce Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee around these three points. The Blue Mountain range is located in eastern Jamaica. Because the entire mountain is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, when the weather is clear, sunlight shines directly on the azure sea, and the peaks reflect the sea’s brilliant blue glow, which is how Blue Mountain got its name.

According to Front Street Coffee’s understanding, the highest peak of the Blue Mountains reaches 2,256 meters above sea level, making it the highest peak in the Caribbean region and also a famous tourist destination. It is located in the coffee belt and has fertile volcanic soil, fresh and pollution-free air, and a humid climate with fog and rain all year round. Average rainfall is 1,980 mm, and the temperature is around 27 degrees, making it very suitable for growing high-quality Arabica coffee beans. This is also one of the reasons for producing high-quality Blue Mountain coffee beans.

The three major production regions of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans are expensive not only because of their excellent flavor, but also because production is extremely limited; things are precious when they are scarce. The planted area in the Blue Mountain region is only 6,000 hectares, so it is impossible for all coffee labeled “Blue Mountain” to come from there. In addition, another 12,000 hectares of land are used to grow the other two categories of coffee (non-Blue Mountain coffee): High Mountain Supreme coffee and Jamaican coffee.

The three famous major production regions of Blue Mountain are the St. Andrew production region, the Portland production region, and the St. Thomas production region. In addition, some small estates also grow Blue Mountain coffee, such as Wallenford Estate, Silver Hill Estate, and Martin’s Atlanta Estate. Even the largest estate owners in the region are still considered small-scale growers by international standards, and many of them are smallholders whose families have farmed this land for two centuries.

According to Front Street Coffee’s understanding, there are currently six marks that can represent the origin of Blue Mountain coffee, including the Mavis Bank Central Factory (M.B.C.E), the Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative Factory (M.H.C.C.T.), the Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative Factory (P.X.X.S.H.), the Coffee Industry Association (Wallenford), the Coffee Industry Association (St. John’s Peak), and J.A.S. Some estate grades will also add additional markings on the barrels.

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee variety---Typica

The Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee introduced by Front Street Coffee belongs to the Typica variety. Typica is the oldest Arabica subspecies, and the tips of its leaves are reddish-copper, so it is also called red-top coffee. The opposite leaves of the coffee tree are long oval, with smooth surfaces, very long terminal branches, and relatively few branches. The flowers are white and bloom at the base where the leaf stalk connects to the branch. The mature coffee fruit resembles a cherry in appearance and is bright red.

Typica has an elegant flavor, but the plant is relatively weak, has low disease resistance, and is susceptible to leaf rust, so coffee bean yields are low and it is difficult to achieve ideal economic returns. In recent years, Typica in Central and South America has gradually been replaced by Caturra and Catuai, so Typica is seen less and less often.

Processing methods for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Before 2020, the Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans introduced by Front Street Coffee were only washed processed. This is because washed processing best showcases the coffee beans’ original flavor, making the flavor cleaner and brighter and reducing off-flavors. According to Front Street Coffee’s understanding, the washed processing of Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans removes the skin, pulp, and mucilage through washing and fermentation.

Farms using the washed method must build washing channels and be able to introduce a continuous supply of fresh water. During processing, the skin and pulp are first removed, then the beans are allowed to ferment for 12–18 hours. After fermentation is complete, the beans are placed in channels and moved back and forth, using friction between the beans and the force of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean. After washing, the coffee beans are still wrapped in parchment, with a moisture content of 50%, and must be dried in the sun until the moisture content drops to 12–14%; otherwise they will continue to ferment and become moldy or spoiled. After that, the coffee beans are sorted and then stored in dedicated warehouse stacks. These steps must all be strictly controlled, otherwise coffee quality will be affected.

However, by 2020, Jamaica Blue Mountain began launching natural-process Blue Mountain coffee beans. This move was made out of consideration for innovation and was also a change in response to the times, but once the processing method is adjusted, the flavor structure inevitably changes accordingly. This is also why Front Street Coffee, whenever introducing coffee beans from a certain production region to guests, gives priority to recommending washed processing, because washed processing best represents that region’s flavor.

The above are the three factor characteristics summarized by Front Street Coffee that determine the flavor of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans. Next, Front Street Coffee will explain this Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain No.1 coffee bean introduced by Front Street.

Front Street Jamaican Washed Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans

Country: Jamaica Region: Blue Mountain (Clifton Estate) Altitude: 1310m Variety: Typica Processing method: Washed Flavor: On entry, there is brown sugar sweetness and berry-like acidity; the middle and finish carry nutty and cocoa flavors, with a creamy mouthfeel and rich, distinct layering, while the aftertaste brings out walnut aroma.

Front Street Jamaican Natural Blue Mountain No.1 coffee beans

Country: Jamaica Region: Blue Mountain (Clifton Estate) Altitude: 1310m Variety: Typica Processing method: Washed Flavor: On entry, there are dark chocolate and nutty flavors, high cleanliness, very bright, with good body and balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness.

Clifton Estate

These two Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain coffees introduced by Front Street Coffee are both produced at Clifton Estate, the oldest estate in the Blue Mountains and also the only estate in Jamaica with Rainforest Alliance certification. This certification is not easy to obtain, because for farms that meet the standards set by the Rainforest Alliance, the alliance protects them and the surrounding ecosystem, restricts pesticide use, and evaluates benchmarks such as waste management. Only coffee that passes the assessment and obtains certification can be called “Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee.” This is enough to show how strong the estate is.

The symbol of “Rainforest Certification” is a green frog, so barrel-packed Blue Mountain coffee bearing this green frog must come from Clifton Estate. This is also one of the ways to identify authentic Blue Mountain coffee.

How can you tell authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee from fake?

As Front Street Coffee said above, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is expensive because of its scarce production, which has attracted the attention of many unscrupulous merchants who seek only profit, resulting in many fake Blue Mountain flavor coffees appearing in the specialty market rather than authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. So how exactly do you identify genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans? For this reason, Front Street Coffee has compiled three standards to teach coffee fans how to authenticate real versus fake Blue Mountain coffee.

(1) A certificate of quality issued by the Jamaica Coffee Board

(2) An authorized sales certificate issued by a Blue Mountain coffee producer. (Blue Mountain coffee is distributed by 4 Jamaican government-licensed processors and exporters, and exported by 16 licensed exporters.)

(3) Certificate of origin for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Second, as Front Street said above, in Jamaica only coffee beans grown above 2,000 m can be called Blue Mountain coffee, and the grading of Blue Mountain coffee beans is based on bean size and quality. Of course, different grades also determine different prices. Next, Front Street will introduce the grading standards for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans to coffee fan friends.

Grading of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

Blue Mountain coffee is divided into four grades by quality, from high to low: No.1, No.2, No.3, and PB, with PB meaning peaberry. Front Street Coffee’s Blue Mountain coffee beans are precisely Blue Mountain No.1, which is also called the finest among Blue Mountain coffees and therefore is the most expensive type of Blue Mountain coffee. The Blue Mountain coffee introduced by Front Street Coffee is exactly the highest-grade No.1 Blue Mountain.

Blue Mountain No.1 is grown in the Jamaican Blue Mountain area at altitudes as high as 2,000–2,256 m. Because the coffee trees are located on steep mountainsides, the yield is low, the beans are large, the quality is excellent, and the flavor is harmonious. At the same time, it combines suitable acidity, bitterness, aroma, body, and sweetness, so it is recognized by coffee fans worldwide as a top-grade coffee, which naturally also makes the price of Blue Mountain No.1 the highest among all Blue Mountain coffees.

In addition to altitude, the grading of Blue Mountain coffee beans also requires screening for defect rate, with the following standards:

The above is the relevant information on Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee compiled by Front Street. Before launching each new batch of beans for coffee fans to taste, Front Street conducts extensive roasting cupping and brewing data work in order to derive the most delicious roasting and brewing parameters, so that coffee fan friends can taste the coffee’s best flavor. Next, Front Street will share the brewing data for Front Street washed Blue Mountain and Front Street natural Blue Mountain.

Sharing of brewing data for Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans

Front Street uses a KONO dripper when brewing Front Street Blue Mountain coffee. This is because the mouthfeel it brings out is rounder and richer. However, the KONO dripper is relatively poor at venting.

Brewing parameters:

15g coffee grounds Dripper: KONO Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: granulated sugar coarseness Water temperature: 86℃

Brewing method: Pulse pouring. Use 30g of water to bloom for 30 seconds, then pour with a small stream at the center to 125g as the first pulse. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. Extraction time is 2“00”.

Comparison of brewing flavors of Front Street Blue Mountain coffee beans:

[Front Street Natural Jamaican Blue Mountain] On entry, there is brown sugar sweetness accompanied by berry-like acidity; the middle and finish carry nutty and cocoa flavors, with a creamy mouthfeel, rich and distinct layering, while the aftertaste brings out walnut aroma.

[Front Street Washed Jamaican Blue Mountain] On entry, there are dark chocolate and nutty flavors, high cleanliness, very bright, good body, and balanced acidity, sweetness, and bitterness.

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