How does natural process change Jamaican blue mountain coffee?

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has long been defined by the washed process, giving a balanced mix of sweetness, acidity, and bitterness with an elegant aroma. In the 2020 crop season, Clifton Estate introduced sun-dried Blue Mountain beans for the first time, a departure from that tradition. The two coffees differ in green bean appearance, roasting behavior, brewing response, and cup flavor.

Blue Mountain coffee must be grown inside a defined area in eastern Jamaica, limited to the districts of St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Mary, and Portland, which keeps production small and prices high. Beans from the Clifton Estate are packed in wooden barrels as green beans and carry Rainforest Alliance certification. The comparison also notes how marketing terms such as Blue Mountain flavor coffee have blurred consumer expectations of the real thing.

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has always been famous for its washed processing method, and its balanced sweet, sour, and bitter flavor along with its elegant aroma has captivated countless coffee lovers. However, in the 2020 new crop season, the historic Clifton Estate introduced sun-dried Blue Mountain coffee beans for the first time, which undoubtedly broke the traditional impression of Blue Mountain coffee. Sun-dried and washed, two completely different processing methods, what kind of flavor changes will they bring to Blue Mountain coffee? This article will deeply explore the origin background, export standards, and variety characteristics of Blue Mountain coffee, and in detail compare the specific differences between the washed Blue Mountain and sun-dried Blue Mountain listed by Front Street Coffee in green beans, roasting, brewing, and flavor, taking you to fully understand this novel creation.

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Front Street Blue Mountain coffee's balanced sweet, sour, and bitter coffee flavor, and its fragrant coffee aroma, have given coffee connoisseurs a romantic sentiment toward Front Street Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans, and Front Street is one of them. In recent years, Blue Mountain coffee has been misled by some so-called "Blue Mountain flavor coffee" and "Blue Mountain coffee drinks" on the market, which have misguided countless people's impressions of Blue Mountain coffee. Indeed, the production of truly Front Street Blue Mountain coffee beans is small, the price is expensive, and only a small number of people have truly drunk authentic Front Street Blue Mountain coffee. In order to let everyone drink truly Front Street Blue Mountain coffee, Front Street specially selected two Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans from the oldest Clifton Estate, designated by the National Coffee Board for export companies, packed in wooden barrels as green beans, and Rainforest Alliance certified.

As mentioned earlier, the production of truly Front Street Blue Mountain coffee beans is small because Blue Mountain coffee beans must be grown in a specific Blue Mountain coffee growing area. This growing area is located in eastern Jamaica, and only coffee grown in the four administrative districts of St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Mary, and Portland, at an elevation of 1000-1700m, can bear the officially certified Blue Mountain mark.

Jamaica's total annual coffee production remains between 1200-2400 tons, and Blue Mountain coffee accounts for only about 40%. This production ratio is one of the reasons for the high price of Blue Mountain coffee beans. Based on this, are there other reasons why domestic Blue Mountain coffee bean prices are expensive? Yes, the second reason is that before 2009, Japan had priority purchasing rights for Blue Mountain coffee beans, monopolizing more than 80% of Blue Mountain coffee beans.

Why did Japan have priority purchasing rights before 2009?

The Jamaican government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board in 1950. This board sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervises the implementation of quality standards to ensure the quality of Jamaican coffee. The board issues special official seals for Jamaican exported green coffee and roasted coffee. Because Japanese loans were used to improve production quality, the market was guaranteed. It was not until 2009 that Jamaica ended Japan's priority purchasing rights. In April 2011, the first batch of Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee arrived in mainland China.

Since the Jamaican government ended Japan's priority purchasing rights, why is the price of Blue Mountain coffee beans still so expensive now?

Starting in 2008, Jamaica's coffee-growing regions suffered from berry borers, fruit flies, drought, and typhoons, and production began to decline. In 2012, leaf rust severely damaged Jamaica's highest-grade Blue Mountain growing region. Did you think that was the end? The bad luck was not over yet. In 2015, Jamaica's coffee-growing regions suffered forest fires. It would probably take several more years for Blue Mountain coffee to recover to its former glory. Before these misfortunes occurred, Jamaica's coffee production was 2400 tons, and at its peak in 1997 it produced 3240 tons. After the misfortunes ended, Jamaica's coffee production could only remain between 1200-2400 tons. In other words, Blue Mountain coffee production is only about 300-600 tons.

Blue Mountain Coffee Growing Region

Blue Moutain

The Blue Mountain Range is located in the eastern part of Jamaica, at an elevation of 1000-1700m. Only Blue Mountain coffee grown in this area is authentic Blue Mountain coffee. Because the mountain is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, on clear days when the sun shines directly on the azure sea, the peaks reflect the brilliant blue glow of the seawater, hence the name. Blue Mountain is located in the coffee-growing belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, a humid climate, and fog and rain all year round (average precipitation is 1980 mm, temperature around 27 degrees). This climate has created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

Here people use mixed planting methods to grow coffee trees, making them grow alongside banana trees and avocado trees in terraces. At the same time, the mountain terrain is rugged and uneven (all coffee trees are planted on steep slopes), making the harvesting process very difficult, and only skilled local female workers can handle it. When picking, it is also very important to choose just the right ripe coffee cherries; underripe or overripe ones will affect the quality of the coffee.

Clifton Estate

Clifton Mount

The two Front Street Blue Mountain coffees currently listed by Front Street come from Clifton Farm. The farm began planting and producing coffee as early as the mid-18th century (roughly around 1750). The coffee planting and processing area here is located at an average of 4300 feet (1310.64 meters). Sufficient elevation, mild afternoon cloud cover shading the mountain forests, ample sunlight, and mineral-rich planting soil provide good growing conditions for coffee trees and also extend the ripening of coffee cherries.

Clifton Estate is also the only one in the Blue Mountain growing region with Rainforest Alliance certification. Rainforest Alliance certification refers to: traditional cultivation methods under native forest shade, which are beneficial to protecting the ecosystem. Part of the alliance's income is also used for wildlife protection in tropical rainforest animal reserves, improving laborers' living conditions, and so on.

Blue Mountain Coffee Variety

Typica

Blue Mountain Typica was transplanted from Martinique to Jamaica's Blue Mountain in the 1720s. After more than 200 years, Blue Mountain Typica has evolved better disease resistance, especially resistance to wet hulling disease, superior to ordinary Typica. However, once Blue Mountain Typica leaves Jamaica, it cannot replicate its sweet and fragrant characteristics.

Typica has bronze-colored top leaves, oval or slender-pointed beans, a tall tree body, and slightly inclined branches at an angle of 50-70 degrees. Its flavor is elegant, but the plant is relatively weak with poor disease resistance, and the coffee yield per tree is very low with few cherries.

Blue Mountain Coffee Export Standards

CIB stipulates that only Blue Mountain coffee beans produced in Jamaica's Blue Mountain region above 2200 feet can be called Jamaican Blue Mountain. Its grades are divided by bean size into NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and hand-selected PB. Among them, the basic standards for NO.1 Blue Mountain green beans are beans of 17 mesh or above, a defect rate below 3%, and a moisture content of about 13%. At present, the Jamaica Coffee Board can issue certificates for all Blue Mountain coffee exported on the market.

What are Blue Mountain NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and hand-selected PB?

Blue Mountain No. 1: 96% of the coffee beans must be screen size 17/18, with no more than 2% defective beans.

Blue Mountain No. 2: 96% of the coffee beans must be screen size 16, with no more than 2% defective beans.

Blue Mountain No. 3: 96% of the coffee beans must be screen size 15, with no more than 2% defective beans.

Blue Mountain Peaberry: 96% of the coffee beans must be single peaberry beans of screen size 10, with no more than 2% defective beans.

Blue Mountain Coffee Processing Methods

Before 2019, Clifton Farm's Front Street Blue Mountain coffee had always used the washed method to process green coffee beans. During processing, the skin and pulp are first removed, then fermentation is allowed for 12-18 hours. After that, the fermented beans are placed in a pool and moved back and forth, using the friction of the beans and the force of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until smooth and clean. After washing, the coffee beans are still wrapped in the parchment layer, with a moisture content of 50%, and must be dried in the sun to reduce the moisture content to 12-14%, otherwise they will continue to ferment and become moldy and spoiled. After that, the coffee beans are sorted and then stored in specialized warehouses.

In the 2020 new crop season, Clifton Farm launched sun-dried Blue Mountain coffee beans for the first time, which is truly novel. Jamaica has a tropical rainforest climate, with rainy seasons from May to June and September to November each year, among which January and May have the most showers. Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee's harvest and processing season is from February to June each year, with half of that time falling in the rainy season, so using sun-dried processing is obviously impractical. In addition, traditionally sun-dried coffee quality is unstable, and coffee quality depends entirely on the mood of heaven. Moreover, for better-quality sun-dried processing, labor costs are higher than washed and other processing methods. When coffee cherries are sun-dried on the drying yard, they need to be manually turned every few hours to maintain ventilation, reducing mold while ensuring even drying. Such a thankless processing method was even harder to carry out in Jamaica at the time.

FrontStreet Coffee has listed a sun-dried Front Street Blue Mountain coffee (of course, also certified for export by the Jamaica Coffee Board). In fact, the production of this Front Street sun-dried Blue Mountain coffee was also very difficult. Previously, Front Street Blue Mountain coffee had always insisted on using only washed processing, because washed processing is the most essential expression of Blue Mountain flavor, and changing the processing method will definitely change its flavor structure. Of course, Blue Mountain coffee adopting sun-dried processing is also more about following the needs of market development.

FrontStreet Coffee Blue Mountain Green Bean Comparison

First observe the green beans of Blue Mountain. Whether sun-dried or washed, the particles are very plump, the mesh size is even, both ends are slightly upturned, and the shape is oval. Viewed from the side, the bean body is flat and thin, indicating a purebred Typica variety.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Suggestions

Front Street washed Blue Mountain: Charge when the drum temperature reaches 170°C, set airflow to 3, adjust heat to 140°C after 1 minute, keep airflow unchanged, roast until 5'10", temperature 153°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is complete, adjust heat to 115°C, airflow to 4; at 8'00", the bean surface shows ugly wrinkled folds and dark spots, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen clearly to the sound of first crack. At 8'12", first crack begins, reduce heat to 90°C, fully open airflow (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that there is no cracking sound), and discharge at 201.3°C.

Front Street sun-dried Blue Mountain: Charge at 165°C, heat 130, airflow 3; turning point 1'32", when drum temperature is 95.8°C, heat unchanged; at 3 minutes adjust airflow to 4, at 4 minutes increase heat to 140. At 6'30", the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. At 8'36", the bean surface shows ugly wrinkled folds and dark spots, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen clearly to the sound of first crack. At 10'06", first crack begins. After first crack, develop for 3 minutes and discharge at 198.5°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasted Bean Comparison

The biggest difference between sun-dried beans and washed beans is that the silver skin of sun-dried beans falls off very cleanly, while washed beans retain pale yellow silver skin at the center line.

The reason is that during roasting, the silver skin at the center line of the coffee bean is the most difficult to remove. Because the outer silver skin of sun-dried beans is connected as a whole piece, it is easier for it to fall off together with the silver skin at the center line, while the silver skin of washed beans attaches to the bean body in fragments, and the silver skin in the center-line crack cannot be easily peeled off.

Front Street Brewing Suggestions

Filter cup: Kono filter cup

Coffee powder amount: 15g

Powder-to-water ratio: 1:15

Water temperature: 88-89°C

Grind size: medium-coarse grind (75% passing rate on No. 20 standard sieve)

Front Street brewing method: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g (electronic scale shows about 125g), finish pouring in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (electronic scale shows about 225g), and finish pouring in about 1 minute 40 seconds to 1'45". Drip filtration is completed at 2'05"-2'15", remove the filter cup, and extraction is complete.

[Front Street Washed Blue Mountain]: On the palate there are flavors of dark chocolate and nuts, high cleanliness, very bright, good body, and balanced sweetness, acidity, and bitterness.

[Front Street Sun-Dried Blue Mountain]: On the palate there is the sweetness of brown sugar accompanied by the acidity of berries, with nutty cocoa flavors in the middle and back sections, a creamy mouthfeel, rich and obvious layering, and the finish brings out the aroma of walnuts.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of FrontStreet Coffee, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925.

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