Why Is Blue Mountain Coffee So Expensive?

Authentic Blue Mountain coffee is grown only in Jamaica's core Blue Mountain region and is sold in bean form. Its reputation grew in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was among the few coffees marketed on quality, and Japanese promotion helped it reach a wider audience. Limited growing area and strict grading keep supply small and prices high.

Blue Mountain includes No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and peaberry grades, with No. 1 the highest. Mainland China once could not import the beans directly and brought them in small batches through Hong Kong, so cheap bulk bags labeled Blue Mountain are usually instant, flavored blends, or other counterfeits. Checking grade and bean form helps separate genuine lots from imitations.

Blue Mountain coffee is hailed as the "King of Coffee" for its balanced taste and historical status, but the market is flooded with cheap counterfeit products. In this article, Front Street Coffee takes you through the definition of authentic Blue Mountain coffee beans, their grading, import history, as well as Front Street's purchasing channels and prices. At the same time, we review three types of "Blue Mountain coffee" that are obviously fake at a glance, including instant, flavored blends, and ultra-low-priced products, to help you avoid consumer traps and distinguish the genuine from the fake.

Recently, a friend asked Front Street whether those large bags of Blue Mountain coffee sold for just tens of yuan on e-commerce platforms are reliable. Indeed, Blue Mountain coffee has a big reputation, and counterfeits are common. So today, Front Street will teach you how to identify genuine Blue Mountain coffee beans.

What Are Authentic Blue Mountain Coffee Beans?

Authentic Blue Mountain coffee is always sold in bean form and refers to coffee beans produced in Jamaica's core Blue Mountain growing region. Its flavor profile is a balance of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, with a rich, smooth, and pleasant mouthfeel. It became so famous because in the 1970s and 1980s, Blue Mountain coffee beans were the only ones worldwide that truly emphasized quality, and with promotion by the Japanese, it ascended to the throne of the King of Coffee. Blue Mountain became well known in China because in the 1990s, when reform and opening up began to bear fruit, coffee appeared only in high-end hotels, usually to entertain foreign VIPs. The best quality among these was Blue Mountain coffee, and later wealthy people could also enjoy a cup in hotels.

Frankly speaking, China did not have a deep coffee culture, and thus no cultural baggage. At the time, people tasted the most expensive coffee and assumed it was the best, so Blue Mountain became widely renowned in China.

In China, Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee is usually referred to by default as Blue Mountain coffee, but in fact Blue Mountain coffee also includes No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and peaberry. No. 1 is the highest grade of Blue Mountain coffee beans and also the best in quality.

In the early days, mainland China could not directly import Blue Mountain coffee beans and could only bring them in small batches through Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, China, Japan, and other places, making them especially precious. It was not until 2010, when the Hangzhou Coffee and Western Food Industry Association was invited to visit Jamaica, that a letter of intent was signed for a general agent in China for Blue Mountain green beans. In May 2011, the first container of Blue Mountain green beans arrived at Ningbo Port, and only then did China have directly imported Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans.

Authentic Blue Mountain coffee beans are imported in original wooden barrels, with only three specifications: 15 kg, 30 kg, and 70 kg. As a result, some small cafés cannot afford the price of a whole barrel (or its sales volume) and choose to pool orders, which makes it hard to prove to consumers that it is genuine Blue Mountain. From the very beginning, Front Street has directly purchased whole barrels of Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee beans, sourcing products from Clifton Farm, which was also the earliest coffee bean producer to trade with China.

In 2019, Front Street also applied to Jamaica's Clifton Farm for a distributor certificate. Front Street's Blue Mountain coffee beans are priced at 158 yuan/100 g. Some friends see certain Blue Mountain coffee beans selling for 300-500 yuan on Taobao and worry that batches priced on the low side are counterfeit. Blue Mountain coffee did indeed used to sell for 300-500 yuan, mainly because China's quota was extremely small, rarity drives up value, and agents added markups at every layer; but after the channels were opened up, China's share of Blue Mountain coffee bean purchases has grown larger and larger. The reason some are still sold so expensively now is actually exploitation of the information gap.

Which "Blue Mountain Coffees" Are Obviously Fake at a Glance?

After discussing genuine Blue Mountain, Front Street shares a few categories of Blue Mountain coffee that are obviously fake at a glance. When you see these coffees with the characteristics Front Street describes, have no doubt: they are counterfeit.

The first type: Blue Mountain instant coffee

Blue Mountain coffee must appear in the form of coffee beans or ground coffee. Instant coffee is basically fake Blue Mountain, or else uses the Blue Mountain name to fool the public.

The second type: Blue Mountain flavor, Blue Mountain blend

This type is also playing at the edges. Although the product does not claim to be real Blue Mountain, it is labeled Blue Mountain flavor coffee, Blue Mountain blend coffee, or uses other coffee beans through dark roasting plus blending to imitate "the taste of Blue Mountain coffee." In that case, it is definitely not a genuine Blue Mountain coffee product.

The third type: the price is very low, so low as to be unreasonable

The very low price mentioned here refers to cases where it is unreasonably low. For example, although Front Street's Blue Mountain coffee is on the low side among Blue Mountain beans, it is positioned so that after calculating costs, there is still profit margin. As for some Blue Mountain sold for just tens of yuan per 1 kg, there is no doubt that it is counterfeit. After all, if it were real, wouldn't the business owner lose more money the more he sells? So as consumers, we must keep our eyes wide open and never be tempted by small bargains.

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