How Is Jamaican Coffee Graded and Tasted?
Jamaica's coffee system is split into three categories: Blue Mountain, High Mountain, and Jamaican coffee, each with strict grading. Blue Mountain and High Mountain are graded from No. 1 down to No. 3 and PB, meaning peaberry. Serving jamaican coffee warm in a cup filled about seven or eight tenths keeps its aroma and flavor at their peak.
Under CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666 meters qualifies as Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. Beans grown below that elevation in the Blue Mountain region are classed as High Mountain coffee, second in quality and often described as Blue Mountain's sibling variety. A siphon is a common choice for extracting blue mountain coffee.
Blue Mountain coffee has long been hailed as the top of the coffee world, but few truly understand it. Jamaica's coffee system is actually divided into three varieties—Blue Mountain, High Mountain, and Jamaican coffee—each with its own strict grading standards. This article will walk you through the proper brewing and tasting methods for Blue Mountain coffee, clarify the differences between Blue Mountain coffee, High Mountain coffee, and ordinary Jamaican coffee, and introduce the sales structure and market status of Blue Mountain coffee. If you'd like to explore the true face of this top-tier coffee, join Front Street Coffee for an in-depth look.
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How to Brew and Taste Blue Mountain Coffee
Coffee from Jamaica's Blue Mountain region is truly the cream of the crop in the coffee world, and Front Street Coffee recommends using a siphon to extract Blue Mountain coffee.
Coffee should be enjoyed while warm, because once the temperature drops, its flavor and aroma noticeably diminish. Drinking coffee isn't just about temperature—portion size matters too. Usually, filling the cup to about seven or eight tenths is ideal; this amount fully releases the flavor while making it easy and elegant to pick up and drink. Follow this approach, and the Blue Mountain coffee in your hands will reveal an even more captivating flavor.
The deliciousness of a good cup of coffee often goes hand in hand with the care of the person who brewed it. Appreciating coffee with the proper method lets you better savor its subtleties and honors the brewer's effort.
The Classification of Jamaican Coffee
Jamaican coffee is divided into three varieties:
Blue Mountain Coffee
Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee
Blue Mountain coffee and High Mountain coffee are each further divided into four grades. Ranked from highest to lowest quality, they are: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB—PB meaning peaberry. According to CIB standards, only coffee grown at elevations above 666 meters qualifies to be called Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee;
High Mountain Coffee
Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans
Coffee produced below 666 meters in Jamaica's Blue Mountain region is classified as High Mountain coffee, second only to Blue Mountain coffee in quality, and is often called Blue Mountain coffee's sibling variety in the industry. Since Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee's production is extremely limited, High Mountain coffee is an excellent choice if you want to experience Jamaican flavor.
Jamaican Coffee
Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans
Coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain range is collectively called Jamaican coffee. In the past, a misconception circulated among domestic coffee professionals that only coffee produced above 1,800 meters in the Blue Mountain region could be called Blue Mountain coffee. In reality, the crown zone above 1,800 meters in the Blue Mountain range has only one estate, named Amber, whose owner is of Chinese descent, surnamed Lyn (林), with ancestral roots in Guangdong. The estate holds just 30 hectares of land, and its output is extremely scarce.
Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed across five mountain areas in the Blue Mountain range: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak, and Blue Mountain Peak.
The Sales of Blue Mountain Coffee
Blue Mountain coffee commands a high price, and its consumer base is relatively fixed, sold mainly to Japan, followed by some European and American countries.
As the domestic coffee consumption market gradually heats up, many cafés have rolled out "Blue Mountain coffee," often priced at only a fraction—or even a tenth—of authentic Blue Mountain. In 2005, driven by Taiwanese coffee merchants, a large number of domestic media began focusing on and reporting the authenticity of Blue Mountain coffee. Even today, the price of authentic Blue Mountain coffee and its supply in the mainland market remain beyond the reach of most domestic consumers.
Blue Mountain coffee's ability to hold its place at the pinnacle is closely tied to local policy direction. Jamaica insists on putting quality first, preferring to cut production rather than compromise on quality. Because of this, Jamaica has become one of the countries with relatively low coffee production worldwide. Take Brazil, the world's largest coffee exporter, as an example: its annual output reaches 30 million bags, while Blue Mountain coffee produces only around 40,000 bags a year.
Among the so-called "Blue Mountain-style" coffees on the market, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single authentic Blue Mountain bean. There's also a "Jamaica Blend Blue Mountain" coffee, made from a blend of 30% Blue Mountain coffee and 70% premium Jamaican High Mountain coffee. Both products attempt to imitate Blue Mountain coffee but can never quite reach that perfect realm.
Blue Mountain coffee's lack of popularity in the United States is related to local drinking habits. Since the 1970s, flavored coffee gradually became popular. This involves adding spices to coffee beans or mixing coffee creamer into brewed coffee, with flavored coffee varieties numbering in the hundreds. Flavored coffees mostly use lower-priced coffee beans. When Blue Mountain coffee cost about $80 per pound, Maxwell coffee needed only $3 per pound.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
