For a long time, many media outlets have been portraying China as having no真正的蓝山咖啡, but this situation has actually improved since 2010. Blue Mountain coffee has a mellow taste, a very standard cup of black coffee, and because of its limited quantity, it is called the king of coffee. It was once quite difficult to purchase domestically, which is a fact, and precisely because of this, Blue Mountain coffee began being exported to our country many years ago. Of course, many Taobao merchants and coffee businesses also sell Blue Mountain flavor. Blue Mountain flavor merely borrows the name of Blue Mountain to sell dark-roasted coffee, with little actual connection to Blue Mountain—this is also why Blue Mountain flavor coffee is surprisingly cheap.
Not everything labeled "Blue Mountain" is genuine Blue Mountain. TheBlue Mountain No. 1coffee offered by Front Street Coffee carries a certificate issued by the Jamaica Coffee Board. In addition, the wooden barrels packaging Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans bear a green frog logo (you can see the image below of Front Street Coffee purchasing Jamaican green beans), because Front Street Coffee specifically selected a Rainforest Alliance-certified Jamaican Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee estate—Clifton Farm. Moreover, Jamaica is the only producing region that uses wooden barrels to pack green beans. And the most iconic Blue Mountain flavor: genuine Blue Mountain has a very intense aroma and a balanced mouthfeel, with no single flavor standing out or lacking. In contrast,authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffeeis priced higher than other coffees. Front Street Coffee believes the three most important reasons are: limited quantity, excellent flavor, and strict quality control.
When it comes to drinking coffee, many friends will immediately say, "Give me a Blue Mountain." Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is famous, low in production, and has a long history—it can be said that even if you've never had specialty coffee, you've heard ofBlue Mountain No. 1 coffee. On the market, you often see "Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee," "Blue Mountain flavor coffee," "Blue Mountain blend," which is dazzling. Not everything with the word "Blue Mountain" is authentic Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee—if you're not careful, you might drink fake Blue Mountain. So how do you tell which Blue Mountains are real? First, Front Street Coffee will walk everyone through how Blue Mountain coffee came to be.
The Story of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
The history of Jamaican coffee can be traced back to the 18th century. In 1717, King Louis XV of France ordered coffee to be planted in Jamaica. In the mid-1720s, Jamaican Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes imported Arabica seeds from Martinique and began promoting cultivation in the St. Andrew region. Coffee trees were introduced to Jamaica and planted in the Blue Mountains, categorized into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, High Mountain coffee, and Jamaican coffee—different grades also determine different prices.
The Planting Altitude of Blue Mountain Coffee
The Blue Mountains are located in the eastern part of Jamaica. Because the mountains are surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, on clear days when the sun shines directly on the azure sea, the peaks reflect a brilliant blue glow from the water—hence the name. The highest peak of the Blue Mountains is 2,256 meters above sea level, the highest in the Caribbean region and a famous tourist destination. This area lies in the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, and a humid climate with year-round fog and rain (average rainfall of 1,980 mm, temperature around 27°C). This climate has created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee and also the world's most expensive coffee.
Genuine Blue Mountain coffee is one of the coffees with the most superior growing conditions in the world. Jamaica's weather, geological structure, and terrain together provide a uniquely ideal environment. Designated Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee can only be grown in the Blue Mountain region, in the eastern north of the island at Kingston, Jamaica. The ridge running across Jamaica extends to the eastern part of the island, with the Blue Mountains reaching over 2,100 meters. The cool weather, frequent fog, and rain make this fertile land well-watered. Here, people use mixed planting methods to grow coffee trees, making them companion plants with banana and avocado trees on the terraces.
Moreover, the mountains are extremely uneven, making the harvesting process very difficult (almost all coffee harvesting is done by women). Their coffee trees all grow on rugged slopes, and the picking process is extremely difficult—only skilled local female workers can handle it. When picking, choosing properly ripe coffee cherries is very important; underripe or overripe ones will affect the coffee's quality.
The Processing Method of Blue Mountain Coffee
Until this year, Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee was only washed. Washing and fermentation are used to remove the skin, pulp, and mucilage. 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 fermented for 12–18 hours. After fermentation is complete, the beans are placed in channels 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 parchment, with a moisture content of 50%, and must be dried in the sun to reduce moisture 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 special warehouse stacks. These procedures must be strictly controlled, otherwise the coffee's quality will be affected.
Why does Front Street Coffee say that soon Blue Mountain coffee will not only be washed? Because Front Street Coffee will soon receive a batch of natural processBlue Mountain coffee beans, which of course are also certified for export by the Jamaica Coffee Board.
In fact, the production of this natural process Blue Mountain coffee is also quite arduous. Why was it previously only washed? Because washing is the most essential expression of Blue Mountain flavor, and changing the processing method will definitely change its flavor structure. This is also why Front Street Coffee, whenever introducing coffee beans from a certain region to customers, first recommends washed coffee beans—because washed best represents that region's flavor. Of course, Blue Mountain coffee adopting the natural process is more about following market development, just as Front Street Coffee recently added a natural process Mandheling coffee bean, which is also different from the traditionally used wet-hulled method.
The Three Major Producing Regions of Blue Mountain Coffee
The Blue Mountain area is a small place with only 6,000 hectares of planting area—it's impossible for all coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to be grown there. Another 12,000 hectares of land is used to grow two other types of coffee (non-Blue Mountain coffee): High Mountain Supreme coffee and Jamaican coffee.
Today's St. Andrew producing region is still one of the three major Blue Mountain coffee producing regions, the other two being Portland and St. Thomas. Some small estates also grow Blue Mountain coffee, such as Wallenford Estate, Silver Hill Estate, and J. Martinez's Atlanta Estate. Even the largest estate owners in this region are, by international standards, small-scale growers. Many estate owners are small landholders whose families have worked this land for two centuries.
Currently, those that can represent the origin of Blue Mountain coffee include six marks such as M.B.C.E (Mavis Bank Central Factory), M.H.C.C.T. (Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative Factory), P.X.X.S.H. (Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative Factory), Coffee Industry Association (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Association (St. John's Peak), and J.A.S (Blue Belle), among others. Some estate grades will also be marked on the wooden barrels.
What Variety Is Blue Mountain?
Blue Mountain coffee beans are the Typica variety. Typica has bronze-colored top leaves, oval or slender-pointed bean shapes, a tall tree with slightly tilted branches at a 50–70 degree angle, and elegant flavor, but it is weak in constitution with poor disease resistance, and each tree produces fewer cherries, which also leads toits low yield.
Typica trees have a characteristic at the leaf tip: a copper-red color, known as red-top coffee. The opposite leaves of the coffee tree are elongated oval, with smooth surfaces. The branches at the ends are very long with few secondary branches. The flowers are white, blooming at the base of the leaf stalk where it connects to the branch. Ripe coffee cherries look like cherries, bright red in color.
Why Did Japan Have Priority Purchasing Rights Back Then?
The Jamaican government established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Committee in 1950. This committee sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and supervises the enforcement of quality standards to ensure the quality of Jamaican coffee. The committee issues a special official seal for Jamaican green coffee and roasted coffee exports. Because Japanese loans were used to improve production quality, the market was secured.
By 1981, about 1,500 hectares of land in Jamaica were cleared for coffee planting, and subsequently another 6,000 hectares of coffee land was invested in. In fact, today's Blue Mountain area is a small place with only 6,000 hectares of planting area—it's impossible for all coffee labeled "Blue Mountain" to be grown there. Another 12,000 hectares of land is used to grow two other types of coffee: High Mountain Supreme coffee and Jamaican coffee.
According to the Jamaica Coffee Board's 2013 export statistics, of the limited Blue Mountain coffee bean quota, 85% was exported to Japan, 5% to the United States, 5% to Europe, and 5% to other countries. However, in the global consumption distribution of authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, according to International Coffee Association statistics, China actually accounts for 15% of consumption. This is because some of Japan, Australia, and Europe's Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee shares are exported to Taiwan through directly-operated subsidiaries.
Jamaica is the only country in the world with a government coffee management agency—the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board (CIB), under the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. CIB's functions include planting technique guidance, processing training, fair trade, quality supervision, and a series of matters related to Jamaican Blue Mountain quality and brand. CIB's board members are all estate owners with at least a certain scale of plantation in Jamaica (due to industrial shifts, newly certified Jamaican Blue Mountain estates now require more than 50 hectares). CIB stipulates that only coffee beans produced in Jamaican Blue Mountain producing regions above 2,200 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. The basic standards for NO.1 Blue Mountain green beans are beans of 17 screen size or above, defect rate below 3%, moisture content around 13%, etc. In addition, to date, the only processing method for Blue Mountain coffee green beans is washed—there is no natural process or other processing methods.
Another company worth mentioning is Coffee Trades, with the estate name CLYDESDALE. The company's coffee factory is in the backyard of the CIB office building, and the estate is at about 1,200 meters on the mid-slope of the Blue Mountains. Jamaica's other two most prominent Blue Mountain coffee companies are Wallenford and Mavis Bank. Both companies were originally state-controlled. Wallenford's output exceeds 60% of Jamaica's total Blue Mountain production, and Mavis Bank's output exceeds 20%. It is also one of the few Jamaican Blue Mountain enterprises that owns three grades of coffee: Jamaican Blue Mountain, Jamaican High Mountain, and Jamaican Select coffee.
Blue Mountain Classification and Grading
The history of Jamaican coffee can be traced back to the 18th century, when the British introduced coffee trees to Jamaica and planted coffee in the Blue Mountains, categorized into high-altitude Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, Jamaican High Mountain coffee, and Jamaican coffee—different grades also determine different prices.
(1) Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
Under Blue Mountain coffee and High Mountain coffee, each is further divided into four grades. By quality from top to bottom: NO.1, NO.2, NO.3, and PB (Peaberry). According to CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666 meters altitude is called Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The pinnacle of coffee excellence, produced in Jamaica's Blue Mountain area at about 2,000–2,256 m, due to its perilous mid-slope location, has low yield, large beans, excellent quality, balanced flavor, and simultaneously possesses appropriate acidity, bitterness, aroma, body, and sweetness. It is globally recognized as the finest, so the national treasure Blue Mountain No.1 commands the highest price among all Blue Mountain coffees.
(2) Jamaican High Mountain Coffee
Coffee produced below 666 meters in Jamaica's Blue Mountain area is called High Mountain coffee, second only to Blue Mountain coffee in quality, called the brother variety of Blue Mountain coffee by industry insiders. Because Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has extremely low production, if you want to taste Jamaican-style coffee, Jamaican High Mountain coffee is your best choice.
(3) Jamaican Coffee
Coffee grown outside the Blue Mountain range is called Jamaican coffee. Originally, Chinese coffee businesses generally had a mistaken understanding that only coffee grown in the Blue Mountain area above 1,800 meters altitude could be called Blue Mountain coffee. In fact, on the mountain crown above 1,800 meters in the Blue Mountains, there is only one estate—Amber, owned by a person of Chinese descent, the estate owner surnamed Lyn (Lin), whose ancestral home is Guangdong, China. This estate has only 30 hectares of land and very low production. Blue Mountain coffee is mainly distributed across five mountain areas: John Crow, St. John's Peak, Mossman's Peak, High Peak, and Blue Mountain Peak.
Genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Has Certificate Authentication
The Jamaican government used to always insist: all Blue Mountain coffee is roasted in Jamaica to ensure unchanged quality. In fact, roasting is a fine art that requires experience, training, and expensive equipment. From the consumer's perspective, coffee beans should be obtained and consumed immediately after roasting. Roasting coffee in Jamaica cannot meet this requirement. Now, Jamaican green coffee beans can already be exported.
Front Street Coffee imported Jamaican Blue Mountain from the place of origin. Currently, the Jamaica Coffee Board can issue certificates for all exported Blue Mountain coffee on the market.
Certificates come in three types:
(1) Quality certificate issued by the Jamaica Coffee Board
(2) Authorized sales certificate issued by the Blue Mountain coffee producer. (Blue Mountain coffee is distributed by 4 Jamaican government-licensed processors and exported by 16 licensed exporters)
(3) Certificate of origin for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
The quality certificate indicates the time and quantity. The Jamaica Coffee Board randomly selects one package from submitted Blue Mountain coffee for inspection. If it meets Blue Mountain coffee conditions, the certificate is issued.
Blue Mountain Coffee Flavor
Blue Mountain coffee tastes very clean, and it is one of the sweetest coffees in the world. This flavor has been described by Jim Reynolds at Peet's Coffee and Tea: "The best example of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is that it has aroma, smoothness, and richness. It gives me the feeling of gem-like quality. It is as precious as a gem. It is complex, yet very mild. It is sweet, and it has very strong body. You must taste it to know what I'm talking about."
The unique growing conditions and the extreme care taken throughout the production process have made Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee very famous. The flavor is rich and mellow, with the coffee's sweetness, acidity, and bitterness perfectly balanced—completely without bitterness, with only a moderate and perfect acidity, and a lasting fruity note.
Front Street Coffee Teaches You How to Identify Real vs. Fake Blue Mountain
1. Appearance: Blue Mountain coffee green beans are bluish-green, with a very neat appearance, medium-to-small in size, with slightly upturned ends. After roasting, they expand significantly in volume and become very plump.
2. Grinding: Genuine Blue Mountain coffee beans grow at high altitude, and their cell structure is relatively loose. When hand-grinding, it feels crisp, smooth, and continuous, without any sense of resistance.
3. Aroma: The aroma is very intense and dense; so-called blended Blue Mountain coffee does not have this aroma.
4. Taste: Genuine Blue Mountain coffee has a balanced, rich mouthfeel, with no single flavor standing out or lacking—this is something no other coffee bean can match, and it is the most crucial identification point. Blue Mountain peaberry has a more subtle aroma and a relatively more intense mouthfeel.
Blue Mountain Coffee Brewing Suggestions and Parameters
For the dripper, there are generally these options: V60, Kalita wave, and Kono. Front Street Coffee mainly demonstrates brewing with the Kono dripper. Front Street Coffee chose the Kono dripper mainly because Blue Mountain coffee uses a deep roast level, and high temperatures can easily cause over-extraction, so Front Street Coffee chose 86°C water temperature. At this temperature, using a V60 or other fast-flow drippers would easily lead to under-extraction, while Kono's ribs are few and short, which can block the gap between the filter paper and the dripper, increasing water retention time and providing an immersion function. So after testing all brewing parameters, Front Street Coffee ultimately chose the Kono dripper.
Other parameters: 15g coffee, water temperature 86°C, water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, grind size BG#5J (80% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve)
For the brewing technique, Front Street Coffee uses staged extraction, namely the three-stage pouring method. Use 30g water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30s. First stage: pour in a small stream in circles to 125g and stop. When the liquid level drops to just about to expose the coffee bed, continue with the second stage, pouring to 225g to end extraction. Total extraction time (including blooming) is 2'00.
Having said all that, Front Street Coffee finally wants to mention one more thing: on the market, there often appears a Blue Mountain flavor blended coffee. The so-called "Blue Mountain blend" actually has nothing to do with Blue Mountain. The reason this situation arises is that early Blue Mountain coffee was rare and expensive, so operators, based on Blue Mountain's flavor profile, blended beans with dark roasting to create coffee close to Blue Mountain's taste. So in domestic and international markets, conscientious merchants will tell customers that this is composite Blue Mountain, blended Blue Mountain, Blue Mountain flavor, or Blue Mountain-style coffee beans—not genuine Blue Mountain coffee.
Genuine Blue Mountain and Blue Mountain flavor are two different concepts. Generally, Blue Mountain flavor uses other bean varieties roasted to imitate coffee with a similar taste to Blue Mountain. "Blue Mountain blend" beans are mixed, with relatively large shape differences, making them easier to identify. Also, don't believe in "supreme Blue Mountain" at a few dozen yuan per pound, or "Blue Mountain coffee" at a dozen or so yuan per cup.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
