Because Front Street is one of the few coffee shops that sells Blue Mountain coffee offline, quite a few coffee enthusiasts make a special trip to check in and savor the taste of Blue Mountain coffee—once the "top star" of the coffee world. Yes, it's the fame of Blue Mountain they're chasing...And then the interesting thing is, after these enthusiast friends actually tasteBlue Mountain coffee, most of them will show a puzzled expression: slightly furrowed brows, squinting eyes, and a mouth that keeps moving as if trying to search for something.Although no one says it out loud, Front Street believes that without exception, everyone is wondering what exactly is so good about Blue Mountain coffee. When Front Street first tasted Blue Mountain coffee, the feeling was much the same as everyone else's—though it was very pleasant to drink, it seemed like just an ordinary high-quality coffee,neither in mouthfeel nor in flavor was it so outstanding that it could be called the "Emperor of Coffee."
Indeed! When we talk about Blue Mountain coffee today, it may just be an ordinary good-tasting coffee. But Blue Mountain's fame is well-deserved—you only need to look back at its history of rise to fame to understand. Moreover, the flavor of Blue Mountain coffee is actually not as simple as what everyone tastes. So today, Front Street will share with you what exactly makes Blue Mountain coffee so good~What makes Blue Mountain coffee good?
Blue Mountain coffee's rise to fame was not achieved overnight. As early as 1728, coffee took root in the Blue Mountains through the hand of Jamaican Governor Nicholas Lawes. But for various reasons, it was not until the 1950s that Blue Mountain coffee began its "path to kingship."(The cause and effect in between is detailed in《Portal》this article)
In 1952, in order to expand Jamaica's coffee industry, the Jamaica Coffee Industry Authority, established four years earlier in 1948, was upgraded to the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board(abbreviated as CIB). The CIB's main responsibilities were to set coffee management standards and supervise the production quality of Jamaican coffee. Because Jamaica is an island nation with limited land suitable for growing coffee and cannot win by quantity, if it wanted to develop its local coffee industry, Jamaican coffee could only develop in the specialty direction. And it was precisely this choice that laid a solid foundation for Blue Mountain coffee's future reign.After its establishment, the CIB immediately graded the coffee grown in the Blue Mountains. The grading evaluation items were very complex—coffee bean size, color, uniformity, defect rate, moisture content, and so on were all evaluation items, which shows how rigorous its grading was.
In addition, through cupping, the CIB also discovered that coffee beans grown incertain areas of the Blue Mountains had superior flavor and mouthfeel compared to other areas, so the CIB demarcated this area within the Blue Mountains and stipulated that only coffee grown in this area could be sold under the name"Blue Mountain Coffee", while coffee grown outside the area could only be sold under the names"Jamaica High Mountain Coffee"and"Jamaica Prime Coffee".The same applies to coffee cultivation and processing! Jamaica not only insists on growing the low-yield but excellent-flavor Arabica Typica, but also consistently insists on washed processing to ensure that the processed coffee has a lower defect rate and higher quality.
Because at that time the concept of specialty coffee did not yet exist, and many producing regions were still stuck in coffee cultivation and processing methods that emphasized quantity over quality, this series of operations directly made Blue Mountain coffee's quality far surpass that of coffee from other producing regions at the time, making it one of the most popular coffees of the era.
As for what happened afterward, Front Street believes everyone has heard it so many times their ears have calluses. By the late 1960s, Jamaica's coffee industry was devastated byHurricane Gilbert, a Category 5 storm that swept across the entire country, and only regained its vitality with the help of loans provided by several Japanese trading companies. Then, in order to thank Japan for its assistance, the Jamaican governmentsigned a 30-year contract with the Japanese government in 1972. The contract stipulated that 90% of the Blue Mountain coffee produced over the next 30 years would be preferentially allocated to Japan, with only the remainder going to other countries.
Because production was already scarce, and on top of that it was almost monopolized by Japan, Blue Mountain coffee's rarity increased exponentially. Finally, through Japan's marketing, the Blue Mountain coffee craze spread across the world, and its price and rarity rose to an unprecedented height. So Blue Mountain coffee, by virtue of its extremely high quality, extremely high price, and extremely high rarity, became the "Emperor of Coffee" of that time.Although Blue Mountain coffee is no longer monopolized by Japan, no longer rare, and no longer expensive, its quality is still no less than it was back then. So in 2025, from this small cup of coffee we can taste the flavor of the era when it dominated the world. Of course, besides that, Blue Mountain coffee's flavor is also very unique.A unique taste of terroir
"Oranges grown south of the Huai River are oranges; grown north of the Huai River they become trifoliate oranges." This is a saying Front Street often brings up when sharing about coffee origins. Because different terroirs give birth to different flavor characteristics, and the same is true for coffee.
The terroir where Blue Mountain coffee is grown is very special—it is an island nation. Not only is it located in the "coffee golden growing belt," sitting on fertile volcanic soil, most crucially it also possesses an island-type climate that most producing regions do not have(therefore Blue Mountain coffee and other coffees grown on islands are also called "island coffee").The growing environment of Blue Mountain coffee is humid, with suitable temperatures and cloudiness and rain throughout the year—a very high-quality environment for coffee cultivation. Moreover, with the support of the island-type climate, Blue Mountain coffee's growing environment provides advantages far superior to most producing regions at the same altitude, so naturally, Blue Mountain coffee's quality is far higher than most other continental producing regions' coffee grown at the same altitude.
As Front Street said, besides a superior growing environment, the CIB also further improved Blue Mountain coffee's quality through strict management. Therefore, with the combination of these advantages, Blue Mountain coffee possesses three extremely outstanding characteristics: extremely high balance in taste, ultimate smoothness in mouthfeel, and an extremely unique, elegant aroma.And the Front Street Clifton Mount Estate · Blue Mountain Coffee on Front Street's bean list possesses these three characteristics. Clifton Mount Estate is one of the earliest estates in Jamaica to grow coffee, and it is the only estate locally to have obtained Rainforest Alliance certification, allowing it to print the Rainforest Alliance tree frog mark on the oak barrels used to package Blue Mountain coffee for export(Learn about the Rainforest Alliance →《Portal》).Front Street Coffee: Jamaica · Blue Mountain No.1 CoffeeEstate: Clifton Mount EstateVariety: Blue Mountain TypicaProcessing method: WashedFlavor: Dark chocolate, nuts, cream
The brewing parameters are: 15g of coffee grounds, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, water temperature 90°C, grind size with 75% passing through a No. 20 sieve, three-stage pouring method, Kono dripper, brewing time 2 minutes.When the coffee enters the mouth, the first thing Front Street feels is the extreme balance in taste—sweetness, acidity, and bitterness are just right and complement each other; next comes the traditional coffee flavors of dark chocolate, nuts, cream, etc., which are prominent yet not stimulating, very gentle; then comes the mouthfeel—as Front Street said earlier, mellow and smooth; finally, the aftertaste after swallowing, long and lasting, and upon careful tasting one can detect that legendary touch of elegant aroma. Overall, it really drinks very comfortably, very nice~ The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
