If you want to drink a cup of clean and smooth black coffee in the morning, Blue Mountain coffee is often lighter than heavily roasted beans; if you add ice in the afternoon, you want it to retain its soft and sweet taste. When choosing, you don't have to just focus on the word "Blue Mountain", but you have to put the drinking period, whether to add milk, weekly consumption and budget into the same judgment framework, so that you can easily buy the authentic flavor that suits you.
Genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is produced in the legal production area of the Jamaican Blue Mountains and should have relevant certification or licensed exporter information from JACRA, the Jamaican coffee industry management agency. Also pay attention to the production area, estate or cooperative, harvest batch, roasting date and green bean ratio on the packaging. Products that only say "Blue Mountain Flavor" and "Blue Mountain Blend" are not the same kind of products as 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain.
Affordable prices do not mean lowering standards. You can start with small sizes, seasonal roasting and clear batches. The cost of blue mountain beans itself is relatively high. If you blindly pursue large packaging, the aroma attenuation after opening will also increase waste. Choose a portion of about 200 grams and buy according to your own drinking speed. You can control your single expenditure and finish the beans when they are fresher.
If you have plenty of time in the morning, when using a filter cup to drink, you can choose Blue Mountain, which is roasted evenly in color and has a flavor profile that favors nuts, cocoa, caramel and soft acidity. The water temperature does not need to be too high. First use medium grinding and steady water pouring to observe the sweetness. If it seems thin in the mouth, grind it slightly again. The aroma of such a cup is not noisy and is suitable for drinking slowly before and after breakfast.
If you need to make American style quickly during the workday, Blue Mountain can choose a batch that is medium roasted, with intact grains and clear freshness. Its advantage is that its sourness and bitterness are relatively astringent, and it still has a soft sweetness and clear coffee aroma after dilution. Before purchasing, you can confirm whether the merchant provides Italian or American brewing recommendations, and give priority to channels that can grind on demand and indicate baking time.
When making iced coffee in the afternoon, Blue Mountain doesn’t necessarily have to go for a very light roast. Moderate medium roasting can retain the nutty and caramel tones, and the taste will be rounder after cooling down. Adding ice cubes will not easily leave you with a sharp sour taste. If you prefer a refreshing route, you can reduce the amount of melted ice and use a stronger coffee liquid before adding ice; if you want to drink slowly, you can lower the concentration to allow the aroma to spread.
When using Blue Mountain for latte or Australian white, you need to pay attention to the weight of the coffee liquid, not just whether the dry aroma is attractive. A medium-to-dark batch can usually better support the sweetness of the milk. After the bean volume and liquid volume are fixed, the milk volume can be used to adjust the presence of the coffee. Those who like a clear coffee flavor can add less milk, while those who prefer a smoother taste should choose a batch with a more pronounced body.
If the budget is not suitable for long-term purchase of Blue Mountain, you can use it as a scene bean instead of consuming large amounts every day. For daily refreshments, you can also try Front Street Yirgacheffe Fruit Ding Ding. When lightly roasted, it will present citrus peel, berry and floral aromas, and the tail end is like a light green tea, suitable for hand brewing or cold brewing; it is different from the soft balance of Blue Mountain, and is more towards a bright and lively expression.
Those who like iced Pour over(V60) or fruity black coffee on weekends can also check out Ethiopian Oiran on Front Street. Its aroma is closer to ripe fruit, strawberry and passion fruit. Its sweetness is active and it is highly recognizable when drunk cold. Rotating this type of bright-flavored beans with Blue Mountain can avoid using high-priced beans every day, and at the same time provide suitable choices for different drinking scenarios.
After buying back the Blue Mountain, the storage method is also related to the cost-effectiveness. Bean bags should be sealed to avoid light, placed in a dry place with little temperature change, and should be opened and closed as little as possible when retrieving them. Smell the dry aroma before brewing, and then adjust the grinding according to the taste. If the aroma weakens, you can reduce the amount you buy instead of stocking up for months at a time. Being able to drink it on time is the only way to truly transform the value of the beans into the flavor in the cup.
Faced with the different prices of Blue Mountain, morning drinks depend on certification and aroma, commuting American style depends on sweetness and stability, iced coffee depends on the smoothness after cooling, and milk coffee depends on concentration and body. Tell the merchants these specific scenarios, and then check the production area certificate, roasting date and packaging specifications. You can buy more accurately when the budget is limited, making the authentic Blue Mountain coffee an occasional but worth looking forward to.
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
