Jamaican Blue Mountain: Hype or High-End Coffee Experience?

The prestigious Jamaican Blue Mountain (JBM) label brings with it high prices selling upwards of $30 or more per pound. Is it worth it? So, hype or high-end experience? The answer is sometimes one and other times, the other.

When JBM coffees are good, they are spectacular with a classic mild soft cup with both nutty and sweet herbal overtones. This is no intense coffee essence but a pure coffee taste brought out best with a city roast or full city roast which releases the coffee fragrance and flavor before the volatile oils can seep out. The beans are likely to be quite pretty, too, as the Coffee Industry Board (CIB) demands less than two percent defects in their prized crops for export.

There really is a range of Blue Mountains on the isle of Jamaica where some of the best island coffees grow, but these days the cachet of excellence has become a hit-or-miss situation despite the best efforts of the Jamaican government and its (CIB). Naturally, weather plays havoc, and quality control is always a critical factor, but when Jamaica Blue Mountain beans are good, they're very very good, and when they're not, well, let the buyer beware. Still another reason to find a reputable coffee vendor who does the sourcing and tasting for you!

Only coffee grown at elevations between 3,000 and 5,500 feet have been called Jamaica Blue Mountain. The predominant parishes are Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Portland, and Saint Mary and the most popular estates include Wallenford, Mavis Bank, Silver Hill, Old Tavern, and Moy Hall. They do have their critics, some of whom believe these estates are more mills than farms and gather coffee from nearby small farms and mill them or mill them at sea-level plants.

Jamaica grows coffee at lower levels, too: at elevations between 1,500 and 3,000 feet, the coffee is known as Jamaica High Mountain, and coffee grown below 1,500 foot elevation is called Jamaica Supreme or Jamaica Low Mountain. All the land above 5,500 feet is a forest preserve where no coffee is grown.

The climate of the region is cool and misty with high rainfall and the soil has excellent drainage. The weather, however, does play havoc on storage of these precious beans because the heat and humidity must be controlled very specifically. The best solution, of course, is for the farmers to export the coffees as soon as they are harvested.

The Blue Mountain Peaberry is harvested from the same trees as the flat bean, however, it does not split into two halves as the regular (flat) bean does. Traditionally, the Jamaica peaberry is used for espresso. All Jamaica beans are directly descended from those first brought to Martinique by French traders then to Jamaica where they were first planted in the foothills of St. Andrew and then over time cultivated into the Blue Mountains.