Is the price of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee beans hyped? what grade of Jamaican coffee

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Whether you have had coffee or not, most people should have heard of Blue Mountain Coffee. We also know that Blue Mountain Coffee is expensive, but with the promotion of the concept of boutique coffee, more and more people begin to doubt whether the quality of Blue Mountain Coffee is in line with its price-is Blue Mountain Coffee a so-called commercial hype?

The world-famous secret of ●

Blue Mountain Coffee is the most superior coffee in the world, with less production and scarcity. The Blue Mountains are located in the eastern part of the island of Jamaica, hence its name because it is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. On clear days, the sun shines directly on the blue sea, and the peaks reflect the bright blue light of the sea. The highest peak of the Blue Mountains, which is 2256 meters above sea level, is the highest peak in the Caribbean and a famous tourist attraction. Located in the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh air, no pollution, humid climate, foggy and rainy all the year round (the average precipitation is 1980 mm, the temperature is around 27 degrees), this climate has created the world-famous Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. It also creates the highest price coffee in the world. This kind of coffee has the characteristics of all good coffee, not only full-bodied and mellow, but also because of the perfect combination of sweet, sour and bitter coffee, it has no bitter taste at all, only a moderate and perfect sour taste. It is generally drunk on a single product, but because the output is very small and the price is extremely expensive, it is generally made with coffee with a similar taste on the market.

The "secret" of why Blue Mountain coffee tastes pure: their coffee trees are all on rugged hillsides, and the picking process is so difficult that non-local skilled women are simply unable to do it. It is very important to choose the right ripe coffee beans when picking. Immaturity or ripeness will affect the quality of the coffee. The picked coffee beans are shelled on the same day, and then let them ferment for 18 hours. After that, the coffee beans were cleaned and screened. The subsequent process is to dry, which must be carried out on the cement floor or on a thick blanket until the humidity of the coffee beans drops to 12% 14%. And then store it in a special warehouse. Take it out and roast when needed, then grind it into powder. These procedures must be strictly mastered, otherwise, the quality of coffee will be affected.

Of course, in terms of brand promotion, the Japanese contributed to Jamaican coffee.

History of ●

In 1717 King Louis XV of France ordered coffee to be grown in Jamaica, and in the mid-1920 s, the Governor of Jamaica, Nicholas. Nicholas Lawes imported Arabica seeds from Martinique and began to plant them in St. Andrew. To this day, St. Andrews is still one of the three major producers of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, with the other two producing areas: Portland (Portland) and St. Thomas (St.Thomas). In eight years, Jamaica exported more than 375 tons of pure coffee. In 1932, coffee production reached its peak and more than 15000 tons of coffee was harvested. In 1950, the Government of Jamaica established the Jamaica Coffee Industry Committee (the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board), which sets quality standards for Jamaican coffee and oversees the implementation of quality standards to ensure the quality of Jamaican coffee. The Commission awarded special official seals to raw and roasted coffee exported from Jamaica, which is the highest-level national coffee institution in the world. At present, there are six kinds of marks that can represent the origin of Blue Mountain Coffee, such as Mavis Bank Coffee Factory (M.B.C.F), Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative Factory (M.H.C.C.T.), Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Cooperative Factory (P.X.X.S.H.), Coffee Industry Association (Wallenford), Coffee Industry Association (St. John's Peak) and J.A.S.

By 1969, the situation had improved because the use of Japanese loans had improved the quality of production, thus ensuring the market. By now, this kind of coffee has reached the point of being feverishly loved.

By 1981, about 1500 hectares of land in Jamaica had been reclaimed for coffee cultivation, followed by the opening of another 6000 hectares of coffee land. In fact, today's Blue Mountain area is a small area with a planting area of only 6000 hectares, and it is impossible to grow all the coffee marked "Blue Mountain" there. Another 12000 hectares are used to grow two other types of coffee: Alpine Top Coffee and Jamaican Superior Coffee.

Geographical advantages of ●

Blue Mountain Coffee is the most superior coffee in the world, and the weather, geological structure and topography of Jamaica provide an ideal place. The ridge that runs through Jamaica extends to the eastern part of the island, where it is foggy all the year round, with frequent precipitation, pure air and bright sunshine, which reconciles the island of Rain Water. Here, a mixed planting method is used to grow coffee trees to accompany banana trees and avocado trees on terraces. Some small estates are also planted. But even the largest landowners in the region are small-scale growers by international standards, many of whom are small landowners whose families have been working for two centuries. The coffee industry in Jamaica faces a series of problems, such as the impact of hurricanes, leaf rust, increased labour costs and difficult mechanization of terraces. Many small estates and farms are difficult to rationalize.

Since Japan has signed a 30-year contract with the Jamaican Coffee Industry Authority (CIB) to continue to invest in the Jamaican coffee industry, before 2009, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee was basically underwritten by Japanese consortia. For example, in 1992, Jamaica sold 688 tons of Blue Mountain coffee to Japan, 75 tons to the United States and 59 tons to Britain. In 2008, after the contract between the two sides expired, they were facing a global economic crisis, the Japanese economy was in the doldrums and their purchasing power was declining. Coupled with the awakening of Jamaican coffee farmers and their unwillingness to be monopolized by Japanese businessmen, the price of raw coffee beans was raised sharply. So far, Japan's purchase of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has dropped from 90% to less than 60%. This also brought an opportunity to the Hangzhou Coffee and Western Food Industry Association team in Hangzhou, China, which was dominated by @ Blue Mountain Coffee in 2010, and signed the sole distributor of Jamaican raw beans with an annual quota of 70 tons in China.

● classification

There are three varieties of Jamaican coffee: Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee (Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee), Alpine Coffee (Jamaica High Mountain Supreme Coffee Beans) and Jamaican Coffee (Jamaica Prime Coffee Beans). Among them, Blue Mountain Coffee and Alpine Coffee are each divided into four grades. From top to bottom in terms of quality, NO.1, NO.2, NO.3 and PB,PB are round beans. According to CIB standards, only coffee grown above 666m above sea level is called Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, while coffee grown in Jamaica's Blue Mountain area below 666m is called Alpine Coffee, and coffee grown outside the Blue Mountains is called Jamaican Coffee. It turns out that people in the coffee industry in China generally have a wrong understanding that only coffee grown in the Blue Mountains above 1800 meters above sea level can be called Blue Mountain Coffee. In fact, there is only one manor on the top of the Blue Mountains above 1800, that is, Amber, which is of Chinese descent. The owner of the manor is surnamed Lyn (Lin). Originally from Guangdong, China, the manor has a land area of only 30 hectares and its output is very small. Blue Mountain Coffee is mainly distributed in 5 mountainous areas such as John Crow,St.John's Peak,Mossman's Peak,High Peak,Blue Mountian Peak in the Blue Mountains.

● quality control

① Jamaica Coffee Industry Bureau LOGO registers and certifies all the merchants in the entire industry chain of producing, selling and roasting Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee.

② is currently the only certified raw bean agent LOGO in China.

③ Jamaica Coffee Board (CIB) officially registered the JAMAICA BLUE MOUNTAIN trademark, which is marked on all certified raw and cooked beans of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee.

With the globalization of the reputation of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee and the global introduction of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee cultivation, there are many fake Blue Mountain flavor coffee on the market, which has seriously affected the excellent reputation of authentic Blue Mountain Coffee. In recent years, the Jamaican government has strongly advocated the export of Blue Mountain coffee in the country in roasting and original packaging, rather than in the form of raw beans, in order to avoid the impact of counterfeit Blue Mountain flavor coffee. The importance of this measure is that the Jamaican Coffee Bureau can monitor every link of the Blue Mountain Coffee export to ensure the purity and high quality of Blue Mountain Coffee.

● quality standard

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is a Typica with low quantity and good quality, which belongs to the best variety in Arabica. The annual harvest time is from June to November. Generally, hand picking is used. After picking, it goes through the processes of washing, peeling, fermentation, dehydration, sun drying, shelling and baking in order to get a high quality ripe blue mountain coffee beans. In the process of raw bean processing, there are special personnel responsible for quality supervision in each step. For the very precious Blue Mountain Coffee, the packing and transportation mode adopted by the Jamaican government is also different. Unlike other coffees, Blue Mountain Coffee is not packed and transported in cloth bags at 60kg / bag, but in wooden barrels at the standard of 70kg / barrel. Jamaica is also the last country to still transport coffee in traditional wooden barrels. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans must obtain a certificate of quality recognition issued by the Jamaican Coffee Industry Committee, which is the only body in Jamaica authorized to issue such a certificate. And each batch of export will have special quality supervision experts responsible for sampling, baking, grinding and brewing coffee, and finally make a judgment on whether to meet the standard.

The Jamaica Coffee Industry Authority stipulates that the defect rate of raw beans exported should not be higher than 3%, the moisture content should be maintained at about 13%, and the roasted bean yield of Blue Mountain Coffee is generally maintained at 83%. According to the raw bean-shaped size of Blue Mountain Coffee, the blue mountain coffee with more than 17 mesh is NO.1,16 and above is NO.2,15 and above is NO.3. Therefore, the NO.1 fresh raw beans of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, which we usually see, are dark green, waxy, smooth, plump and round, like emeralds from Central America. And cooked beans, each batch of export, will pass the CIB quality control manager cup test after qualified can be released from customs, otherwise it will be returned or destroyed.

● export quota

According to Jamaica's CIB export statistics in 2004, 85 per cent of the limited Blue Mountain NO.1 quotas were allocated to Japan, 5 per cent of the United States, 5 per cent of Europe and 5 per cent of other countries. However, in the global consumption distribution of authentic Blue Mountain NO.1, according to the International Coffee Association (ICO), China accounts for 15% of the consumption of Blue Mountain coffee, which stunns the world. The reason is that some shares of Blue Mountain coffee in Japan, Australia and Europe are exported to China through direct branches.

The above differences in export quotas and consumption distribution are extremely embarrassing for the Jamaican government. The asymmetrical Blue Mountain coffee export quota keeps most of the profits in trading enterprises in countries such as Japan, and the Jamaican coffee industry has not benefited from it. The key to the shift was in 2005, when the Jamaican Minister of Agriculture made it clear that Blue Mountain Coffee should be more roasted in Jamaica, directly through quota allocation, preferring to circulate directly from Jamaica to consumer countries.

The means on which the Jamaican government relies on changing export quotas come from Wallenford estates, which are directly controlled by the government, and the wallenford Blue Mountain 1 quota means that the Jamaican Coffee Agency (CIB) endorses the quota target for the country or the company.

● on the Blue Mountains of Jamaica in China

Because of its high price, Blue Mountain Coffee has a relatively fixed consumer group, and its market is mainly concentrated in Japan, followed by some European and American countries. Coffee beans are full in shape and slightly larger than ordinary beans. Its taste is very subtle, sour, fragrant, mellow, sweetness is uniform and strong, slightly bitter, harmonious taste, excellent flavor, suitable for individual coffee. It uses medium roasting (Medium Roast) to maximize the original taste of the coffee and enhance its aftertaste. In China, under the influence of coffee culture in Japan and Taiwan, coffee roasters generally like to roast the Blue Mountain moderately shallow, about 10-15 seconds after the explosion. However, the first person of @ Blue Mountain Coffee believes that 80% of the flavor and taste of blue mountain coffee comes from roasting. If blue mountain coffee is roasted too lightly, although you can taste more obvious complex aromas such as fruit acid and floral aroma, the aroma is not rich enough and the taste is not full enough. In particular, the aroma of blue mountain tropical nuts can not be well reflected. Therefore, if roasted too shallowly, some flavor characteristics of blue mountain coffee will be lost.

In recent years, with the improvement of domestic coffee consumption, a large number of cafes have begun to supply all kinds of coffee with the word "Blue Mountain Coffee". Although its price is only a fraction or more than a tenth of the price of authentic Blue Mountain coffee, its flavor is often thousands of miles away. Especially in the past 10 years, the media often expose fake Blue Mountain Coffee, which makes many consumers shy away from Blue Mountain Coffee.

Blue Mountain Coffee can maintain its top status today, which is closely related to the local management policy. In 1932, Jamaica reduced the island's dependence on sugar exports through policies to encourage coffee production. Unlike most coffee-producing countries, the local government does not plant a large number of high-quality and poor-quality coffee in order to increase the output, but prefer to sacrifice the output to ensure the quality. Therefore, Jamaica is one of the countries with low coffee production in the world. Brazil, the world's largest coffee exporter, produces 30 million bags of coffee a year, while Blue Mountain produces only about 40, 000 bags a year.

● tasting Blue Mountain

Blue Mountain Coffee is like a lady. You should appreciate its unique charm. Under the guidance of a good mood, an European-style coffee cup, the dense aroma, suddenly curl into your nasal cavity, you can not help but take a sip, taste carefully, that wisp of wreathed taste, slowly drifting from your throat, deep into your viscera. At the moment, you might as well in the melodious blues music, in the pure fragrance, with a cup of Blue Mountain Coffee to cleanse the soul and warm the soul. Drink a cup of Blue Mountain, is to read a poem, listen to a song, dance a perfect dance, and the protagonist is yourself.

Generally speaking, Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee uses medium roasting (Medium Roast), which is suitable for individual coffee, so that it can retain its flavor to the maximum extent. The unique sour, bitter, sweet and mellow of 100% pure Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, especially its rich and unique fruit aroma, is perfectly balanced. The producing area of high altitude makes it with a little high-quality sour taste, and a very slight bitterness is short and does not retain in the mouth. Into the throat, it turns into a slightly sweet feeling, and the mellow throat rhyme is even more satisfying, so that the taste of vision, smell and taste can be enjoyed perfectly at the same time. Coffee lovers all over the world are fascinated by it! Its caffeine content is very low, only about 1x3 of ordinary varieties of coffee, which meets the health requirements of modern people. As a result, the World Coffee Organization believes that Blue Mountain Coffee is "the only coffee in the world that cannot find defects."

● Jamaica Coffee Bean brand recommendation

Front Street Coffee roasted Jamaican Coffee-[Blue Mountain NO.1 Coffee beans] is fully guaranteed in terms of brand and quality. And more importantly, the performance-to-price ratio is extremely high, a pack of half a pound 100 grams, the price is only about 158 yuan. According to the calculation of 15 grams of powder per cup of coffee, a bag of coffee can make six cups of coffee, which costs only about 25 yuan per cup, which is recommended by conscience compared to the price sold in cafes for hundreds of yuan a cup.

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