The difference between Blue Mountain Coffee and fake Blue Mountain Coffee are there any real blue mountain beans in China

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I saw a piece of news on CCTV today that most of the Blue Mountain coffee sold in the world is fake.

In fact, as people in the coffee industry, this is no longer news. The various "Blue Mountains" that I have come into contact with in recent years have really puzzled many people. Let me talk about the "Blue Mountain" coffee I have seen and drunk.

The best Blue Mountain Coffee

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee (Jamaica Blue Mountain) is recognized as the most perfect coffee in the world. There are several reasons for the high price:

1. The balance of taste is the best. This is also the most important reflection of the price of Blue Mountain Coffee. After all, coffee is for drinking. In my personal experience, under the premise of proper baking, the bitterness of Blue Mountain is very light, sour fruit, nutty, flower and charcoal can be tasted. Huigan (the sweetness left in the mouth after swallowing) is also obvious. There is almost no unpleasant odor.

It embodies what I often say: good coffee is not bitter. Isn't it amazing that we can taste such a rich taste without adding any seasoning to the coffee?

Over the past two years, civet coffee is more fashionable, and the price is several times that of Blue Mountain coffee. But in terms of taste, I think Blue Mountain is the absolute king.

2. the natural conditions are the most perfect. Coffee trees are very demanding on natural conditions. There are requirements for temperature, rainfall, wind, sunshine intensity and so on. In particular, it is most sensitive to altitude, and only high-altitude areas can grow high-quality coffee. The Blue Mountains of Jamaica is one of the few perfect natural environments for growing coffee in the world. This ensures the uniqueness and rarity of Blue Mountain Coffee.

For example, blue mountain coffee is also grown in Yunnan, China, but it tastes very different from the authentic blue mountain coffee from Jamaica. Apart from the problem of planting level, natural conditions are an insurmountable gap.

3. Supply always falls short of demand. Blue Mountain Coffee was not well known a few decades ago. With the rapid rise of Japanese economy, Japanese coffee culture is developing in the direction of boutique and high-end. A large amount of investment from Japan has prompted the coffee farms in Blue Mountain to strive for excellence, adopting the world's highest standards in seed selection, planting, refining and screening of defective beans.

For example, among the most common top coffee beans in the world, the proportion of defective beans is about 2%, as is the case in most coffee growing countries. I once sampled the top blue mountain coffee (Blue Mountain No.1) used in our store, and the percentage of defective beans was 0.1%.

There are several farms in the Blue Mountains that grow coffee exclusively for the British royal family and are not for sale. More than 90% of the rest of Blue Mountain coffee is sold to Japan, only 10% to Europe and the United States. So the real Blue Mountain Coffee is relatively rare outside Japan.

Note: the Japanese economy has been in a recession in the past year or two, and the demand for Blue Mountains has fallen sharply, while the Chinese economy looks very beautiful, so the supply of Blue Mountains in China has loosened slightly.

Fake Blue Mountain Coffee

Because of the high price of Blue Mountain, counterfeiters are flocking to it. It is not difficult to imagine that many "ideas" come from Chinese. There are four most common fake blue mountains:

1. Colombia. Colombia is a kind of high-quality coffee, and the taste of this coffee is very close to that of Blue Mountain. The main difference is that Colombian fruit tastes more sour than the Blue Mountains; at the same time, some Colombian coffee has a hint of wood and the like. It's hard for people who don't drink coffee to tell the difference. Colombian coffee is called "the most cost-effective coffee" precisely because it is popular, but the price is not high. Therefore, the most common fake blue mountain is Colombian coffee.

2. Yunnan "Blue Mountain" coffee. The quality of Yunnan coffee has improved rapidly in recent years, and more and more people begin to like Yunnan coffee. However, due to the limitations of natural conditions and immature planting technology, there is still a huge gap between the quality of coffee and "established stars" such as Blue Mountain. This fake blue mountain taste is very different from the real blue mountain. In addition to the poor balance of taste, miscellaneous smell is also very obvious. Coffee drinkers are easy to identify.

3. Mix the coffee. There is nothing wrong with blending coffee itself, and the quality of blending can reflect the level of processors. But it is wrong not to explain it to consumers. A cup of coffee to use dozens of coffee beans, want to use several kinds of coffee to match the rich flavor of the Blue Mountain, and steadily reflected in a cup of coffee, it is almost impossible to complete the task. Most of the so-called "Blue Mountain flavor" coffee is blended. For example, a certain brand of Blue Mountain Coffee in some supermarkets in Beijing will be found to be blended if you read the instructions carefully. Otherwise, with this volume, all Blue Mountain Coffee is not enough for the brand. This reminds me of the popular "Chinese turtle essence" many years ago, in which only one turtle is put in a large water tank.

We also have blue mountain coffee in our store. I made it myself. Blue mountain beans account for more than 50%. The words "Blue Mountain matching" will be clearly marked on the list. It not only retains the flavor of Blue Mountain, but also reduces the production cost and price, so it is very popular with guests.

4. The Blue Mountains of Cuba. It is a pity to call the Cuban Blue Mountains fake Blue Mountains. This coffee, formerly known as Cuban Crystal Mountain Coffee (Cuba Crystal Mountain), is also a kind of high-quality coffee. It's just that the popularity is not as high as Blue Mountain. Now some people in China call Crystal Mountain coffee "Cuba Blue Mountain" in order to sell high prices, which reminds me of a place in Yunnan that changed the name of the city to tea in order to promote a certain kind of tea. Has the Cuban people also learned this trick?

The price of Blue Mountain Coffee

Coffee beans need to be roasted from raw beans (roasted beans) before they can be further ground and extracted. The retail price of Lanshan raw beans is about 900 yuan / kg, and the price of baked beans is 1500-2000 yuan / kg. A cup of coffee needs about 10 grams of coffee beans, so the cost of coffee beans in a cup of Blue Mountain coffee is between 10 yuan and 20 yuan. At present, the operating costs of domestic cafes are mainly rent and labor costs. If the price of a cup of Blue Mountain in a cafe is 28 or 38 yuan, it is generally unlikely to use real Blue Mountain coffee beans. Considering the main costs mentioned above, a cup of genuine Blue Mountain coffee is usually sold for about 100 yuan per cup in cafes.

Purchase

The management of a brand cafe mentioned in CCTV is almost in a vacuum, so it is impossible to talk about the quality of coffee. However, many small-brand coffee shops in China have always adhered to the concept of making boutique coffee. There are many such shops in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, which need to be found carefully.

Now there are blue mountain coffee beans, coffee powder and instant coffee imported from Japan in some supermarkets in Huatang shopping malls. My shop has used this brand of Blue Mountain Coffee, which is of high quality. I recommend it to you. In some areas inhabited by foreigners, especially in areas with more Japanese, there are also real Blue Mountain Coffee sales in supermarkets.

There is a mixture of fish and dragons in the wholesale food market, and I do not recommend non-professionals to buy it.