Blue Mountain coffee is well-known for it’s rarity, highly desired product find in the market, many coffee drinker would like to pay for the extra premium to taste one of the most premium coffee in the worlds which caused it price is whooping at USD 150 – 300/kg at retail.
Why it is expensive and rare?
As it names suggested, Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee (JBMC) is only able to be certified as BLUE MOUNTAIN coffee if the coffee is grown within the BLUE MOUNTAIN AREA which is St. Thomas, St. Andrew and Portland . (note : not all Jamaica coffee are grown in that area) with the altitude of 940m – 1524m above sea level which will create a misty cloudy condition, causing it to takes up to 10 months from bloom to harvest. This region is also sitting at the fertile volcano soil that give them the unique characteristic of JBMC.
Due to the high altitude, not only it takes long time to harvest, it also incurred intensive labour to harvest and transport it from farm to producer. Those trees are not planted on a flat area but it can go as steep as 70 degrees which increased the risk, difficulty for workers to pick the ripe cherries. Bear in mind that not all cherries ripe at the same time so they might need to go back again and again to pick those ripe cherries.
Tight quality control by certification body, to ensure every kilo that exported are top-notch. As it was graded by size and checked for defect to filter out what is good and not. Secondly it, it is sorted by hand through skilled worker.
80% of the product are imported by Japan. But the total production from Blue Mountain as of 2019, is only 180 tonnes. So let’s minus out the 80% to Japan. We are sharing 20% of it, which is 36 tonnes globally.
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How to buy authentic blue mountain coffee?
Whenever there is a huge profitability product, there will be counterfeit, scam around it. JBM coffee is no stranger in this situation, many retailer, shop, try their very best to lure customer pay for the premium but getting the normal stuff. Some will even come out with confusing name that make you think that is JBM coffee. Here are some tips to get the authentic certified JBM coffee.
Look for the Certification.
JBM is govern and protected by JACRA (Jamaica Agricultural Regulatory Authority) Since 1st January 2018. Coffee Marks Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of JACRA is the owner of the Jamaica Blue Mountain® and Jamaican High Mountain Supreme® trademarks and is responsible for the integrity and licensing of the brand. Who responsible for
- Licensing of processors and dealers of coffee
- Establishing/reviewing quality standards for coffee
- Certifying coffee for export and sole exporter of green coffee beans
- Providing advisory services to farmers and other industry stakeholders
Avoid buy blended JBM coffee
As far as JBM is protected by JACRA. There is loophole for blended JBM coffee. Because they can mixed up the authentic JBM coffee with others unknown source, named with some fancy JBM Blend. With only as low as 1% of the bag are real JBM coffee but charge you with a premium. After all why we pay for the premium is because we want to enjoy the true flavour of that region.
Ask them question
Don’t be afraid to ask for proof of certification. Because if I’m holding a batch of certified JBM coffee bean. I will be proud to share with you my paperwork trail in fact I will be happy to connect with you more to share our passion of coffee as well. Afterall getting it is not easy come by as well.