When we decide to break open a bag of 100% Jamaica Blue Mountain, we will post the information on Facebook, Twitter, and the Events section of our website.

What is 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee?

This Travel Channel episode of Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations - Jamaica has a segment on Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. We've cued it up so you can see what Jamaica Blue Mountain is all about.

National Geographic has a great article on Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee
http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/coffee-tom-clynes-text

There are several widely known and recognized speciality coffee zones of the world: the Kona district of Hawaii, the Antigua district of Guatemala, the Yirgacheffe, Harrar, and Sidamo districts in Ethiopia, and of course the Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. Each of these zones produce beans of high quality with vastly different characteristics.

Keble Munn (The Blue Mountain Coffee Man) laid the ground work for what is now know as "Specialty Coffee." In fact, Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee beans, and Munn's passion for a superior tasting coffee, laid out the economic model that is now used the world over when trying to create recognized specialty coffee districts.

Since 1950, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee only comes from a legally defined zone in the Jamaica Blue Mountains. A special government agency, called the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, regulations the estates and farmers and conducts physical inspections of the picked beans before they are exported to the world. This agency and their process guarantees an extraordinarily high quality product.

A General Overview of the Life of a Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Bean

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee goes through a long process of inspection and cultivation before a coffee factory receives it for processing. One of the reasons it has such a high cost.

Once the berries are cherry ripe, meaning their color is completely red, The Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is hand picked by farmers. These hand picked berries then go through a water floating process on each farm, which allows the farmers to discarded the undesirable underdeveloped or insect damaged beans. Then Farmers bring the good coffee to one of the collection stations in the Blue Mountain range where it is floated again to ensure only pre-floated coffee is received into the factory.

Collectors visit the collection station depots daily and collect freshly floated coffee for pulping at the factory. To ensure the coffee is pulped as soon as possible after the picking, when it arrives at the factory in the late afternoon it begins "the process" immediately.

The coffee is placed in large holding tanks and thoroughly inspected to eliminate any over fermented, underdeveloped, or insect infested cherries. They are then washed to remove the mucilage, a sugary substance on the outer section of the bean, which leaves a creamy brown bean known as the wet parchment.

The wet parchment is then placed on large concrete slabs, called barbecues, for drying. This can take as long as five (5) days depending on sunlight conditions. During peak rainy seasons mechanical dryers are also used. The drying process involves getting the moisture in the beans to very specific levels. During this time more assessments are made to ensure only top quality beans make it through.

The dried parchment is then bagged and taken to the warehouse where it will remain for at least ten (10) weeks. This is known as the "resting period," and is a very critical stage of the processing where certain specifically unique flavor and aroma characteristics emerge in the beans.

After the beans have rested they have the "husk" (outer shell) removed in a process called hulling. The bean is then polished to remove the silver skin on the outer layer.

Next the beans are ready for sorting and are graded (according to size and certain specific characteristics -- later verified by the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board) as: Grade I, Grade II, Grade III, and Peaberry beans. A peaberry is a monocotyledonous, or closed bean.

Next the beans must meet stringent sampling tests regarding taste, body, and color.

After which, the beans undergo one final inspection, done by hand, to eliminate any defects.

Finally the beans are then loaded into barrels made from Aspen wood and taken to the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board, who inspect them and label them as 100% Jamaica Blue Mountain® Coffee beans. The 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is now ready for export.

How Café Mark Brews 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

To properly manage the freshness of our stock of 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, when we open a bag at Café Mark, we brew the entire bag on demand by hand using a French Press, that very morning. This allows us to provide each cup with the high quality taste and freshness that you would expect from the world’s most desired coffee.

Many coffee shops and retail outlets sell or brew High Mountain Coffee, Jamaican Coffee, and or "Jamaica Blue Mountain Blends," which are less than 10% Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. These just are not the same. So the next time we offer 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, we hope you stop in for a cup.