Jamaican blue mountain coffee
This coffee has rock star status in the coffee world at least amongst the general public. It is a mountain grown coffee as Jamaica is alone in the Caribbean as a region that has mountains so this is good, right? But experts are not so sure about the legend's taste. In fact, they claim it is a bit of a fable that it is such a great coffee. They claim that you can do better in Guatamala or even Mexico and certainly Costa Rica far outshines the Jamaican legend. The fact that it is relatively rare and costs a lot compared to other countries keeps the uninitiated thinking that this is one mighty find cup of coffee. There are a few small estates that do produce an excellent blue mountain but they are few and far between and this coffee is really expensive. And it’s really just snob appeal because even the best single estate legendary bean is no better than you can get elsewhere for less. And worse there are other so called “mountain blends” like Jamaica High Mountain which contain nary a blue bean…so when buying this coffee beware of imitations and even the best is not better than other fine coffees. The conclusion I’ve come to is that if you are looking for ways how to make coffee great - it’s far more likely you are going to get another bean that’s better tasting and less expensive from another country. Sad but true. |
