Coffee

There is so much more to drinking coffee than just knowing whether you want a cappuccino or a shot of espresso. What really makes the drink are the beans, and the art of growing good beans is akin to the difference between a bottle of cheap wine and the finest Brunello from Montalcino.

Furthermore, coffee beans are a bit of a mystery to a lot people since they only grow in specific regions, due to their finicky nature and need for specific weather patterns. Here is a break-down of some of the most popular beans, and why they make such great coffee.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
Ever enjoyed a drink at a bar that included Tia Maria? Then you know the secret of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, which is known for its surprisingly mild flavor and serious lack of bitter aftertaste. In addition to flavoring one of the tastiest coffee liqueurs around, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee also is brewed as regular coffee. The coffee beans grow between Kingston and Port Maria in the Blue Mountains, where a cool and misty climate with a huge annual rainfall ensures the soil is just right to grow these special beans.

Colombian Coffee
One of the biggest producers of coffee beans is Columbia, a country with a perfect environment for growing different varieties of Arabica beans, like Caturra, Typica, and Bourbon. The coffee grown in Columbia is imported by many countries around the world, like Japan, The United States, Australia, and Holland. Initially, harvested beans were roasted with charcoal in saucepans at the very beginning of Columbia’s long-going historical trade and harvesting.

Aloha Island Coffee Pods
Some of the best coffee in the world comes from Hawaii, really the only place in the States where coffee beans thrive. The type of beans, Kona, come in many varieties, but the absolute best are produced at a private coffee plantation on the Big Island of Hawaii, located right on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the famous volcano. It is the volcanic soil, coupled with rainfall and tropical sunshine, that makes these beans grow so well here, resulting in a cup of coffee that is incredibly smooth and not at all acidic.

Kopi Luwak
Always wanted to try a coffee made from beans that have already been eaten and digested? Well, you might have done that inadvertently, with Kopi Luwak coffee beans. Grown in Java, the coffee is some of the most popular around, all thanks to Asian Palm Civits, which love the coffee beans, eat them, and then digest them in a remarkable process that adds more flavor for us humans later. Apologies in advance if coffee was just ruined for you forever.

Remember, while different countries all produce different types of beans, it does not mean that the names on this list are the only type of coffee bean grown in that particular country. Furthermore, it is possible that many of these beans have shown up in different names and varieties through United States importers.

For socially-conscious consumers, one of the best things you can do, before deciding you absolutely must try a type of coffee bean, is to see if there’s an organization that produces and imports said beans in a fair-trade way. Harvesting coffee is tough work, and it is a shame how unfairly paid a number of these production countries are, especially considering how much the beans draw around the world.

Damian Papworth has always loved to start the day with a coffee. He recently purchased an 8 cup coffee maker which he wrote about on his website, One Cup Coffee Makers.

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Jamaican coffee is one of the most expensive, classy and sought-after coffees in the entire world. It comes from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Jamaica blue mountain coffee is sheltered internationally as an officially recognized trademark implying that only coffee qualified by the ‘Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica’ can be branded as such. It comes from an established cultivating region in the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica, and its nurturing is supervised by the ‘Coffee Industry Board.’

To be called Jamaican coffee, the beans are required to grow above 2000 feet and normally, the Jamaican coffee plantations grow above 5000 feet all over the region. The higher the elevation of the plantation, the higher is the value, quality and demand of the coffee. The most preferred Jamaica coffee is roasted on an open fire in a pan.

Coffee connoisseurs describe Jamaican coffee as rich and savory, with low acidity, a tinge of sweetness and a bold aroma. A pound of this coffee in a coffee shop usually costs around $45. In Jamaica, it costs from $15 – $25 per pound. Other types of Jamaican coffee include High Mountain Supreme, Jamaica Prime and Jamaica Select. These are also as famous as the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. Jamaican coffee is in a class all by itself in the world of coffee. While Italian coffee makes up most of the widely used types of coffee, Jamaican coffee is the most widely desired. Sadly, most coffee lovers can’t afford it.

The Jamaican Coffee has also done wonders to the Jamaican government by increasing exports in huge bounds. Many countries have attempted cultivating similar coffee plantations, but there is no comparison to the original Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica.

Coffee provides detailed information on Coffee, Coffee Makers, Gourmet Coffee, Coffee Shops and more. Coffee is affiliated with Gourmet Flavored Coffee.

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If you are passionate about drinking the very best coffee, give Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee a try.

What is Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee?  

Although other Caribbean islands grow coffee, certainly Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is the best, and the most well-known. The name Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is a registered trademark of Jamaica’s Coffee Industry Board. Connoisseurs characterize Jamaica Blue Mountain as a perfect combination of acidity, body and aroma. It is rich and flavorful, with no bitterness and a hint of chocolatey sweetness – a very smooth, mild coffee. Some say it is also very low in caffeine.  

Blue Mountain is not a brand, but a coffee-growing region. At the Eastern end of Jamaica, the Blue Mountains form the backbone of the island and are among the highest mountains in the Caribbean, rising to 7,402 feet. To be called Jamaica Blue Mountain, the beans must be grown at altitudes between about 3,000 and 5,500 feet in the parishes of Saint Andrew, Saint Mary, Saint Thomas or Portland. Above 5,500 feet, the lushly wooded forest, which is home to over 800 species of plants and more than 200 species of birds, is maintained by the Jamaican Government as a Forest Reserve. (By the way, there are great hiking trails throughout this area.) Beans grown at lower elevations are called Jamaica Low Mountain or Jamaica High Mountain, based on elevation, and, while they may produce fine coffee, they tend to be more acidic and cannot legitimately be called Jamaican Blue Mountain.  

There is usually a cool misty cloud cover hanging over the Blue Mountains and the region gets about 200 inches of rain each year. This constant mist gives the mountains a bluish hue, which is where they derive their colorful name. Combined with volcanic soil rich in potash, nitrogen and phosphorus and good drainage, it makes for an ideal coffee-growing region (think about the climatic similarities with the Hawaiian Kona coffee-growing region). This perfect combination of factors causes the beans to mature more slowly (as many as 10 months to harvest), developing more character and producing a larger, harder bean with more intense flavor.  This is compared to other regions in the world where the beans mature in 5 or 6 months. Most of the coffee trees are of the Arabica Typica variety which produces delicious coffee.  

History  

Coffee is not native to Jamaica. The beans were brought to the island in 1728 by the governor at that time, Sir Nicholas Lawes, and coffee growing began as a plantation slave crop. Jamaica was able to produce such high quality beans that the industry grew quickly, resulting in more than 600 coffee plantations by 1814. After slavery was abolished, many former slaves acquired their own land and began to grow their own coffee. This caused a dramatic decline in the industry primarily due to labor shortages and, by 1850, only about 180 coffee plantations remained in operation.   Revived in the 1870s, some (mostly white) plantation owners started designating their coffee as Blue Mountain to distinguish it from the beans being produced by the emancipated slaves. These estate owners had access to better processing equipment and benefitted from their connections to merchants in colonial Britain (in power at the time), so their crops could be sold at the highest prices. Their reputation for high quality caused a high demand around the world even though this Blue Mountain coffee was only a small part of Jamaica’s total production.  

Jamaica’s coffee production has suffered many hardships caused by unscrupulous dealers, hurricanes and lack of organization. But in the 1950s and 1960s Japan developed a taste for their coffee, forming relationships with growers and processors, and investing in the production of the coffee crop. Today, Japan buys over 80% of the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee crop under contract, adding to its rarity in world coffee markets.  

Regulation

Responding to the various problems, the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (C.I.B.) was established in 1953 to reorganize and develop the industry, control the quality of the crop and provide assistance to farmers. Quality was once again the number one priority.   The Coffee Industry Board carefully examines crops, evaluating bean size and other qualities to determine whether or not the coffee will be certified, and how to grade it. Grade One Jamaica Blue Mountain is the finest coffee. Today, there are many coffee cooperatives consisting mainly of small farmers with plots between ½ to 10 acres. Jamaica’s farmers send all their beans to designated pulperies and are paid per box by CIB. Once certified, the coffee can be sent for roasting to a CIB-licensed roaster who is also the only entity authorized to market Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee in Jamaica and around the world.  

In addition to its use for brewed coffee, the beans are the flavor base of Tia Maria coffee liqueur, another delicious Jamaican product.  

Because of the restricted geographical range where it’s grown, Jamaica Blue Mountain is available in limited quantities and can sometimes be difficult to find and rather expensive. Its production of about 2,000,000 pounds per year makes Jamaica a small fry in comparison to the large coffee producing countries of the world like Brazil, Columbia, Guatemala and Costa Rica. About 65% of the total production is exported, with about 95% of that going to Japan. That doesn’t leave much for the rest of us and it explains the high prices this great coffee commands!  

Its coffee exports earn between $25 and $30 million a year – far less than its other exports like sugar, bauxite and rum. But Jamaica can rightfully say it produces the premier coffee of the world!

Visit http://www.keepitjiggy.com for loads of information about Jamaica, its history, its food, travel information, reggae music, its artists, and resources for locating those hard-to-find collectibles in the genre.

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If you always thought that Starbucks coffee was good, then to you the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee will definitely be extraordinary. Blue Mountain Coffee is a treat you will love to deserve. The best lots of blue mountain coffee are noted for their mild flavor and lack of bitterness. What makes this coffee so much better than all the other coffee has something to do with the unique growing, harvesting or roasting processes. Unfortunately, a lot of coffee is wrongly labeled as “Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee” as they are sometimes blended with inferior grades of coffee and sold to unsuspecting customers for lower prices. So be sure to get the real stuffs to taste the goodness of this coffee has for you.

Jamaican Blue Mountain ranks right up there with Kona as the most overrated coffee on the market today. Broadly speaking, coffee harvested from the parishes of Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Portland and Saint Mary, and grown at elevations between 1,500 and 3,000 feet, may be considered Blue Mountain coffee. Coffee grown below 1,500 foot elevation is called Jamaica Supreme or Jamaica Low Mountain. This fine gourmet coffee has to be certified by the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (the highest regulatory authority for coffee in Jamaica) and is widely recognized in the industry and by coffee connoisseurs by name for its smooth delicate taste, and unmistakable aroma.

When you place your order for this coffee, always be sure to order freshly roasted Grade 1, export quality Blue Mountain Coffee beans. The fresh ground beans are the main factor that made a significant difference in taste. On the other hand, although freshness and variety counts, it’s the roast that matters the most. When buying the coffee, do buy those that are vacuum packed in one-way valve bags to further ensure quality and freshness. If you are a regular drinker of good coffee, you can even consider buying good high grade single crop coffee beans in bulk as it is far cheaper and it also ensure freshness from the roaster.

If drinking premium coffee is your area of expertise, then you will find that Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee will definitely make your taste buds happier than any other coffee in the world. It is a great coffee day for Fridays when one is catching up on paperwork and mindless data entry. Starbucks coffee is good, Dunkin Donuts coffee is good, but Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is one coffee that belongs in the category of true excellence in coffee.

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Christopher Wen is the webmaster for http://www.greenhealthcoffeeclub.com/ where he provides you articles, info, and news on coffee and coffee related info.

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A cup of good coffee on the breakfast table is always a great way to welcome the morning. Since its inception centuries ago, coffee has become the most popular beverage and the world’s most traded and sought-after commodities.

Over the years, many coffee variants have originated from different places, which paved the way for gourmet coffee to have a niche in the world market.

Aside from the basic Robusta and Arabica variants, there are other rare coffee variants which gained a good following from coffee aficionados.

First, there is the Civet coffee or Kopi Luwak, which is made from coffee berries which were eaten and excreted by the common Palm Civet. This rare process takes place only in countries like the Philippines, Sumatra, Java, Indonesia, Vietnam and India, making Civet coffee one of the more expensive variants.

Kona coffee from Hawaii, Turkish, Colombian and Maraba coffee are some other premium variants which have become popular for coffee drinkers the world over.

‘Jamaica’s Blue Mountains’

The island nation of Jamaica, situated within the Caribbean Sea, has more than just gorgeous beaches to offer.

The amazing Blue Mountains are located at the eastern side of Jamaica, and this is where the famous Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is grown.

Blue Mountains is a Jamaican region where there is a wide range of hills with an almost permanent mist covering the hills giving it a bluish hue, thus the name.

This mountain range boasts of a National Park with lush rainforests and rich vegetation. It is also home to hundreds of plants and animal species unique to the region.

The upper slopes and the summit are strictly preserved as a forest. The lower slopes, with its rich, fertile soil and ideal climate, serve as the perfect setting for coffee cherries to be grown and harvested from the Blue Mountains.

‘Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee: A Taste of Heaven on Earth’

Most coffee plants rely on the climate of the region where they are planted, and this produces the distinctive flavor found in the coffee cherries.

In the Blue Mountains, the tallest mountain range in the island of Jamaica, the following factors contribute to the unique flavor of the coffee:

- the hot climate

- the altitude of the lower mountain peaks where the coffee plants are grown and harvested

- plenty of rainfall to water the coffee plants

- the rich and fertile soil of the mountains where the plants are grown

The Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is considered to be the world’s finest and rarest coffee variant. Words cannot describe the taste of this premier coffee blend.

A 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has this distinctively rich taste and aroma. Compared to other coffee variants, this has a milder flavor which is less bitter yet a little sweet, giving it that smooth, clean taste.

Because of the high quality expected of this coffee variant, the island country of Jamaica built the Jamaican Coffee Industry Board to maintain the world-class quality of every coffee bean produced in the island.

The tedious and time-consuming labor of coffee growers in planting, harvesting and processing the Blue Mountain coffee is truly amazing.

The Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is indeed a world-class variant that coffee enthusiasts around the world can sip and enjoy – up to the last drop.

Dave Poon is an accomplished writer who specializes in the latest in Food and Drink. For more information regarding Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee please drop by at http://www.hotcoffeeplus.com/

Author: Dave Poon
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