Jamaican Blue Mountain

This is a coffee with mixed experiences, a very bad one and a very good one. First the one in Belgium, which was bad, then the one in Shenzhen, China, which was truly a top experience.

Blue Mountain, hailing from the "Blue Mountain region" just north of the Jamaican capital "Kingston", is a relatively mild and not so bitter coffee, at least, that is what everyone says.
Three quality ratings exist, but most roasters do not offer proper traceability. I can not say which Blue Mountain I tried in the past.
Enter "Koffie Onan" in Leuven, Belgium, this is my hometown, so I was excited to go visit a local coffeeshop. Located right next to the "oude markt", it was a sunny wednesday when I entered their shop.

Originally I had planned to drink a Kopi Luwak, after checking their website, it was priced at 7 euro, but when I arrived, they told me it was 17... This was my first impression of them, a rather bad one. Kopi Luwak may be great coffee, I didnt intend to spend 17 on a single cup of espresso, so I opted for the Blue Mountain instead. I paid 7 euro for a lungo, not so bad after all, I thought. I got my cup, picked up a milk and sugar from the self service counter and left.

Outside, sat down on a terrace, took off the lid and smelled the goods. I couldnt really grasp the smell, so I decided to take a nip. My face changed, this was a stale and horrible coffee, it tasted like it had been roasted more than a year before I drank it. I added the milk and sugar but to my own disappointment, they only made things worse. This coffee was stale and extremely bitter, clear signs of being "past its prime".

My first review at the time, I think I gave it a incomplete number, I think it was a 3 out of 10, not intending to drink it again. The decision not to drink it a second time, mostly based on the price and the horrible aftertaste that was stuck in my mouth for a little more than a day... I said to a friend at the time: "if this was supposed to be a Grand-cru, I would rather drink Senseo!"

Ok, so now, let us jump 1 year into the future, I am visiting my future inlaws for the first time and my fiancee takes me to Shenzhen, HuaQiangbei to be precise.

I love gadgets of all kinds, so I ended up buying my first tablet there, the Epad, long before I got my ipads, even before they were out on the market, but that is another story. Next to South Gate, you have a big street filled with snack merchants, my fiancee said this was the place for us to have a snack, because it would never disappoint. I got 2 bapao, 3 chicken sticks, ... and after I was done, I was longing for a coffee. On to a little street vendor, where I asked for her best coffee. This is not my habit, I just couldnt read the pricelist. She replied I was going to be getting a Blue Mountain and I immediately stopped her, asking if she was going to be getting a Jamaican, a Kenyan or a Indonesian Blue Mountain, there are 3 types of Blue Mountain and I had already disliked the Jamaican one. I was getting the Jamaican one, to my dismay. I ended up taking it after all, because she only charged 1 euro for it, which was expensive for China, but not for me.

I was sceptical and was expecting the same horrible taste again, but hoped a little that the Chinese water would prove a better ground for making this coffee. I smelled it, I think I recalled a different scent, might have been my imagination too. Then on to the tasting itself.

Surprisingly, this was great coffee, a little bitterness resided in the aftertaste, but nothing like what I remembered from the bad experience back home. It was like a completely different coffee, soft and mild, I enjoyed this one. I actually enjoyed it a lot, even my fiancee noticed how much I was liking this one. I let her try too, keeping in mind that she usually hates coffee. She called it a little bitter, but with a sweet aftertaste, which must have been the cane sugar I used to sweeten it up for her. Then it was time for a second nip for myself, turns out the cane sugar really added a sweet lingering feeling in the mouth, something I would remember for future referencing with the Blue Mountain beans.

I decided to ask the lady if I could buy some beans to take home with me, She let me buy a pound worth of beans, she took out the typical wooden crates these beans are sold in, weighed the coffee carefully and I had a pound worth of Blue Mountain for home. Upon my arrival back in belgium, I took the coffee, divided it over 3 plastic bags, kept them in the freezer for a while. I did purposely leave out around 50 grams, to verify my assumptions. I put these in an airtight container for 12 months, to check if this coffee got more bitter over time (like most coffees do), approximately 1 year later, I used my french press to make the old coffee.

I still hate myself for trying this, it tasted absolutely horrible, like the one I had in Koffie Onan...

While I am not calling them bad Baristas, I had a bad experience with them, hoping you will not :)

Costprice: 7€ for 1 espresso (Koffie Onan, Leuven in Belgium)

Costprice: 12€ for 500 grams (Shenzhen, China)

Rating: 8/10

Origin: Jamaican Blue Mountain is considered a Grand-Cru, Single bean coffee.