Jamaican Blue Mountain

[jayt90]

About ten days ago I spotted 2 lb bags of Jamaican Blue Mountain beans at my local Costco. It was a new item, packed in Michigan. I bought a bag, at $12.79 Can., and have used it every morning since in a Cuisinart grinder/dripper. Tomorrow, I'll use the Boda, even though I'm usually too groggy in the morning to bother. The reason for taking more care, is that the supply is going to end soon.

The coffee is mellow, aromatic, fresh, with good length. I can't find any fault, and I trust the buyers at Costco to provide an authentic non-blended product. It appears as though they have made an exceptional one-time purchase, and when I went back today for more, it was still there, but with an asterisk on the price sign. A product coming to the end of sale period in the warehouse.

I bought two more bags, but I will have to freeze or refrigerate them.

Any suggestions for best keeping?

[Apicio]

Having learned a good (and costly) lesson from Bre-x, I stayed away from those bags for the simple reason that it just sounded too good to be true. After reading your report, I am going back to Costco tomorrow to pick up a few bags. If they are still there.

[jayt90]

I have taken a close look at the bag: It is from Magnum Coffee, a jobber in Nuncia, MI. The bag has 2 lb. of 100% Arabica, Jamaican Blue Mountain Blend.

There is no information about the blend, but the beans are uniform, fairly small, and a medium brown. The label does not indicate beans from any other country, so it may be a blend of Blue Mouintain and other Jamaican coffees.

I went to magnumcoffee.com but there was no further information.

I still think it is a superb coffee for the price. Apicio, let us know what you think about it.

[phaelon56]

The bag has 2 lb. of 100% Arabica, Jamaican Blue Mountain Blend.

It's unquestionable that it's not 100% Blue Mountain at that price. They may well be other Jamaican beans in the blend or quite possibly some cheaper but fairly neutral beans.

Some crop years are better than others for JMB - it's my understanding that this has not been one of the best years overall but there may still be some good JMB available (but not at such a crazy low price).

The most predictable producers are Wallenford Estates and Mavis Banks. I'm very fond of a good JMB because it's such a well balanced cup but often peopel think it should be some sort of earth shattering drinking experience due to the price. It's all about supply and demand. You'll rarely if ever find the best JMB's availabel in roasted form on the US market for much under $30 per pound retail. if it's cheaper than that it's either a blend or not the real thing but as the Costco expereince is proving - it's all about the taste - if it tastes good that should be the determining factor.

Granted I am biased because I'm a roaster but I'm still in favor of buying from a good regional or local micro-roaster and being assured of maximum freshness. I'd be shocked if Costco was actually geting their coffee onto the shelves and into your hands in less than two weeks after date of roasting. Even in a sealed valve bag, roasted coffee that has not been frozen in an airtight container will be wll past its peak of freshness and flavor when the 14 day mark hits. Then it really goes downhill.

Will it taste "bad"? Not likely unless it was bad coffee to begin with but the best and most subtle qualities will be lost and a certan sort of flatness will start beocoming increasingly more evident.

[jayt90]

The bag has 2 lb. of 100% Arabica, Jamaican Blue Mountain Blend.

It's unquestionable that it's not 100% Blue Mountain at that price. They may well be other Jamaican beans in the blend or quite possibly some cheaper but fairly neutral beans.

Some crop years are better than others for JMB - it's my understanding that this has not been one of the best years overall but there may still be some good JMB available (but not at such a crazy low price).

←

Thanks for your input. It is certainly the best inexpensive coffee I have purchased, but it is not earth shattering, nor did I expect that.

The graphics on the bag (Valved, and apparently nitrogen filled) are somewhat scattered. I have just found another grade indication: " certified 100% high mountain arabica".

If anyone is near a Costco in the midwest or eastern Canada, it is worth checking out before it is gone.

[phaelon56]

I can't speak to availability on the Canadian market but Sam's Club here the US has been stocking somethign similar to that for awhile. Also - Magnum Coffee has an online retail coffee service that sells it for about $10.25 - $10.50.

[jayt90]

Interesting.

There is a certain amount of it out there.

I think I have deciphered the stale date on mine: Oct 26, '05. It could well be a month old.

Now that I am using the French press device, these beans have definitely brightened my mornings.

[Marlene]

I picked up three bags of these today at Costco. (do you know how often I still refer to it as Price Club? ). I'll test them out tomorrow in my grind and brew, and then in the french press to see how different the flavour is.

[Apicio]

I finally tried some from the bag of Jamaican Blue Mountain Cofee “Blend.” I find its quality at par with that of their other bags of beans so I consider it a really good buy at that price. Being well into my anecdotage, perhaps I can inflict on you my coffee odyssey.

For the last five year I have been buying Costco’s Columbian beans and at first alternated it with their Starbucks Roast and later blended them together when I found that the Starbucks roast was too dark and almost burnt for my liking. I was using Melitta funnel filter drip then and I was happy. Before that time and for sixteen years, I worked for a Jamaican boss who brought me back my supply of Jamaican Blue Mountain beans and I was happier but most good things in life must end some time.

And then last July new friends invited me for dinner and served me coffee from their Bodum Santos Electric using the Starbucks roast beans from Costco that I have been using. What a revelation. That beans never tasted so good with my morning set-up. The result was I was ready to buy this new fangled coffeemaker which incidentally was exactly the same model that i have been eyeing for some time at my Starbucks location. He persuaded me not to buy it though. He said that that coffeemaker he was using that evening was his fourth Bodum Santos Electric in two years because the plastic material its made of kept cracking and as soon as it does this no vacuum forms so no coffee. So I did my internet research and ended with five fifty year old vacuum coffee brewers that have never been used from e-bay. However, in using these brewers I find that I gradually became discontented with the beans I picked up at Costco. So another flurry of internet research yielded a coffee roasting store on the Lakeshore only ten minutes away from me. I pick up my weekly half a pound of freshly roasted beans there (for $7.50) and I pick them blind because it does not really matter to me now what kind. They are all invariably good and I like pleasant surprises.

My new friends by the way are now using a chrome Sunbeam vacuum coffee brewer that I gave them for Christmas. I got it from e-bay for $20.00.

[foodie52]

All Arabica is high mountain. Coffee doesn't grow low down.

[phaelon56]

All Arabica is high mountain. Coffee doesn't grow low down.

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I'll have to respectfully disagree with you on that issue. Arabica is grown at a variety of altitudes ranging from not so far above sea level to high mountain grown. As a general rule, the arabica grown in mountain areas tends to be of higher quality than that grown in lower altitudes. I think the great majority of Robusta coffee is grown closer to sea level although it can grow in higher altitudes.

[Mooshmouse]

I'm very fond of a good JMB because it's such a well balanced cup but often peopel think it should be some sort of earth shattering drinking experience due to the price. It's all about supply and demand. You'll rarely if ever find the best JMB's availabel in roasted form on the US market for much under $30 per pound retail. if it's cheaper than that it's either a blend or not the real thing but as the Costco expereince is proving - it's all about the taste - if it tastes good that should be the determining factor.

Even in a sealed valve bag, roasted coffee that has not been frozen in an airtight container will be wll past its peak of freshness and flavor when the 14 day mark hits. Then it really goes downhill.

Will it taste "bad"?  Not likely unless it was bad coffee to begin with but the best and most subtle qualities will be lost and a certan sort of flatness will start beocoming increasingly more evident.

←

I first tasted 100% Blue Mountain Coffee 12 years ago, early on a foggy morning at a plantation high in the Blue Mountains above Kingston. It was an earth-shattering drinking experience: rich, smooth, freshly brewed coffee with beans straight from the roaster. And I've never tasted anything quite like it since.

I bought two bags just before leaving Jamaica to bring home with me but have never purchased it here in Canada for the same reasons that Owen has already cited. Expense and the anticipation of a certain flatness, plus the fact that there really is no going back after having it pure, straight from the source. But I'll get back there one day.