From Bean to Cup: The Process of Making Blue Mountain Coffee

When it comes to coffee, commercial coffee (or commodity coffee, as it is known nowadays) tastes a lot different than specialty coffee. The difference in taste comes from the level of care the farmers give to each coffee plant and the quality control that producers have on each batch.

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee and other specialty coffees are produced with a meticulous process that ensures only the beans with no flaws are in every bag you purchase. 

These beans are handpicked at their peak ripeness. Each cherry is carefully chosen to ensure each cup fits the JBM flavor profile. If you’re wondering how this affects the final product, imagine the difference between picking a fresh grape and picking one that’s too ripe, or worse, unripe. Specialty coffee follows that same level of care to ensure only the best beans make it through.

Where Blue Mountain Coffee Grows

Blue Mountain Coffee is grown in the stunning Blue Mountain region of Jamaica, where the mountains rise to over 7,000 feet above sea level. Coffee grown at this altitude benefits from the dense cloud cover in the Blue Mountains, which helps intensify the ripening process.

Coffee plants planted at low altitudes have easier access to water, which makes the cherries plumper or bigger because they retain a lot of water. However, this also makes them more susceptible to diseases that can affect the beans. Also, the flavor is not as intense as the cherries harvested from high-altitude coffee farms.

For coffee plants in higher altitudes, the reduced water content leads to cherries with more sugars and flavors, resulting in a richer, more complex taste in your cup.

This is why Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is made by using the wet method of coffee processing. With more sugars on high-altitude cherries, JBM coffee cherries need to go through the washed method to get rid of that thick, sticky mucilage on them.

The Blue Mountain region of Jamaica may provide the ideal growing environment for coffee, but it also presents several challenges, which is why JBM coffee is expensive and among the top specialty coffees. This mountainous area has some slopes reaching as steep as forty degrees, making it a treacherous terrain for farming.

The Process of Growing JBM Coffee Beans

The process of growing Blue Mountain Coffee starts with careful germination. Each year, farms in the Blue Mountain region grow around 50,000 coffee seedlings. Farmers plant the seedlings with great care. They plant most of the seedlings by hand to make sure the plants grow healthy and strong. This shows how much attention is given to every plant.

To be considered and sold as genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, the coffee plant must be grown in special areas with the right conditions in the Blue Mountain region.

When a Blue Mountain coffee seed is first planted, it takes 5 years before the plant matures and produces coffee cherries.

The Process of Harvesting Jamaican Coffee Beans

The careful process of growing Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee extends into the harvesting process. Farmers carefully pluck each cherry, leaving a stem on the branch.

The high altitude and steep slopes of the region are a logistical nightmare, making machine harvesting impossible. The workers must walk through narrow paths and stand on uneven ground to harvest the cherries.

Each cherry is handpicked to ensure that only the ripest and most uniform beans are harvested. They inspect the cherries to ensure that the beans are up to the high standards of the Blue Mountain origin.

The Wet Processing of Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

The cherries are washed and passed through water tanks. In these tanks, damaged cherries that won't meet the high standards of JBM Coffee float to the top, making it easy to remove them.

Next, a pulping machine, or a pulper, removes the pulp and mucilage from the cherries. The cherries are placed in fermentation tanks where the mucilage is removed through fermentation.

At lower elevations, the process may only take 12 hours. However, since JBM coffee beans are grown at high elevations (which means the cherries have a thicker layer of mucilage), they often stay for 24 to 48 hours in the tanks to ferment. This soaking process helps to remove the pulp from the cherries and prepares them for the next stage, the drying stage.

The Drying of Jamaican Blue Coffee Beans

After wet processing, the beans (still covered in their papery “parchment” layer) need to be dried to a safe moisture level. The JACRA-approved brands of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, like Fus Light, have a moisture level between 10% and 12%. Any higher, and bacteria have a greater chance to grow, which can spoil the coffee.

In Jamaica’s Blue Mountain region, parchment coffee is 100% sun-dried. Workers spread a thin, even layer of wet parchment on patios or concrete aprons and turn it throughout the day, so every bean gets steady sun and airflow. Fresh from the cherry, wet parchment is about 45% water.

Over 5 to 8 days of careful sun exposure, and with beans rested overnight, the moisture level steadily drops to the target range. Blue Mountain lots are typically around 11.5% moisture.

Once the sun-drying phase is complete, the beans are rested (aged) as dry parchment for 6 to 8 weeks in a controlled environment. This is important to maintain moisture levels and even out the beans internally, which is key for consistent roasting.

The JBM Coffee Beans Milling Process

Once the beans are dry, they move to milling. This stage does not “grind” the coffee beans. Instead, it removes the parchment that still coats each bean and turns “parchment coffee” into clean green coffee with a pale yellow or tan look.

A typical mill works in two steps:

1. A huller cracks and rubs off the outer parchment, which is sandy in color.
   

2. As the beans pass through a tighter chamber, gentle friction polishes away the inner layer called the silverskin.

After parchment and silverskin are removed, the cleaned green beans are ready for final grading and quality checks before they continue down the coffee processing.

In Jamaica, bean size is a key quality signal. Lots are sorted by grade, and Grades 1, 2, and 3 proceed to the next step of coffee processing and are eventually exported. Oversized beans (or “giants”) are usually kept for local use or made into instant coffee.

The Coffee Sorting and Grading of Blue Mountain Jamaica Beans

This step in coffee processing has one goal: consistency. If big and small beans are mixed, the small ones roast faster and turn darker while the large ones lag behind. That mismatch leads to uneven flavor in your cup, so specialty coffee standards demand uniformity.

Size & Density Sorting (Air Sorters & Screens)

Green coffee moves through a battery of machines that sort by size and density while removing sticks, rocks, nails, and debris.

First, air sorters blow the beans into the air: the heaviest and biggest fall into bins closest to the air source, while the lightest beans and chaff are blown farther away. Then the coffee is shaken through a series of sieves (screens with graduated hole sizing), so it’s grouped by size grade.

Gravity Separation (Vibrating Gravity Table)

The sized beans are run over a vibrating gravity table (a gravity separator) that shakes the beans on a tilted table. The heaviest, densest, and best move to one side of the pulsating deck, and the lightest to the other. The lighter beans (the hollow or nicked beans) are often used in cheaper local coffee and not exported.

Color Sorting & Hand Selection (Blue Mountain Standard)

Pale or white beans are removed because the embryo may be dying. Black beans are removed because they can signal disease or nutrition problems. Automated systems can cut defects down to about 10 percent, but that is not enough for Blue Mountain standards.

To meet the Blue Mountain requirement of around 3 percent defects, beans go to a manual sorting line. Trained workers inspect and pick through the coffee by hand to remove any remaining flawed beans. This final human check is what pushes the lot into being a true specialty coffee.

Exporting Blue Mountain Green Coffee Beans

Green coffee from the strict Blue Mountain zone is traditionally exported in wooden barrels and grouped into three screen size categories for the classic flat bean. Small volumes of peaberry beans are also shipped in barrels. These wooden barrels contain 33 pounds, or 15 kilos, of green beans.

Before any lot leaves the island, the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA, formerly the Coffee Industry Board) inspects and tests it and coordinates the export logistics.

Each shipment must pass specifications for size, shape, color, cup quality, and moisture content. Lots that do not meet the required size or cup profile, or that carry too many defects, are classified as “Select” instead of Blue Mountain grade.

The Blue Mountain Coffee Roasting Process

After the green coffee beans have passed inspection by JACRA, they go through the roasting process.

Usually, a whole barrel of green beans is roasted at once. The beans are first weighed and checked for moisture content. After that, they are placed in a roasting machine where the master roaster's goal is to achieve the perfect roast profile, which is a medium roast for JBM coffee. The roaster constantly checks the beans’ color and aroma from start to finish, making sure there are no anomalies and that the roast is consistent throughout.

After roasting, the beans are cooled, and their moisture content is checked again. This time, we're aiming for 1.8%. The beans are then left to degas overnight to release any remaining gases before they’re packed and shipped.

Which brand of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is best?

The best brand of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is Fus Light from Genuine Blue Mountain Coffee, a branch of Allen’s Trading Company.

Fus Light is available as green beans and as a medium roast, which is the ideal roast for JBM coffee.

You can visit Fus Light’s Amazon page to find REAL reviews from REAL buyers calling Fus Light “the best Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee” they have ever tasted.

Genuine Blue Mountain Coffee is registered with JACRA as an official importer of Blue Mountain and High Mountain Supreme green coffee.

FAQs

What's the best way to brew JBM coffee from Fus Light?

The best way to brew Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is through a French press or pour-over. 

For a rich, full-bodied cup, use a French press. The French press method is simple, fast, and great for beginners. Use a coarse grind and steep for a few minutes.

If you prefer a lighter, cleaner taste, choose a pour-over. Pour hot water slowly and evenly over a medium grind to bring out the bright notes in Jamaican coffee.

How long does it take to process coffee beans?

The process takes this long due to drying and the period where the beans are rested to become more uniform in terms of moisture content.