Why I Only Bought Blue Mountain Coffee Once

In this episode, I share my honest experience with one of the world's most expensive and hyped coffees - Jamaican Blue Mountain. I take you through my journey from my usual medium wash Guatemala to discovering this elusive coffee that costs significantly more than typical specialty beans. I explain how I approached brewing and tasting this coffee black to experience its pure flavor profile, and why the experience left me with mixed feelings about this legendary coffee.

I dive deep into what makes Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee so special yet somehow disappointing at the same time. I discuss the smoothness, the clean flavor profile, and why despite its technical perfection, it lacks the personality and excitement that keeps me coming back to other coffees. By listening to this episode, you'll learn about the reality behind expensive specialty coffee, understand what to expect from Jamaican Blue Mountain if you're considering trying it, and gain insights into how price doesn't always correlate with personal coffee satisfaction. I also explore the concept of coffee personality and why sometimes technical perfection can feel boring compared to more characterful beans.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:30 The Purchase Decision and Initial Research
• 3:15 First Tasting Experience: Drinking It Black
• 5:00 Initial Impressions: Spectacular Yet Boring
• 7:30 Why I Haven't Bought It Again in 10+ Years
• 9:30 Comparing Blue Mountain to Other Coffees
• 11:30 Final Thoughts: Smooth But Lacking Personality

Transcript

[0:59] I went in for my usual medium wash Guatemala, and the owner of the roastery gave me different options to choose from. I was thinking, should I change it up?

[1:48] Why not? I've been drinking this coffee for a long time. It was good, it was decent, best that I've tasted yet, but he told me about this other coffee - this Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

[2:06] I was like, what is that? I kind of knew about it.

[2:13] I saw the tasting notes. It seemed kind of intriguing, but at the time it was 12, 13, 14 bucks a pound.

[2:56] So I got home, started researching it, started thinking about how I was going to brew it. I think at the time I was using the French press.

[3:15] So I went ahead and took a little bit, put on some hot water, and then it was time to drink the coffee. I wanted to experience this coffee particularly black. I was going back and forth between creamer and no creamer, half and half, making my own, putting some sugar in, drinking it black. I was teetering back and forth between which way I was supposed to drink coffee. So this time I wanted to drink it black. I wanted to experience it in its purity. That's what all these coffee nerds and geeks tell you that you should do. So that's what I did.

[4:00] I sat down like I'm sitting down right now and I took a sip. And I stopped and I wondered.

[4:11] I'm like, wow, this is expensive.

[4:14] But something about it is appealing, something about it. I'm really just kind of having mixed opinions about it. So I kept sipping, kept sipping, kept drinking, kept thinking, kept contemplating about what is up with this coffee. And then I finally finished the coffee.

[4:38] And I sat there for a little bit wondering, what the hell did I just drink?

[4:45] It was spectacular.

[4:48] It wasn't bold because it wasn't a dark roast. It was extremely smooth. But it was kind of boring.

[5:02] Let me explain.

[5:04] So this coffee has been hyped up so much for me for a very long time. I knew what it was. I kind of gathered that it was going to blow my mind, which it kind of mostly did. And it was something that I've never really experienced before. The reason why I'm saying that is because I've had coffee before. I've had coffee from Central and South America, from Africa. There was just a lot that was novel to it.

[6:33] But it was soulless because that's all it was. As pure as it was, it really didn't do anything for me.

[6:43] At the time it did because I paid so much money for this coffee, and as I was drinking it and experienced it for myself, I was actually able to taste all the tasting notes from the bag. Probably because there's not that many things to actually taste from this coffee. I'm not trying to dig it, I'm really not trying to dig it. I guess what I'm saying is that I understand now, over 10 plus years, why I haven't gotten the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee since then.

[7:22] A lot of times people don't even talk about that coffee. One, because it's very elusive, it's very expensive, and it's not interesting enough. It doesn't drive you to a place of wonder of wanting to try to do something with coffee. That makes sense because sometimes we glorify coffee to the point where we think it's just amazing. But sometimes you want it to be bigger than what it truly really is. And a lot of times whenever I'm drinking this particular coffee, it was a letdown because I can get most of those coffee traits from other cheaper coffees, from other coffees that are probably a little bit more than one to two notes.

[8:17] And coffee that probably seems to me a little bit better, something that I look forward to drinking each and every day. But paying that much money for this particular coffee doesn't do anything for me. And again, this is not a dig towards the coffee really.

[8:36] It's just more so kind of giving you an understanding of the Blue Mountain coffee if you haven't tried it. I would say you should try it. See how it is now. See if it peaks your interest. See if it's exactly the coffee that you need. There's plenty of people that are out there that only swear by this particular coffee.

[8:59] I think it's pretty cool from time to time. But as you see, my time was 10 plus years ago and I haven't really talked about it or bought it again or experienced what it tastes like now. I think that would be kind of cool. I may still probably get a pound of it roasted up a little bit and give you my new first impressions of what I think about the coffee.

[9:24] But if you don't try this coffee, you're not missing out. This is not a dig towards the coffee as I said already. But it is what it is.

[9:41] You can get excitement, you can get sweetness, you can get boldness, you can get smoothness from many coffees that are out there. Sometimes you can get them in a single origin and sometimes you can get them in a blend. Sometimes if you want to get a little crazy, you just mix them up. But you can get them readily available.

[10:03] Are they as defect-free? Probably not. Probably that's what gives them a little bit more character, a little bit more edge. Probably that's the thing that I'm thinking about as much as I'm thinking about it right now.

[10:19] I tasted the Cup of Excellence rejects a couple of months ago. Those coffees were clean as hell. You can taste every single bit of the tasting notes. So I don't think I'm opposed to a perfectly defectless coffee. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that sometimes defects give the coffee some character.

[10:53] And in this case, this coffee was smooth and clean. It was what everybody should start out with when drinking a specialty coffee. But it's elusive because it's so expensive.

[12:10] But in this case, if the coffee isn't that much more exciting, that gets you out of bed to really truly enjoy it for what it is, besides the price, is that necessarily a problem? No, not really. It's just like with people, their personalities, their things that we just go through and experience and try to understand as much as we can. And then eventually we just move on.

[12:41] That's what this Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee has done for me. That's why I really don't talk about it until right now, because it was good. It was really good. But it hadn't had any personality.

[13:05] It was like uptight. It was a perfect gentleman. It was a coffee that presented itself on its P's and Q's all the time. It was straight and narrow, answered the questions perfectly, then gave you a little bit more than what you ask for. And that was it.

[13:44] So smooth, but boring.

[13:48] I think that's the reason why I haven't really touched that coffee again.