The World-famous Blue Mountain Coffee
Blue Mountain is a very familiar term. Using the phrase in your searches will reveal a variety of results. One of which is that website that offers a wide selection of greeting e-cards perfect for all occasions. Other results will reveal a holiday ski resort in Canada and another about a Mississippi-based band. But to a coffee enthusiast, Blue Mountain is a mouthwatering word. Blue Mountain is also home to one of the world’s best tasting coffee.

Standing at a peak of 7,400 feet in the regions of Jamaica, Blue Mountain got its name from the bluish haze coming from the mist that covers the mountains’ summits and ridges. Nestled between Kingston in the south and Port Maria in the north, Blue Mountain is at its highest in the Caribbean region, an equally amazing area.

Before Columbus and his followers discovered the territory in 1494, the mountains were abloom with heavy forests. And with the settlers finding lands and lands for their cattle ranchers, they had to clear these areas. Some sections were utilized for growing vegetables and spices and the slopes below were later turned into grasslands. In the same slopes were the famous Blue Mountain coffee beans planted and started a colorful history of giving nothing but ultimate delight to those who are able to taste its richness in flavor.

The introduction of coffee seedlings to the mountains of Jamaica straight from Hispaniola in 1728 was made possible by Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes. Growing the coffee beans did not seem to be a problem with the region having the most pleasant of all climates and soil conditions—high rainfall, fertile soil, cool climate.

With the world announcing a great interest on the rich Blue Mountain coffee beans, Jamaica was proclaimed a world leader in the production of coffee in the nineteenth century. Eventually, with the need to nurture the coffee industry of the Blue Mountain and to monitor the agriculture of the product, the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica was established. With this development, Blue Mountain coffee beans from Jamaica carry with them a certification mark that is globally protected. It is also one of the most significant roles of the board to maintain strict control over the Blue Mountain coffee name.

To regulate and to ensure that every coffee variety that carries the specified trademark is of high quality, the Coffee Industry Board also initiated the establishment of a set of criteria to specify the qualifications. For this purpose, the Coffee Industry Regulations Act was ordered. As an effect, it was therefore regulated that all coffee beans grown, plucked, processed, and packaged from the specific parishes of Portland, Saint Mary, Saint Andrew, and Saint Thomas may legally carry or use the label. With the approval of the act came the consideration of the mountain elevation in categorizing the coffee beans; hence we have the Jamaica Blue Mountains (for beans grown at a 3,000 to 5,000 feet of elevation), Jamaica High Mountains (for beans grown at a 1,500 to 3,000 feet of elevation), and finally the Jamaica Supreme or the Jamaica Low Mountain (for beans grown lower than 1,500 feet of mountain elevation).