About 3 weeks ago I had the worst cup of coffee imaginable – whole beans from the local supermarket and just unbelievably bitter. So to get over my coffee PTSD I decided to spring $45.55 (incl. shipping) for a pound of Jamaican Blue Mountain. I ordered it from Coffee Bean Direct. It arrived on time and in great condition. The bag is pictured on left. Whole beans, already roasted.

My first cupping was, I must admit not as impressive as I thought it would be. I didn’t grow wings. Angels did not sing.

I drink my coffee black with no sugar or cream. I grind whole beans in a regular old $10 grinder and use a french press. I’ll use 2 tablespoons of beans for 1 cup and let it brew for anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes depending on how rushed I am.

After drinking blue mountain for a little more than a week now I am on the fence. It’s great coffee. There’s no bitterness and it has a wonderful mild flavour. But it doesn’t quite have that $45.55 feel to it that I was hoping for.

I usually get my coffee from Peets. Don’t bother with the supermarket stuff. Get it from the Peets store because it’s better quality, more selection and they clear out old stock after 10 days – and probably send it to the supermarkets. Peets Major Dickenson is almost as good as blue mountain. The bean quality, which I think is really important, is great with both coffees. Peets has one or two dull or smashed beans but on the whole they look almost as good as Blue Mountain.

So I want to be able to say: Blue Mountain is all I drink because it’s the only real coffee. But it’s only about twice as good as Peets and 10 times as good as SB.