Jamaican Coffee is King in Japan

Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is one of the most expensive brands of coffee in the world. Coffee is grown all over Jamaica but only a select batch of the product grown in a 12 mile area of the Blue Mountains to the east of Kingston can be marketed as true Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. Japan has bought over 85% of the Blue Mountain coffee produced in Jamaica for the past 10 years and has always been a huge market for the product long before that. Japan consumes the most coffee in Asia and easily makes into the top 20 coffee consuming countries in the world.

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Altitude and Temperature

Blue Mountain coffee is famous and sought after because it is grown at high altitude at the perfect temperature, this results in coffee berries that have perfect acidity, sweetness and flavor with no genetic modification necessary like some other brands. Coffee fuels much of the first world with coffee shops dispensing hot and cold beverages to millions of consumers worldwide which makes coffee the second most sought after resource on the planet after oil.

Jamaicans aren’t big coffee drinkers

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Maybe it’s because of the climate, culture or maybe a maybe a combination of both but Jamaicans aren’t big coffee drinkers. I’m thinking to myself while writing this and wondering when was the last time I drank coffee and I seriously can’t remember – I’m more of a tea drinker but who knows maybe I’ll be a drinker of Jamaican coffee while in Japan?

Useful Links and Resources

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
Coffee consumption by country
$14-million fund to market Jamaican coffee in Japan
Jamaica’s Coffee Makes Japan a Jealous Lover
Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica

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12 thoughts on “Jamaican Coffee is King in Japan

    1. keep an eye out for it, millions of thousands of tonnes leave our shores every year for Japan, shouldn’t be too hard to find or request.

  1. Hmmm…. just had some Papua New Guinean coffee this evening and that was yummy. Need my coffee… yum. Shame I can’t try out any of the Blue Mountain brand here (pretty sure I haven’t seen it in Australia).

  2. I remember looking for good coffee in Kingston and being sooo disappointed! I knew Jamaica produced some of the best coffee in the world – but it took some work to find it in the capital.

    We found the The Coffee Mill of JamaicaÒ€Ž coffeeshop in New Kingston – which has some amazing coffee!

    Another interesting thing to note about coffee in Jamaica is that it’s served with condensed milk – which is something I haven’t seen anywhere else. The coffeeshop in Kingston did this too- they would make you a cup of coffee from whole beans everytime, and would always serve it with a packet of condensed milk!

    The combination of strong fresh coffee with condensed milk is was soooo delicious!

  3. When I was in Shinjuku last summer, I had Blue Mountain twice. While I don’t remember the name of the place it was near the popular mall (the one with ALTA in rainbow colors on the building…it’s like a meetup place for the youngsters).

    What I do remember is that the coffee bar was in a basement. Sorry, that’s all I remember. That, and that it had been so long since tasting some good Blue Mountain. Imagine that I had to travel halfway ’round the world to taste it again!

  4. When I was in the US I was a big coffee drinker. My parents are both coffee drinkers too, especially my dad, so I was quick to pick up the habit myself.

    After moving to Southeast Asia, I think I can say that the reason most Jamaicans probably don’t drink coffee is the weather. I imagine the weather there is about the same as in Singapore or here in the Philippines. HOT. All the damn time. I’ve continued drinking coffee and still enjoy it, but only in the evenings. I’ve also switched almost completely to iced coffee.

    In Japan, the climate is more comparable to North America, so drinking coffee on any given day wouldn’t seem like such a bad idea.

  5. I saw Blue Mountain quite a lot when I was over in Japan, but having not really looked into it I thought it was a brand and didnt realise that it is actually the region it is grown in. I’ll be doing a post about the coffee market in japan at some point, so its good to find out about this!

  6. I would like to taste jamaican coffee. So far I have tried Colombian Coffee (Juan Valdez) and Guatemalan coffee.
    I dont drink too much coffee too. πŸ˜›

  7. Here in Taiwan you can find Mr. Brown’s Blue Mountain Blend coffee in convenience stores everywhere. I wonder if it is actually the right thing, but I guess it would be illegal if not. Regardless, that’s my favourite can-coffee too, and I had absolutely no idea of the meaning of Blue Mountain before seeing this.

    They certainly must be drinking a lot of coffee in Japan if they’re able to consume such a big share! I look even more forward to visiting there in such case!

  8. If anyone or company is interested in investing/partnering in a large coffee farm in Jamaican Blue Mountains, please contact and I would be happy to give you full details. We have a registered business in Jamaica, that governs the coffee farms, and we are from the USA. We have the single largest farm in the area. It really is a wonderful place, and very profitable ..and of course the best coffee in the world.

    guthriegary@gmail.com for full details…

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