Thanks for the recommendations, and I will check them out. Sorry OP, I didn't mean to inadvertently hijack the thread.

Blue mountain. Has anyone been to a coffee plantation in Jamaica? Someone talked about how happy everyone is down there, but I just saw a bit by Anthony Bourdain that really highlighted the enormous gap between the Jamaica of tourists, and the real Jamaica behind the scenes.

kaldi61 wrote:Andrew, good to hear your thoughts on Hawaiian coffee - I have a thread over in the Knockbox, Suggestions for Hawaii Coffee tours because I am taking a two week trip to the Big island and Oahu. I echo what's already been said about Kona coffee, but had a suspicion that if one looked hard enough, some great things may be found. One poster suggested Big Island Coffee, and it is pure coincidence that I have a shipment of the Puna Kazumura on the way to see what it's like.

I posted over on your Hawaii Coffee tour suggestions. You'll have to let me know what you think of the Puna Kazumura - it's my favorite coffee that I've ever had from Hawaii - amazing how it shows the terroir of the region and the care/skill taken to process and roast it.

I remember brewing some JBM at Jasper coffee in Melbourne back in 2013, each cup was about $9.00, the coffee was average at the best, the coffees i have been roasting recently are far more superior than the JBM taste and clarity wise, all at fraction of the cost.

Boldjava wrote:A quality JBM, well roasted, produces a good cup of chocolates and nuts in a pourover. Balanced, very round. Simple cup, all comfort, all pocket-book.

I have bought a variety of barrels from different mills in Jamaica: Wallensford, Mavis Banks, one other. I found Edgar Munn's private stock, from his own farm in Jamaica,to be the best. Munn milled his coffee at Mavis Banks but always kept his coffee segregated. I don't believe he kept his farm. He now manages the NAmer JBM label for Mavis Banks. I found his beans to be superior to the general run of the mill JBMs available in NAmer. Almost all JBM here comes without a boutique label; they are a mere consolidation of all the farmers' inputs, processed at one of the state licensed mills.

I had a sample of Munn's JBM peaberry greens. The acidity was higher but it gave too sharp of an edge to the chocolate tone. I passed on it and grabbed a barrel of his estate beans.

I've sampled JBM way in the past on numerous occasions. It was always touted as the best roast one could obtain for low bitterness and smooth flavor. But that was before the third wave had an impact. Nowadays, I realize that all that hype about JBM was due to people trying to find something agreeable despite their lack of knowledge about the importance of fresh roasts and better brewing technique. IMO, JBM was the next step up from mediocrity. It was the Merlot of coffees--smooth, mild fruity/floral taste, good... just not great.

Boldjava wrote:I have bought a variety of barrels from different mills in Jamaica: Wallensford, Mavis Banks, one other....

I appreciate your depth of experience on this, Dave. I remembered Wallensford as the "Wallingford" estate, but I guess it's not. I see Wallenford is also a commonly used name for some reason. I haven't tasted coffee under any such name for thirty years but some of it was quite delicious at the time, and some of it wasn't.

Peppersass wrote:I used to drink the stuff in the late '70s and early '80s...Hard to say whether my palate has grown up the coffee is worse than it was.

I wondered that too. I spent a lot of time in the early 80's cherry picking coffees for my retail store from every specialty roaster that I could find, so my basis for comparison was pretty good. Mostly for that reason, I can't help but feel that if I stepped into my time machine and transported back to the memorable cups I encountered, they'd hold up pretty well.

I also don't want mama to take my Kodachrome away...