{"id":3988,"date":"2010-10-08T00:13:35","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T10:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.studionewmedia.com\/blog\/?p=3988"},"modified":"2010-10-08T00:13:35","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T10:13:35","slug":"lion-coffee-100-jamaican-blue-mountain-peaberry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/10\/08\/lion-coffee-100-jamaican-blue-mountain-peaberry\/","title":{"rendered":"Lion Coffee 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Peaberry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lion_Blue_Mountain\"<\/a>Whoa!\u00c2\u00a0 What do I see here?<\/p>\n

On one of the several weekly stops I made to Lion Coffee’s ‘Iwilei cafe and factory,\u00c2\u00a0I spotted something different in the premium rack.\u00c2\u00a0 The apparently managed to get their hands on some rare Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, and peaberries (single bean per berry) no less!\u00c2\u00a0 The vast majority of this production goes straight to the Japanese market, so it is rare to see it outside of Jamaica or Japan.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve had Blue Mountain blends in Japan before, but being blends, they were unremarkable and indistinct.\u00c2\u00a0 Here was some 100% stuff, so now was the chance to taste what the fuss was all about.<\/p>\n

Grinding a serving and brewing up\u00c2\u00a0a cup, the flavor was fantastically smooth but still richly full-bodied with a clean finish that left a hint of a chocolatey taste from the abundant oils.\u00c2\u00a0 Even simply handling the beans leaves a\u00c2\u00a0lingering dark chocolate aroma on your fingers. \u00c2\u00a0 The medium roast that was selected was perfect, bringing out the best flavor without any hint of bitterness or burnt taste.\u00c2\u00a0 Wow.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll have to do a side-by-side with some Kona peaberry, but if my flavor memory serves me correctly, the Blue Mountain brings more flavor to the table while carrying less bitter baggage.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re both good, but they are different.\u00c2\u00a0 Now to find some Kopi Luwak…<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0Highly recommended<\/p>\n

$20 USD for a 7-oz. bag of whole bean\u00c2\u00a0(ouch!)<\/p>\n

Four out of four coffee-sipping monkeys<\/p>\n

Update:\u00c2\u00a0 I brewed up some Lion 100% Kona this morning, and in comparison, the flavor is distinct from the Blue Mountain.\u00c2\u00a0 Although not as bitter than the vast majority of coffees, the Kona definitely carries more\u00c2\u00a0bitterness than the Blue Mountain, especially on the front end.\u00c2\u00a0 The bitterness isn’t upsetting, but is more like the bitterness of 80% or higher dark chocolate.\u00c2\u00a0 The Kona has a vanilla or good cigar (unlit) aroma and\u00c2\u00a0a hint of a “greeniness” in the flavor.\u00c2\u00a0 Both coffees are definitely good, but which one\u00c2\u00a0is better is definitely personal choice.\u00c2\u00a0 The Blue Mountain wins hands down for smoothness and dominance of lipid-carried flavinoids, but the Kona has a more robust and complex depth to the flavor.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It’s hard to say which one has a richer flavor experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whoa!\u00c2\u00a0 What do I see here? On one of the several weekly stops I made to Lion Coffee’s ‘Iwilei cafe and factory,\u00c2\u00a0I spotted something different in the premium rack.\u00c2\u00a0 The apparently managed to get their hands on some rare Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, and peaberries (single bean per berry) no less!\u00c2\u00a0 The vast majority of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJYlx-12k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionewmedia.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}