Brown Bear Blue Mountain review: a Jamaican name on a Latin American blend

There is no Jamaican coffee in this bag, and Brown Bear do not claim there is. Their own shop calls it a Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica arabica blend, and a Brown Bear video sells it as the Blue Mountain flavour for a fraction of the price of Jamaican Blue Mountain. Read that way, it is a mellow, medium-roast arabica blend at 45p a cup, under the whole bean median. Read only the name on an Amazon search page and it is easy to think you are getting something else.

Live prices, sizes and retailers for this coffee sit on its product page. This review is the analysis alongside it. See prices →

What Brown Bear say is in the bag

Brown Bear describe this coffee in several places, and none of them mentions a Jamaican bean. Their own shop calls it a Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica arabica blend. The Amazon listing calls it a 100% arabica Costa Rican blend and gives Costa Rica as the region of origin. A short Brown Bear video from May 2023 uses the listing's wording and adds the positioning outright: inspired by the famous Blue Mountains of Jamaica, the Blue Mountain flavour for a fraction of the price of Jamaican Blue Mountain.

The two accounts of the blend do not match. Costa Rica alone, or Costa Rica with Colombia and Brazil, is a real difference. Where a roaster's own shop and a retail listing disagree, the shop is usually the more current, so this page goes with three countries. Neither version gives a percentage for anything. Every version agrees on what matters most to a buyer: 100% arabica, medium roast, and no Jamaican coffee.

What the name promises

Jamaica Blue Mountain is a certification mark. Only coffee certified by Jamaica's regulator, now the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority, can be sold under it, and coffee from four parishes around the Blue Mountains (Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Portland and Saint Mary) may qualify. The trademark itself belongs to Coffee Marks Limited, a subsidiary of that regulator.

Brown Bear's bag says Blue Mountain, never Jamaica Blue Mountain, which keeps it outside the mark. The coffee trade has words for what sits outside it. Perfect Daily Grind, the trade publication, separates a Blue Mountain 'blend', which may contain very small amounts of the Jamaican coffee, from a Blue Mountain 'style', which may contain none at all and is roasted to a similar profile. By Brown Bear's own account this is the second kind, even though the listing calls it a blend.

The price would tell you the same thing if the words did not. Genuine 100% Jamaica Blue Mountain beans cost several times as much: JA Coffee's 340g bag works out at about £2.12 a cup. This is 45p. Jamaican coffee at a fifth of the going rate would be remarkable, and Brown Bear do not claim it.

Is the name fair?

Mostly, with one reservation. Brown Bear state what is in the bag wherever they describe it at any length, their own product page is titled Blue Mountain Flavor, and their video says in plain words that this is the flavour without the Jamaican price. They do not charge extra for the name inside their own range either: in the comparison chart on the Amazon listing, the small Blue Mountain bag sat at £7.99, the same as Real Colombia and most of the other coffees shown beside it.

The reservation is where that information sits. The Amazon title reads Brown Bear Blue Mountain Medium Roast Coffee Beans 1kg, and the Costa Rican detail is in the fifth bullet. Someone searching for Blue Mountain beans with Jamaica in mind is left to work it out from the price. The name is doing selling work for an origin the coffee does not have, and you should buy it knowing that.

What it is like, and who says so

Brown Bear describe it as smooth and balanced, with a silky mouthfeel, mild acidity and a gentle sweetness carrying caramel, chocolate and soft floral notes. The Amazon listing puts it more plainly: sweet and malty, with a bit of milk bringing out caramel and toffee. That is the profile of a medium-roast Latin American arabica blend, and nothing in it needs the Jamaican name to explain it.

The one hands-on review we found is on Coffee Judge, a UK coffee blog whose archive runs from 2011 to 2021. It is undated and jokey, and it broadly agrees: pale, large beans, a mild roast, a nutty cup that gets nuttier the harder you brew it, and a maltiness the reviewer compares to a spoonful of Milo. It also warns that the coffee turns a little dry on the tongue if you are heavy-handed. It is several years old at the least, so read it as a description of the style rather than of the bag on sale now.

Beyond that there is very little. A YouTube channel, Mark's Honest Reviews, published a grind-settings video for these beans on a Sage Barista Express in March 2021, pitched at beginners who want a decent espresso without wasting expensive coffee; we could read its description but not check what it concludes. We found no Reddit or forum discussion of it.

Brewing it

Brown Bear say it suits any brew method, and at a medium roast that is a reasonable claim. The beans should be dry rather than oily, which matters in a bean-to-cup: De'Longhi tell owners of their automatic machines to avoid beans that are too oily, caramelised or coated, and surface oil is a dark-roast trait. Brown Bear's own suggestion is a splash of milk to bring out the caramel and toffee.

Coffee Judge's warning is the practical one. If a cup tastes dry and nutty rather than sweet, grind a little coarser or brew a little shorter before you blame the beans. A mild blend like this rewards a normal dose more than a heavy one.

What it costs, and how to pay less

At 45p a cup on an 18g dose it sits about 29% under the 63p whole bean median. That is a fair price for a small roaster's medium-roast arabica blend and a high one next to plainer arabica kilos: by Amazon Colombian, another medium-roast Latin American arabica, is 27p in our data. What the difference pays for is Brown Bear's roasting and the 5% to charity. It does not pay for Jamaican coffee.

Buy the kilo. The 227g bag of the same beans was £7.99 when we checked, which is about 63p a cup, bang on the whole bean median; the kilo cuts that by nearly 30%. The 227g of pre-ground costs the same £7.99, so if you own a grinder there is nothing to gain by letting Brown Bear grind it.

The kilo's price also moves. At the end of September 2026 it was on a limited-time Amazon deal at £22.47, about 40p a cup, against a listed RRP of £26.43, and Subscribe & Save took a further 10% off, to about 36p. If you drink it regularly, a subscription or a price alert means you should rarely pay the full £24.99.

Who should skip it, and what to buy instead

Skip it if you wanted Jamaica Blue Mountain, because this is not it and at this price cannot be. Skip it if you are buying purely on price per cup, where plainer medium-roast arabica kilos do the same everyday job for much less. Buy it if the profile appeals, you like the idea of supporting a small UK roaster and its charity, and you read the name as a style.

• Want the Jamaican coffee itself? JA Coffee 100% Jamaica Blue Mountain is about £2.12 a cup for a 340g bag, nearly five times this price.
• Want Costa Rica for the same money? Coffee Notes Costa Rica is a single origin Costa Rican arabica kilo at 45p a cup, roasted medium-dark and rated 8 out of 10 for intensity.
• Want a mellow Latin American arabica for less? by Amazon Colombian is a medium-roast 100% arabica at 27p a cup, in two 500g bags.