Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Jamaican Blue Mountain has attained world renown as one of the most expensive, rarest and best tasting of all coffees.

Only fifteen percent of the beans from this Caribbean island are genuinely certified to have been grown in the parishes of Portland, St Andrew and St. Thomas. The green beans are shipped in wooden barrels rather than burlap bags like other those from other countries. This single origin is wrapped in mystique stemming from its rarity as well as from its rich taste and distinct aroma.

This region is located northeast of Kingston and is ringed by a circle of forested highlands. It is capped by Blue Mountain Peak, which reaches about 2256 meters (7402 feet) high and receives an average of 198 centimeters (78 inches) annual rainfall with an average temperature of 27C (82 F). Needless to say this climate and the rich dark soil provide excellent growing conditions for this strictly hard bean coffee. The quality of the beans is graded into Blue Mountain No.1-3, Pea Berry, Triage, High Mountain Supreme, Jamaica Prime and Jamaica Select.

The governor of Jamaíca, Nicholas Lawes, who was also the owner of Temple Hall Estate, brought the first plants to this country in 1728. Cultivation began in the foothills of St. Andrew and soon extended deeper into the fertile mountains. From 1800 to 1840 the Jamaïca was the world's largest producer yielding 70,000 tons per year. However, when slavery was abolished in 1838, many plantations floundered as newly freed farmers started clearing and planting all the available hillsides to cultivate these trees. By 1891, with the island's industry in disarray, legislation was passed to send competent instructors into specified districts to provide education in the art of cultivation, harvesting and processing.

This effort to improve the quality and marketing was largely unsuccessful until the government in 1944 established the Central Coffee Clearing House where all coffee to be exported had to be processed and graded. However, after the devastating hurricane in 1951 only three processing facilities known as "pulperies" remained in operation. In order to regulate ensuing growth, the Coffee Industry Board was formed to establish specific quality, cultivation, and processing guidelines. This agency is still an active force today and played a key role in the country's resurgence in the international industry.

The name, "Blue Mountain Coffee", was finally officially registered in 1973 by the Mavis Bank, Silver Hill, Mory Hall and Wallenford processing plants. A few years ago the Twyman family won the legal right, through the local court system, to market its superior Old Tavern Estate brand under the trademarked name. These established producers are known as JABLUM.

Although other producers in the region and elsewhere in the nation cannot use the trademarked name, many small growers are successfully selling their beans directly to discriminating tourists since most of the official product is currently exported to Japan. These small producers harvest their green beans and dry them on bamboo racks before roasting them over a smoky wood fire. They are then weighed and packaged in plastic bags for passing tourists and locals. If the customer wants the roasted beans ground, these producers pour them into a hollowed out log and pulverize the beans by pounding them with a stout hardwood stick with flat surface at one end.

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