Moon Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Tour

Moon Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Tour Express: A 45‐minute visit with Dorothy Twyman, matriarch of the Twyman Estate, located just past Hardwar Gap, at the coffee farm house where you will be shown how to select, roast and savor the country’s finest beans. A cup of the house roast is sampled accompanied by a bite to eat on the Twymans’ porch overlooking their vast estate. Lunch at either EITs Café, Belcour Lodge or Crystal Edge Duration: 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Tour Rates: USD 35/adult, USD 15/child under 12 Transport: USD 150 for up to thee (3) passengers; add USD 10 for each additional adult, USD 5 per child Half‐day: A 45‐minute visit with Dorothy Twyman, matriarch of the Twyman Estate just past Hardwar Gap, at the coffee farm house where you are shown the processing and roasting of the coffee and sample a cup with accompanying bite. A 45‐minute visit to Clifton Mount Coffee Estate with a tour of the processing facility and walk through the fields. Lunch at either EITs Café, Belcour Lodge or Crystal Edge Time: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Tour Rates: USD 50/adult, USD 30/child under 12 Transport USD 200 for up to three (3) passengers; add USD 15 for each additional adult, USD 5 per child Full‐day: A 45‐minute visit with Dorothy Twyman, matriarch of the Twyman Estate just past Hardwar Gap, at the coffee farm house where you are shown the processing and roasting of the coffee and sample a cup with accompanying bite. A 45‐minute visit to Clifton Mount Coffee Estate with a tour of the processing facility and walk through the fields. Lunch at either EITs Café, Belcour Lodge or Crystal Edge A 45‐minute tour of Mavis Bank Coffee Factory Duration: 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Tour Rates: USD 60/adult, USD 40/child under 12 Transport: USD 230 for up to 3 adults; add USD 20 per each additional adult, USD 10 per child For bookings email [email protected] ON THE TOWN: MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA
JAMAICAN JOE
A caffeine-addicted writer tests
Jamaica’s finest coffees to find
the island’s best black gold.
C
offee addicts,
Mavis Bank Coffee Factory in a buzz-
welcome to
worthy hunt for the champ.
paradise—Jamaica
My first stop is at the 140-acre Old
Next, I head for Clifton Mount, a
25-minute drive through Hardwar Gap,
where I turn up the winding road towards
abounds with
Tavern Estate, where mother-and-son
Catherine’s Peak. Moments later I face
coffee plantations
team Dorothy and David Twyman grow
the 85-acre estate’s crisp, white-tiled
that produce one
and roast medium, medium-dark, dark
pulping facility, where I’m met by Jason
of the world’s
and peaberry (a bean that results when
Sharp, who manages the roasting side of
most sought-
one half of the coffee cherry fails to
the business. His hilltop home—a fine
after varieties of beans. Blue Mountain
develop, giving it a sweeter taste than fully
example of colonial Jamaican architec-
Coffee, Jamaica’s most famous export, is
developed beans) coffee.
ture with its boxed Louvre windows,
potent, full of flavor, medium bodied and
David greets me by the road for the
steep wood-shingled roof and brick
aromatic, lacking the bitterness associ-
short walk up to his family home, which
chimney—overlooks rolling hillsides that
ated with many other strong coffees from
sits atop a steep embankment from
are covered in meticulously kept coffee
around the globe. At $30 to $40 a pound,
which we can, in one sweep, survey the
groves. Sharp, who runs Jamaica’s answer
it’s more expensive than your average roast
whole estate. Dorothy is there, waiting to
to Starbucks—Café Blue—leads me to the
(Dunkin’ Donuts, which America allegedly
take my order. Of course, I request the
pulping plant. This state-of-the-art facility
runs on, costs just $8).
signature cup, a smooth medium roast,
processes beans from Clifton Mount and
The Blue Mountain Range is ideal
finely ground. It’s a light, medium-bodied
10 contiguous farms, then sells a choice
for coffee growing, due to its trifecta of
brew, and I miss neither sugar nor milk as
medium roast blend under the label
textured soil, heavy rainfall and misty
I savor it. A macaroon, a slice of buttered
Coffee Traders. I witness each stage of the
coolness. According to local coffee farm-
spiced bun and a few gulps later, and
process—washing, pulping, fermenting,
ers, this allows the coffee berries to mature
I’m on my way, a pound of roasted beans
hulling, separating by grade and drying
very slowly, resulting in the smooth flavor
in hand.
(the beans are roasted in Kingston).
and medium body of the final product.
Most of the plantations here are beautiful
to see and open to the public.
What better way, then, to gain an
appreciation for the island’s flourishing
coffee industry than by touring its most
iconic producers in search of the best
bean? That’s exactly what I did, touring
For the freshest morning cuppa joe you’ll ever taste, sleep over at Blue Mountain coffee farms.
Shoestring travelers will find basic, comfortable beds at Prince Valley Guesthouse (princevalleyguesthouse.com; $30). Heritage Gardens (heritagegardensjamaica.com ; $100) of Cold Spring offers a rustic
cottage on a small estate rich in history, while Strawberry Hill (islandoutpost.com/strawberry_hill;
$385-515) is the most luxurious accommodation option in the Blue Mountains, and the only hotel selling
its own brand of roasted beans. In Mavis Bank, Forres Park (forrespark.com; $75-220) offers a range
of amenities for a range of budgets, while Lime Tree Farm (limetreefarm.com ; $130 per person)
boasts hilltop comfort and the best view of Blue Mountain Peak from its bedroom windows.
the Old Tavern Estate, Clifton Mount and
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G O MAGAZ INE
15/11/2011 10:37
BY OLIVER HILL
IF YOU GO
Old Tavern Estate
Green Hills, Portland;
+1-876-924-2785,
oldtaverncoffee.com
produces, shipped worldwide in emblem-
All three
atic wooden barrels. Findlater gives me a
samples are
tour of the entire process, from the berries
deemed worthy
being cleaned all the way to packaging.
of the Jamaica
Blue Mountain
Clockwise from left: Roasting beans at Old Tavern
Estate; Blue Mountain coffee berries; Valentine sniffs
coffee at the Coffee Industry Board Quality Assurance
cupping; Clifton Mount’s plantation
Belly full after a hearty lunch at nearby
Belcour Lodge, I’m on my way to meet
few days later, Coffee Industry
A Coffee clas-
Board Quality Assurance
sification, and,
Manager Hervin Willis
as the grading
welcomes me at the regula-
comes to a
tor’s lab where samples of all green beans
close, Clifton
awaiting export are tested for consistency
Mount coffee
of color, size and taste. Its strict guidelines
emerges as the
and quality control procedures have
clear favorite,
preserved the Jamaica Blue Mountain
eliciting gut-
Coffee brand and made it into one of the
tural sounds
country’s strongest trademarks.
of enjoyment
A typical cupping is soon underway,
Café Blue
Rose Hall,
Rose Hall Rd,
Montego Bay;
+1-876-953-4646 ;
jamaicacafeblue.com
Clifton Mount
Newcastle, St. Andrew
Belcour Lodge
Maryland District,
Upper St. Andrew;
+1-876-927-2448;
belcourpreserves.com
Mavis Bank
Coffee Factory
Mavis Bank,
+1-876-977-8528;
jablumcoffee.com
from Willis, who praises the floral notes
with Willis and Quality Assurance Inspec-
resulting from the carefully managed
tor Marsha Valentine sampling roasted
fermentation of the beans (in the
beans from the three places I visited.
end, he would take the leftover beans
To begin the cupping, six ounces of
home). The Mavis Bank medium roast
Howard Findlater, Chief Operating Officer
98-degree water are poured directly on
was close behind, while the Twyman
at Mavis Bank Coffee Factory. MBCF is
nine grams of ground beans in three cups
Estate beans were noted to have been
a coffee processing plant rather than an
per sample. Next, the aroma is assessed by
roasted on the light side, which the
estate, with monstrous machinery drying,
sniffing each cup closely. Then, the froth
experts said prevented full flavor from
pulping, separating, roasting and packag-
is removed and the coffee is slurped to
emerging, but were nonetheless
ing. It sources beans from more than
the back of the throat and spit out in what
deemed first-class Blue Mountain Coffee.
6,000 small local farmers, who bring their
is a sober, formalized process. Faults are
crop to 90 depots located around the Blue
sought by assessing consistency between
cuppa joe is world-famous for a reason—it
Mountains. The company’s brand, Jablum,
the three cups in terms of acidity, fra-
assures quality and consistency. Paying
is among the strongest in the market for
grance, body, roast and aftertaste, which
that little extra bit is well worth it—I know
roast product, as are the green beans it
are all graded.
I’ll be buzzing about it for a while.
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As I now understand, a Blue Mountain
G O MAGAZ INE
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