The Betty Black Blog

To the eastern end of Jamaica, straddling St Andrew, St Mary and Portland, lie the Blue Mountains, the tallest section of the Island’s hilly spine. Blue Mountain Peak soars a majestic 7402ft (2256m) into the air. Half way up this lush range something magical happens, for this is where the world famous Blue Mountain Coffee grows.

In the 1720s, Louis XIV of France sent three Arabica coffee plants to his colony of Martinique. Two plants perished and the third was given as a gift or bribe by the Governor of Martinique to Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica, in about 1728. Other versions say that the plants were part of the cargo on a captured French vessel. Plant, soil and climate created a perfect synergy and by 1737, Jamaica started to export coffee and the rest, as they say, is history.

Most of the coffee available in our local supermarkets is what is known as high mountain coffee, this coffee meets some but not all of the criteria. It may be grown at the correct altitude but not in the Blue Mountains or it might be grown below the minimum altitude, or it might just possible have been grown on a certified Blue Mountain plantation and the beans were not quite the right size or colour! Some of our locally available coffee is High Mountain mixed with imported product as, for every pound of Blue Mountain Coffee sold, we can buy 10 pounds of Brazilian or Columbian.

The designation, Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, is an internationally protected certification that can only be issued by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica. Altitude, geographic location, method of drying and roasting, size of beans, etc. are all rigidly regulated and monitored; the beans also take twice as long to ripen as more mundane coffees. Blue Mountain Coffee is never freeze dried, decaffeinated or made into instant granules. Some people think that there is a low caffeine content because the coffee is not bitter but in actual fact this is not so; the caffeine level is quite high, it is a low acid content which gives the deceptively mild flavour. The rich, smooth taste makes this incredible brew one of the most sought after, and most expensive, coffees in the world. Blue Mountain Coffee is grown at elevations between 3,000 and 5,500 ft. Coffee does not grow properly above that height and below it lacks that special magic. There are only 18 plantations/companies certified by the Coffee Industry Board.

Read more about the Blue Mountains at Jamaica-Allspice.com