Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. Why do people love drinking this coffee?

Another world renowned product from this island is Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.

✦ In 1713, according to local storytellers, the Dutch gave a coffee bush to Louis XV of France. Apparently, this was not a willing gift but one that yielded eventually three plants that the French King sent to the island of Martinique.

✦ Allegedly, two of the plants died during the trip and the third one made it to Jamaica. The story says that then Governor, Sir Nicholas Lawes, planted it at Temple Hall, St Andrew parish.

✦ Coffee production quickly expanded from St Andrew to the Blue Mountains and to the hills of other nearby parishes. Jamaica's climate and soil conditions are perfect for coffee cultivation. In less than 100 years, Jamaica boasted more than 600 coffee plantations. Imagine that: all this coffee expansion from just one seedling!

Jamaican Genuine Blue Mountain Coffee Is For You!

By the 19th century, Jamaica dominated coffee production in the world.

click here for Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

What is so special about Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee besides being one of the most critically acclaimed and expensive types of coffee in the world?

✧ This coffee has light color and rich flavor. It is known for its full body and mild flavor without any bitterness. Only coffee grown in four districts or parishes between 3,000 and 5,000 feet in altitude qualifies to carry the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee certification.

✧ This coffee is separated by five grades based on bean size, lack of defects, and quality of flavor profile.
✧ In addition, only a small quantity of high quality Blue Mountain Coffee is produced each year.
✧ Demand is high, supply is low. As a result, it commands a premium price. The top grade is designed as specialty coffee.
✧ It is interesting to note that Jamaican Blue Mountain green coffee is the only coffee in the world that is shipped in oak barrels similar to fine wines.
✧ The oak barrels help preserve and maintain the unique characteristics of the green coffee, a secret wine producers have known for a very long time.
✧ Blue Mountain Coffee also contains less caffeine than any other commercially grown coffee species.

Coffee Certification Ensures Quality

Before coffee can be labeled "Blue Mountain Coffee," it has to meet a strict set of certification requirements.

This ensures that buyers get their money's worth when buying the quality gourmet coffee they expect. Most ✧ Jamaican coffee grows on the once forested lower slopes of the Blue Mountains.
✧ Coffee harvested at 3,000 to 5,000 feet in altitude is Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. Coffee harvested at 1,500 to 3,000 feet is certified as Jamaica High Mountain Coffee.
✧ Coffee harvested at 1,500 feet and below is certified as Jamaica Supreme or Jamaica Low Mountain Coffee.

✧ The two largest coffee producers in Jamaica are Wallenford Estate and the Moy Hall Cooperative. . At one time, Wallenford Estate was one of the most celebrated and best of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.
✧ Nowadays, the term Wallenford Estate refers to any Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee from Wallensford mill. The Moy Hall Cooperative has about 1,500 small coffee farmers supplying cherries to the Moy Hall Coffee Factory in Cedar Valley.

✧ The staff members, many of them coffee farmers, jealously follow the Jamaica Coffee Industry Board standards in order to maintain the prized certification labels for their coffee.
✧ This, in turn, translates into higher prices for their crops. The coffee reaping, selection, floating, re-floating, measurement, drying, grading, picking and sorting before export is a very involved but necessary process that guarantees coffee quality from the bean to the cup.
✧ 90% of all Jamaican coffee production is exported to Japan, the US and Europe.

Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.

First some history for context reasons: Coffee Arabica traces its roots to Abyssinia and was introduced into Arabia more than one thousand years ago.

✦ The tradition of coffee consumption is certainly one of the most established ones with ties to many cultures as merchants and people kept promoting coffee as a beverage of choice.

✦ In India, tradition gives credit to BaBa Budan, a Moslem pilgrim to Mecca, with the introduction of coffee into Southern India about 1600.
✦ The region where Baba Budan settled is still known as the Baba Budan Hills and continues to be an important coffee producing area in this part of the world.

✦ In 1699 coffee was introduced into Java.
The coffee plants went from Java to Amsterdam in 1706 and a few years later they ended up as seedlings in the Paris Botanical Gardens.
✦ This explains how, in 1723, three of these plants went from Paris to Martinique. The French naval officer, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, was the person transporting the seedlings.
✦ Only one of the plants survived and from it Arabica coffee was established in Martinique. From Martinique, coffee went to Jamaica and to other coffee producing areas of the Western Hemisphere.

Jamaica's colorful backwoods growers & roasters

The tradition of "backwoods growers and roasters" remains very much alive in Jamaica.
✦ Some local farmers continue to hand pick their own ripe berries, dry them, cure them and roast them in a traditional and time consuming way.
✦ When in Jamaica, you may notice coffee farmers selling their own coffee along roadsides or from their own coffee farms. If you have the opportunity to stop and visit with one of Jamaica's "backwoods growers" who still roast the old-fashioned way and sell their harvest directly to locals and visitors, be sure to stop and enjoy such unique experience.
✦Usually, what happens is you just stumble upon such opportunity. Backwoods growers do not advertise or even have signs "out front."

✦ So, how do you know they are there? Ah! By the rich, sweet-roasted aroma of fresh coffee in the air!
✦Literally, the "nose" will guide you to the right place to partake of old fashioned Jamaican hospitality.
✦ Your tongue and palate will thank you for what is a truly unforgettable coffee tasting time.
✦ You will remember the interaction with new people who have a different lifestyle and enjoy drinking coffee.

Coffee remains a popular and sought after beverage worldwide.

Following is some interesting trivia about coffee, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, food and the island of Jamaica.

First, some general trivia:

✧ A cup of coffee contains around 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine as compared to 30 milligrams of caffeine in the average chocolate bar.
✧ 75% of all caffeine consumed in the United States is from coffee.
✧ The steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amounts of antioxidants as three oranges, according to a scientific report from the University of California. Antioxidants are good for you, they are heterocyclic compounds that can prevent risk of some illnesses.
✧ The famous Lloyd's of London started under the name Edward Lloyd's Coffeehouse.
✧ "To Insure Promptness" was an inscription placed on brass boxes in old London coffeehouses.
Customers were encouraged to place money in these boxes to promote good and efficient service from the coffeehouse workers.
In time, the acronym, TIP, became a byword and it is what we use everywhere.
✧ Next time you add the 'tip" to your bill, remember that the tradition originated around coffee

Y'allright? Whattagwan? Have some coffee!

Now, some Jamaican trivia:

✧ "Ackee" is both the national fruit and the national dish of Jamaica.
✧ Most Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is exported to Japan.
✧ The pimento plant is native to Jamaica and is one of the island's main agricultural export crops to Russia, Germany and the US.
✧ The Spaniards called it "Pimienta de Jamaica."
✧ Nowadays, it is known as "Allspice, a combination of many spices."
✧ Allspice is made from ripe berries dried and pounded to a fine powder. It is used in meat curing, confectionary and food processing. ✧ The oil distilled from the leaves is used in men's fragrances.
✧ Jamaican "Jerk" is a unique way of preserving and cooking meat such as pork, chicken, fish or beef.
✧ The origin of the word "Jerk" is unknown. It may be from the Arawak Indian language or simply the physical reaction to "pull" or "jerk" meat off the fire. Jamaican "Jerk" is a culinary delight of the island.

What about a Jamaican quick linguistic lesson?

offee drinking has many health benefits supported by extensive and ongoing research performed all over the world.

1. If you are at least 60 years old and drink fluids only when thirsty, you get only about 90% of the fluids your body needs. That means a 10% deficiency in body fluids which is not a good thing. This lack of fluids will translate, minimally, into dehydration symptoms such as fatigue and lethargy or something else.
2. After 50 years of age, it is a good habit to drink fluids for hydration purposes specifically as a habit, even when you are not thirsty.
3. Coffee is part of the daily routine for most adults. Alternating water, coffee and another alternative beverage daily can promote good hydration habits. Taking in good hydrating fluids regularly will prevent dehydration and maintain good health.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee: delicious!

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