Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is one of the most rare gourmet coffees available. Cultivated at the eastern end of the island, natives grow the coffee on their own lands at high altitudes. Although the terrain, rainfall and Blue Mountain mist combine to create the most ideal conditions for the crop to flourish, these factors also cause the coffee to mature slowly. Harvesting occurs when the fruit is ripe, and only then are the beans are individually hand-picked and wet-processed.

Beginning in the eighteenth century, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee received international acclaim that was likened to products such as tea and chocolate. In 1723, King Louis XV of France sent three plants to its colony, Martinique, located approximately 1,200 miles southwest of Jamaica. Five years later, the Governor of Martinique gave a plant to the Governor of Jamaica, thus establishing the crop in the country where it has thrived ever since.

Today’s Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee industry is highly regulated. Only fifteen percent of the coffee that Jamaica produces is Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, and legislation now demarcates geographical boundaries that define how coffee is classified. The Jamaican Coffee Industry is responsible for inspection and certification of the coffee that is produced and exported to certify that only authentic Blue Mountain be labeled as such.