How Dis Mek? – Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee

WHETHER you have it instant, in a frappé, mocha, latte, or just plain black, coffee is a staple for many Jamaicans, but the deep brown beans we know and love start out very differently. Managing director of Mavis Bank Coffee Factory Dr Norman Grant recently shared with the Jamaica Observer the process to create what is, for many people around the world, their favourite beverage. “Coffee came to Jamaica by our then Governor Sir Nicholas Laws.

He brought three coffee plants, Arabica Typica, to the Blue Mountains in Temple Hall in West Rural St Andrew, and coffee was planted there,” Grant explained. Since then, speciality or gourmet coffee known as Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee has been grown in specified regions in the Blue Mountain range across St Thomas, St Andrew, and Portland at an altitude of between 2,000 and 5,000 feet. Discovered in Ethiopia in 1614, coffee starts out as a sapling, grown from seeds in a nursery for six to nine months before plants are moved to coffee ‘plantations’.

After being planted, coffee trees need another two to three years before they will produce fruit. Sacks of dried and hulled coffee beans being aged in a storeroom at the Mavis Bank Coffee Factory. Photo: Gavin Jones When that fruit grows, it’s in the form of a small green bud that turns into a bright red berry, called cherry berries or coffee cherries.

“What we do once the coffee is ripe, the farmers reap, and we have our trucks that go out to collect it from agents that receive it from the farmers. These agents are called our selectors,” Grant explained. The coffee is then taken to the factory, remeasured and poured into large containers of water to separate the good ones from the bad.

Bad coffee, which has been bitten by birds, or worms, or the ones that are decayed, will float, while good coffee with heavy intact beans will sink to the bottom of the container. The good coffee is then upended into large vats that pulp the fruit, separating the flesh from the beans. Workers at the Mavis Bank Coffee Factory sorting beans based on their grade.Photo: Gavin Jones “There’s a machine that washes and takes off the sugary substance, which is called the mucilage, and then we get what is called wet parchment,” said Grant.

That is dried on patios, or asphalt barbecues that are strictly controlled, no outside shoes or visitors are allowed to step on or walk across the surface.