Blue Mountains

Only two days left on Jamaica so I've decided to hire a car and head in to the Blue Mountains to smell the coffee. As an adventure is better shared I asked Alex and Julia if they fancied coming in to the mountains for a bit of a road trip and they accepted. So after a short drive to the petrol station to pick up some provisions, well outside the door to the garage was a young lad begging and just asking for money, not too intrusive but not what we are used to. We all ignored him as this is normally the best thing to do. When we came out a guy in a large 4x4 was shouting out "Where is security, and can they get this scum of the earth out of here", we were shocked at his language and tone of voice to the young lad. Oh well another experience.

We drove for what must have been almost three hours in to the Blue Mountains, so yes we went the wrong way a little bit, well quite a lot, but it was well worth it, hunting for this coffee is hard work, no signs, no indication of coffee farms anywhere. Finally we stopped at a small house and Julia got out to ask if they sold coffee, nope, but just down the road at the next house they did.

So we pulled up out side a small house with a broken down disused Land Rover, we met with Dorothy Twyman and her son David, who produce the best of the best of Blue Mountain coffee. The late Alex Twyman emigrated to Jamaica from England in 1958 and started growing coffee a decade later, David (his son) now keeping up the tradition. Dorothy oversees the roasting, meticulously performing quality control by taste. The environmentally conscious Twymans keep their use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers to a minimum and compost all by-products before returning them to the soil.

Although the Twyman’s coffee is widely acclaimed as the best on the island, they weren’t allowed to sell an ounce (due to Kafkaesque government regulations) until 1997, when they were granted an exclusive license to self-process coffee under an ‘estate’ label - the only estate on the island permitted to do so at the time.

The Twymans welcomed us warmly in to their house when we knocked on the door unannounced. We were treated to a lesson in coffee growing and production as well a a tasting session of two of the many coffees they produce. Additionally, they produce the rare peaberry variety with a mild, subtle flavour.

The house was like walking in to lemony snicket's house which was hanging over the edge cliff, wooden and full of character. The back of the house was a small room where the coffee was roasted. The through to the viewing of the Blue Mountains a room with large windows looking out to, well the clouds, it was cloudy. Then without warning to clouds cleared, cameras out and photos of the beautiful views

What a wonderful find that we will never forget.