MUCH TO SIP AND SAVOUR
Want a taste of the real Jamaica? Follow the coffee trail all the way to the roots of reggae
As our van makes its way up the switchback roads into the mountains, humidity presses in and we find ourselves literally in the clouds, 900 metres up in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains.
“Perfect coffee growing conditions!” says our guide Lynda Lee Burk, leaning gleefully out the window of the swaying vehicle. She points out the coffee plants growing along the steep embankments, the abundance of heat and humidity available to them. Perhaps to take our minds off the narrowness of the road, she gives us a quick coffee-tasting primer: wine has eight taste profiles, she says, coffee has at least 16. There’s everything from sweetness and earthiness to citrus and chocolate.
Meanwhile, our driver pulls to the shoulder to let an approaching car pass.
Coffee down at sea level, she says, will grow twice as fast, but the sweetest coffee beans in the world are grown here, above the magical number of 914 metres, where it is almost always misty and cooler than the beach temperatures at sea level.
This is a rainforest, and along with abundant blue hydrangeas, azaleas and butterflies, there are at least 26 endemic bird species and many more that migrate through. Jamaica is a birding and hiking paradise on some of the highest points in the Caribbean, with peaks reaching more than 2,000 metres. With world-class coffee at the end of the trail. And always, always gentle reggae music playing.
There’s so much more to Jamaica than white sand beaches and rum. The island is the birthplace of reggae music and the Rastafarian movement, and has a rich cultural history and cuisine. It’s also become known as a place of extreme poverty, where tourists are discouraged from venturing out of their gated, all-inclusive resorts.
But there is much to be sipped and savoured up in the Blue Mountains, starting with a visit to Strawberry Hill, where reggae legend Bob Marley used to hang out — now a gated boutique resort with white-shuttered Georgian cottages built into the steep slope.
There’s so much more to Jamaica than ... beaches and rum. The island is the birthplace of reggae music and the Rastafarian movement.
The property is renowned for its elegant spa, its elaborate Sunday brunch and its Gold Room, where the walls are lined with the personal gold record collection of owner Chris Blackwell.
The music mogul founded Island Records, the label that produced U2, The Cranberries, Steve Winwood and Cat Stevens, to name a few. But here, he is most famous for discovering Marley.
That’s right, No Woman, No Cry. The most famous reggae musician of all time. Around these parts, it’s well known that Marley visited this mountain oasis frequently, most famously as the place to recuperate from a 1976 assassination attempt.
Over Blackwell Black Gold rum drinks in the spectacularly cosy lobby, with rain pelting down onto the tropical foliage outside and a fire roaring in the large stone fireplace, friendly staff provide a lesson in how to say “Ya, mon” with the proper gusto. Photos of famous guests line the walls — Charles and Camilla, Mick Jagger. No big deal.
Over a dinner of traditional Jamaican dishes — butterflied prawns in a sweet coconut sauce, goat curry, crispy salt fish fritters, jerk chicken — we take in the glittering lights of Kingston far, far below and plan the many cups of coffee we will sample the next day.
This place truly feels like a hideaway on top of a mountain. This is not the place to come for state-ofthe-art conveniences or consistent Wi-Fi, but for retreat, perhaps creative rejuvenation.
Perhaps for a quiet, pampering spa treatment in an open-air setting, fragrant tropical air wafting through wide plantation shutters.
Try the Blue Mountain Elixir, a full-body, coffee-ground exfoliation scrub, then wander out for a dip in the infinity pool, overlooking the endless westward views.
The Blue Mountains feel like a place to recover. Your spirit, your creativity, even — forgive the cliché — your groove.
But first, coffee.
The humidity and heat up here really aid its growth, as well as the rich volcanic soil with good drainage. The coffee grown here is beyond delicious.
One popular stop on the “single estate” trail is the Old Tavern Coffee Estate, where coffee farmer David Twyman welcomes visitors for coffee and roaster talk.
Inside the tiny backroom where he and a helper sort through the drying beans by hand, he explains that large-scale producers polish away the dried, flammable husk to avoid burning while the bean is roasted.
“I understand why some take it off,” he says, holding out a palm full of raw coffee beans. “I believe it adds flavour; I like the effect of it.”
Twyman harvests small batches of his coffee each year, from Arabica coffee plants put there by his father a generation ago.
In the living room of the family cottage turned coffee estate, Twyman serves up coffee in steaming pottery mugs, with just a drizzle of honey on the side.
It is divine — wonderfully balanced, round, smooth and sweet.
Another must-stop along these roads is EITS Cafe, an ecotourism guest house, restaurant, bar and art gallery, where patrons sit gazing at the valley views, huddled over steaming coffees. This café is known for its barrel-roasted chicken and baked breads, organic greens and a mouth-watering avocado salad dressing. It’s the perfect picnic lunch to bring on the road as we carry on up toward Clifton Mount Coffee Farm, located on the grounds of a traditional English estate home with spectacular views of the ocean, the valley and the city of Kingston from its manicured rolling lawns. The Blue Mountains are criss-crossed with hiking trails, and visitors can choose their challenge level. Sign up for a guided, moderate, 1.5-hour hike along the Settlement Trail, glimpsing waterfalls as it winds over footbridges and along the babbling Hope River. If you don’t mind waking before dawn, it’s pure magic to watch the sun come up while hiking from Strawberry Hill up the steep trails to, for example, a pretty white chapel on the top of a cliff. Hardcore hikers can set out at 2 a.m. to catch the sunrise from Blue Mountain Peak, the highest point in Jamaica at 2,256 metres.
Local guides are not just recommended for safety, they are invaluable resources to learn about the tropical flora, fauna and birds seen along the way. This is, after all, the rainforest, and if you know where to look, you’ll see cherry red coffee berries, azaleas and even the Jamaican tody with its vermilion beak and chin feathers. Also keep watch for the bright red mohawk and black-and-white stripes of the Jamaican woodpecker. A few days here, breathing in the misty air, hiking the switchback trails with stunning ocean and valley views, drinking possibly the tastiest organic coffee in the world, finishing off the day with rum on the veranda in a hammock … that’s a different kind of island rejuvenation.