Coffee expert engaged in testing grades of coffee. -Contributed photoAndrew Green, Contributor
SETTING ITS sights from the rarified reaches attained by Jamaica's exclusive Blue Mountain coffee, a new brand is aiming even higher.
Greenwich Blue Estate Coffee is the top brand of the family-owned Greenwich Mountain Estate. It was taken to market last week accompanied by the Greenwich Select and Greenwich Choice brands.
"What is unique about us is that the coffee comes from here, a single estate," said Douglas Graham, a director of the enterprise. He was conducting a recent media tour of the state-of-the-art pulpery located on the estate, just beyond Newcastle.
"We use the word estate in our label and we mean it," he said. "We don't buy coffee from anyone."
INTERNET PURCHASING
Other Blue Mountain coffee are a blend of coffees from sections of the Blue Mountains, he said. But Greenwich controls its coffee from the berry stage on the tree until its processing is complete and it leaves the Greenwich factory floor at South Camp Road in Kingston.
They just began putting their roasted coffee on the market last week.
"Greenwich Blue is available through Internet purchasing and direct sales and through our offices on South Camp Road," said director Steven Cooke. The Select brand will be in gift shops and high-end retail outlets while the Choice brand will be available in supermarkets islandwide.
At present, Greenwich exports about 90 per cent of the crop as beans, Mr. Cooke said.
The top market for this is Japan and Greenwich will continue selling its coffee beans to this market while gradually developing its roasted products.
"I don't know how much of the crop the roasted market will take off," Mr. Graham said, "so I have a backup in that I can ship green coffee to Japan."
The family started growing coffee at Greenwich in 1968 on five acres of land, said Melanie Graham, his wife, and also a director of the new enterprise.
"It has been evolving a long time," she said. "For years we were just growing coffee and selling it to the Coffee Board."
Since the start in 1968, they leased another 108 acres, though not all of this is yet in coffee.
"What drives Blue Mountain coffee production is not so much acres of land, but productivity per acre," said John Pickersgill, managing director of the Jamaica UCC Blue Mountain Coffee Company, another coffee producer. Mr. Pickersgill was a member of the touring group at the Greenwich pulpery.
"Experience in Jamaica abounds with people with large acreages producing coffee at much less than 80 boxes per acre and at as low as 15-20 boxes per acre," Mr. Pickersgill said. The island-wide average is about 15 boxes per acre.
The amount of land is not the determining factor in terms of overall output, he said. "What is important is to maximize the use of your land."
HIGH PRICE
And what makes it worthwhile is the price that Jamaican coffee commands.
"Farmers are getting the highest price for coffee in the world," said David Evans, a Greenwich consultant with over half a century of experience in the industry.
"Brazilians get about US$0.90 per pound," he said. "Jamaica gets about US$11 per pound."
Jamaica produces coffee in three grades. These are Blue Mountain, High Mountain Supreme and Prime Washed and gets unrivalled prices for them on world markets.
Only about 15 per cent of the coffee grown in Jamaica is authentic Blue Mountain.
To be known as Jamaica Blue Mountain, coffee must be grown in the Blue Mountains within the prescribed areas of St. Thomas, St. Andrew and Portland. Package labels indicate if coffee is a blend or 100 per cent Blue Mountain. Jamaica Prime is grown in Manchester, St. Catherine, Clarendon, St. Ann and St. Elizabeth.
"Jamaica's lowland coffee is equal to or better tasting than coffee from Colombia," Mr. Evans said. "Blue Mountain coffee is in a class of its own.
