Where Do Arabica Coffee Beans Come From in the Blue Mountains?
Old Tavern Estate sits on the northern slope of Jamaica's Blue Mountains, where owner Alex Twyman has farmed for over fifty years. Annual output is only about 40,000 pounds, under 2% of total Blue Mountain production, and each pound sells for more than fifty US dollars, double ordinary Blue Mountain.
The rainy, foggy, low-temperature conditions without frost slow cherry development, so ripening takes about ten months, four to five months longer than usual, letting sugars accumulate for a notably sweet cup. The variety is Arabica Typica, though the growing environment makes its flavor very different from the same arabica bean grown elsewhere, with aromas described as woody or nutty.
When people talk about Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, many first think of Wallenford Estate, but there is an even more hidden and upscale farm—Old Tavern Estate. The owner, Alex Twyman, has been rooted in the northern slopes of the Blue Mountains for over fifty years, cultivating slow-ripened cherries under shade-grown practices to produce a top-tier Blue Mountain coffee that is sweet with a distinctive aroma. Its annual output is only 40,000 pounds, less than 2% of total Blue Mountain production, yet each pound sells for over fifty US dollars, double that of ordinary Blue Mountain. Even more legendary is that Twyman single-handedly challenged Jamaica's coffee public sale system, ultimately driving the industry to open up. Front Street Coffee takes you deep into this misty, rain-shrouded Blue Mountain secret realm to explore the flavor code of top Blue Mountain and the dedicated life of the farm owner.
When it comes to Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, the name Wallenford Estate rings loudest, but this publication wants to introduce coffee lovers to another, even higher-grade ancient estate—Old Tavern Estate. The current owner, Alex Twyman, is sixty-eight this year, born in London and moved to Jamaica in the 1950s. At that time, he could not even tell a coffee tree from an orange tree. After years of dedicated exploration, he devoted himself to coffee cultivation starting in 1969, and has now built this estate into a top representative of Blue Mountain coffee.
Twyman explains that Old Tavern Estate is located on the northern slope of the Blue Mountains, where it is rainy and humid, shrouded in fog, with thick clouds and low temperatures, yet no frost. Such conditions cause the coffee cherries to develop slowly; from flowering and fruiting to the green cherries turning red and ripe, it takes about ten months, four to five months longer than in ordinary production areas. Because of this, the coffee beans fully accumulate sugars, and Old Tavern Estate's coffee is exceptionally sweet on the palate. In addition, Twyman's coffee has a unique aroma—some describe it as the freshness of wood, others call it a nutty fragrance. The Blue Mountain coffee variety is Arabica Typica, but due to the special growing environment, its flavor is vastly different from the same variety elsewhere.
Looking over his 130-acre coffee field, Twyman says with full confidence: "My top-quality coffee is best enjoyed after a meal, and paired with a cigar it is simply perfect. Do not treat it as a morning pick-me-up; this estate's coffee is not meant for caffeine supplementation—that would be a waste." He uses shade-growing methods, minimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Although yields are limited, it occupies an excellent niche in the market, selling for over fifty US dollars per pound—double the price of ordinary Blue Mountain coffee, which is astonishing. Old Tavern Estate produces only 40,000 pounds of coffee each year, less than two percent of total Blue Mountain coffee capacity. Compared with global coffee production of 14 billion pounds annually, this is even more negligible, yet the reputation of Old Tavern Blue Mountain Coffee Estate endures.
Twyman is also a prominent figure in the Blue Mountain coffee world. In earlier years, the Jamaican government, through the Coffee Industry Board, controlled all stages of Blue Mountain coffee from production to distribution, and small farmers had to sell their coffee cherries to the board for centralized processing. But Twyman believed that because each estate's soil, water, and altitude differ, green bean quality naturally varies; mixing good and bad easily leads to bad money driving out good. So he stood up to defend his own beans, refused to hand them over to the authorities, and fought for the right to "grow and sell his own." This caused a huge uproar and even alarmed the International Monetary Fund, which pressured the Jamaican government in 1983 to adopt a more open coffee policy as part of economic reform. Jamaica's coffee public sale policy thus began to loosen, and by 1997 two estates had been approved to handle the entire process of cultivation, washing, and roasting—Old Tavern Estate was one of them, and the other was RSW Estate. Twyman's fame spread quickly. He said: "I can finally control all the steps and provide consistent, high-quality coffee."
Twyman also sells roasted beans online, but he resolutely does not sell ground coffee, to avoid losing flavor. If you want to experience this top-tier Blue Mountain, Front Street Coffee suggests paying attention to its roasted bean products and savoring the sweetness and unique aroma brought by slow ripening.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
