History Of Coffee In Jamaica

Jamaican coffee, first grown in the eighteenth century, soon found a ready market in Europe. One type, Blue Mountain coffee, came to be considered among the best in the world. Output rose rapidly and in 1814, the peak year, over 15,000 tons were exported. This prosperity was short-lived, for coffee was a plantation crop and soon after the slaves were emancipated the industry collapsed.

This is fundamental to understanding the history of coffee farming in Jamaica. Some of the land was taken over by smallholders but they allowed the land, the trees and the methods of production to deteriorate so that for the next hundred years exports averaged less than 4,000 tons a year. Times were bad, for as both quantity and quality fell, so did the price. Moreover, throughout this period soil erosion went unchecked, proceeding so far that some old coffee lands will never again be productive. Invariable the best flavored beans are cultivated on the coffee farms Portland Jamaica.

Coffee in of particular value as it grows well in hilly districts unsuited to other crops. Since the war much work has been done to improve the industry. Several million young plants have been given to farmers prepared to look after them properly. A number of pulperies have been built throughout the island to process the crop. During the picking season, which lasts from August to March, ripe cherry-red berries are taken to the pulperies where they are unloaded into water tanks.

Several traveler on blue mountain coffee tours in Jamaica realize or learn that the best berries sink, whereas immature ones and waste matter float on the surface and are easily removed. While the berries are still under water, a machine removes the pulp surrounding the beans. The beans are then sent to a factory in Kingston where they are dried, either artificially, using hot air, or by spreading them on a large barbecue in the sun.

A few days later they are fed into a hulling machine which strips the parchment and the underlying silver skin off the beans and polishes them. Finally the beans are graded according to size, the largest and best being carefully inspected before they are packed into sacks for export. This ‘washed Jamaica coffee’, as it is called, is exported to several countries including the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan and Germany. There are several factories in which coffee is blended, roasted and either packed in vacuum-sealed tins to keep it fresh or converted into instant coffee. For this purpose local supplies of beans are supplemented by imports from Haiti and other Caribbean countries.

The famous Jamaica blue mountain coffee is grown on small farms on the slopes of the Blue Mountains, mostly between 3,000 and 5,000 feet. At these heights the cooler climate causes the berries to take longer to ripen and in consequence the beans develop more of the substances which on roasting give coffee its flavor. The beans are processed at pulperies in the area and exported in barrels.

History of Jamaican fruits
Most of the Jamaican citrus fruit is produced in a wide belt stretching from north to south across the centre of the island, particularly between the elevations of 1,000 and 2,500 feet. During the picking season, which lasts from November to April, all oranges and grapefruit for export as fresh fruit are sent to two factories where some are selected, wrapped and carefully packed in wooden crates for shipment to Britain and New Zealand. The rest are processed into fruit juice, canned fruit, essential oils, and marmalade. Owing to the large local demand for citrus fruit, exports account for only 40 % of the oranges that are grown and for none of the limes or tangerines.

Cocoa
Cocoa, though grown in Jamaica since the earliest days of English settlement, first became important during the decline of the sugar industry in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Cocoa trees replaced cane in some areas, notably the moist sheltered valleys leading up into the Blue Mountains. Exports rose to about 3,000 tons a year in the first quarter of the present century. During this time, however, prices fell because of the remarkable expansion in Ghana—then called the Gold Coast. Few new trees were planted and, as the old ones ceased to bear, bananas were grown in their place.

Jamaica is fortunate in being free from the diseases affecting cocoa in West Africa and Trinidad and as prices have been high since the war the government has set about reorganizing the industry. Plants are given free of cost to growers in cocoa- growing areas and large fermentations have been built to process the cocoa properly. When fermentation is complete and the beans are dry, they are sent to Kingston for blending, cleaning, and grading. Local sales, which include the cocoa used to make instant drinks and confectionery, absorb about one-third of the output. The remainder is exported.