MOLI VIEW™

"Why is it the best coffee in the world?" I obnoxiously asked our stout Jamaican tour guide Junior, as he guided us up the steep stone steps into the coffee fields at the UCC Craighton Estate coffee plantation, the largest of about 3,000 coffee growers in Jamaica's famous Blue Mountains.

"Well, first of all," he replied patiently, "it's the way it tastes, the smooth and mellow flavor, with no bitter afterbite." That seemed too simple of an answer, so I was determined to investigate further.

Apparently, coffee was introduced to the Caribbean by the French in the 1700s, after eight plants were stolen from Louis the XVI and just one survived when planted in Martinique. Coffee plants only flourish 25 degrees on either side of the equator (which is the same criterion for cocoa plants). The crop needs a delicate balance of sunshine, rainfall, humidity, fertile soil, an altitude of at least 2,000 feet above sea level, and ideally, a 45-degree slope on the side of a mountain to grow. The Blue Mountains of Jamaica provide all this, plus a unique pattern of cloud cover that filters the sunlight and traps and releases the heat and humidity, perfecting the quality of the bean.

Whew. Didn't realize it was so scientific. But leave it to the Japanese company UCC, which purchased the estate in 1981, to have boiled it down for the rest of us. They have even figured out the best way to prepare the coffee: one tablespoon of grounds to six ounces of water, prepared in a regular filter coffeemaker. And the serious coffee gourmand should take it black.

But as a regular consumer, it's a bit more straightforward. Excellence in gourmet coffee is rated by measuring its bitterness, acidity, texture, sweetness, and sourness. And though Kona coffee is more expensive per pound, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is the standard bearer of balance in taste. Since that makes it the designer coffee of the world, the Japanese want nothing else.

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