Luckily it was beautiful day; cool, with one of those soft caressing winds and fleeing clouds. Our African Grey Ross sat with us to supervise activities which gave rise to calls to Ross from a visiting Yellow-billed parrot, one of Jamaica’s indigenous and protected birds. I must have sat too close to a favourite tree because a woodpecker kept up an all day staccato complaint coupled with annoyed cries. The cooing of barble doves drove the sunset away and brought and end to work…not quite complete but almost.

Many of you may not realise how much work goes into producing that cup of coffee. After reaping we have to take the fruity red covering off the beans. Rowan’s Royale saves the red pulp and returns it to the farm to be recycled; composted down and applied to the trees as fertilser.

Tonight the coffee we washed is in large pails fermenting to get rid of the mucillage on the beans. When the fermentation is complete we carefully wash the beans again and then we dry them. Depending on the weather, as we sun dry, it ccan take as little as 3 weeks or as much as 6 to be properly dried. Then we bag them and rest them for 3 to 6 months before taking off the protective parchment. Winnowing the trash, sizing and finally roasting.

So tired tonight but pleased to know that today’s work brings us closer to that special cup of Organic Jamaica Blue Mountain…all to make sure that you get the best from Rowan’s Royale!