St.Helena coffee beans

[Heavenfall]

Hello.


Has anyone here tried coffee from St.Helena? I`ve been wanting for some time now to get hold of coffee beans from that island, just thought i would write and see what others think of that coffee

 

[Heavenfall]

Well 230 views and 0 reply is pretty slow imo.

Anyway. I found a company in London, Sea Island Coffee, that imports coffee from "exotic" places. They had that St.Helena coffee so i ordered. Got it today and my god that was one good cup of coffee (actually several good cups)

Doesnt seem like anyone is interested but St.Helena beans is highly recommended

 

[PinkRose]

Hello "Heavenfall"

I'm guessing the reason you didn't get any response to your question is because no one has tried coffee from St. Helena.

I'm glad you were able to find it and that you were pleased with the result. Are you located in the United States? How much did it cost to order the coffee from London?

By the way, welcome to the Coffee Forums website. I hope you'll visit us often.

Rose

 

[Heavenfall]

I`m located in Norway. It cost £23 to get it shipped from London to Norway. 110grams of coffee. Pretty expensive for a couple of cups of coffee. But as i wrote earlier, one damn good cup it was

Next up is to try some Monsooned Malabar coffee. I hear that that is some great coffee


Edit: I meant the total for 110grams coffee ordered and shipped to Norway was £23. The shipping alone came to around £2 i think

 

[eldub]

It better be good. That comes to about $120/lb.

At that price, one should be able to order just about any coffee receiving the "Cup of Excellence" award that makes it onto the market.

 

[eldub]

Here's a link for some beans from da island in question for ONLY $90/lb...

St. Helena Island Coffee - Coffee & Tea Limited

 

[eldub]

Here's a link to sweet maria's concerning the '04 vintage of St helena coffee. While its not current, I did find it interesting.

Tea & Coffee 04/01 - St. Helena: The Forgotten Coffee

From the linked article: Just how good is St. Helena coffee? In terms of cash paid for the St. Helena bean, there is nothing to surpass it - even Jamaica Blue Mountain, which for 70-odd years has dominated the gourmet coffee scene. A 17 gram-shot of St. Helena Green Tipped Bourbon Arabica at Harrods last year would have set you back £4.74. St. Helena coffee retails at $22 per half pound, shipping included. Kenyan, Hawaiian, Jamaican - and more recently - Galapagos-grown coffee all occupy the rarefied landscape of true gourmet coffee, and now St. Helena coffee is standing there amongst the best of them.[SIZE=-1]You could ask 1,000 people if they had heard of St. Helena coffee and they would say no. If you ask 10,000 you might find one who says yes, Henry says.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]The overall scale of coffee production that is produced by the St. Helena Coffee Company, which is 98% of the island output, is minuscule. The company now has six estates. Henry said that when he started in 1994, the annual production was 1.5 tons. It's four times that now. I'm looking to increase production by about 20% each year for the next six to seven years, eventually hoping to produce around 25 to 30 tons. My nearest competitor, Jamaica Blue Mountain, is producing close to 1,000 tons!

But wait, there's more! : [/SIZE]UPDATE 11/19/04 : Well, a sample of the latest shipment from St. Helena has come in, and the the news is not good. The broker warned "it's baggy" - but having tasted it, that was putting it nicely. The coffee is just bad - which just goes to show that good trees, soil, and weather, and proven ability to produce great coffee in the past is no guarantee of even passable coffee. It is a real disappointment considering that we were waiting on the coffee all year, since the 60#s we received last year about this time, and had committed to 6 bags of it. Future shipments are very iffy as we have basically written them off, and who knows when they will be able to produce the kind of coffee they are capable of once again. At this point we don't have a lot of faith in their quality control. If they will ship us old baggy coffee and think we would accept it just to stock this limited coffee, they underestimate us. Cup quality comes first - the rest is incidental. I will warn you away from this coffee as, even on a small scale, you are risking similar results. - Tom
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[PinkRose]

Hello again, "Heavenfall"

It's great that you enjoyed the coffee from St. Helena! I imagine it would have been a huge disappointment to pay so much for the coffee and shipping only to end up not liking it. It's nice when things work out favorably.

So, your next adventure will be to try Monsooned Malabar. I bought a pound of it a few years ago, and I didn't like it at all. It had an overpowering musty flavor (kinda reminded me of wet dirt). It will be interesting to read your comments after you try it.

Rose