TRAVEL

In Search of the Ultimate Cup of Coffee

I am not a coffee person. Although I do drink the occasional cup, I generally prefer my coffee as an ingredient in ice cream. However, after reading a piece called ‘The Ultimate Cup of Coffee’ by Rob Walsh, one of my favourite food writers, my desire for drinking the same coffee was kindled. Rob Walsh is nicknamed ‘the Indiana Jones of food writers’ due to his various adventures in search of some of the most interesting food experiences. His dining adventures have included caterpillars and goat brains. Unfortunately, that ultimate cup of coffee that Rob Walsh had drunk was not for sale.

Sometime in the early nineties, Rob Walsh made a trip to Jamaica after finding out from various experts (including the head coffee buyer of Starbucks) that the best coffee in the world, if you can get your hands on it, is Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. While all coffee grown within the official Blue Mountain area of Jamaica is called Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, a few estates produce better coffee due to their special soil and climatic conditions. However, after the Second World War, all Blue Mountain coffee had to be sold to the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica and the Board mixed the good with the average coffee beans before they were sold. Therefore, you could not buy coffee from just the best estates. Rob Walsh, however, tracked down Alex Twyman, a maverick coffee planter who was reputed to have the best coffee but who refused to sell his coffee to the Board. Alex Twyman warehoused and aged his coffee instead. It was in Alex’s home that Rob drank his ultimate cup of coffee. It seems that Alex’s coffee estate is very high up in the Blue Mountains and often covered by fog. These conditions cause his coffee to mature slowly and to have a very intense flavour. I later heard that Alex had, in the meantime, also taken legal proceedings to try to obtain a licence to sell his coffee direct rather than to the Coffee Industry Board.

Since reading about Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, I have made it a point to drink more and different types of coffee. I have also out checked out supermarkets and specialty food stores to see if Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee was available but could never find it. The closest I got was a Japanese Brand called Blue Mountain Coffee.

Then, in September 2006, I met Stuart Norman Fraser, a national lifesaving co-ordinator from Jamaica, at the Commonwealth Conference of the Royal Life Saving Society in Bath. Upon finding out that he was from Jamaica, I told him of Rob Walsh’s story about coffee from Alex Twyman’s estate in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. He smiled and said, ‘The stuff you drink here – it’s not real coffee’. It turned out that Stuart is an old friend of David Twyman, the maverick coffee planter’s son and they have known each other since they were kids. He then said to me, ‘If you go to the back of the conference room, you will find a packet of Blue Mountain coffee from Alex Twyman’s estate.’ He said he had donated it for the silent auction that was being run as a fund raising activity and I could bid for it. Apparently, after a long battle, Alex was finally allowed to sell his estate’s coffee direct and his is one of the few able to do so. I had missed the packet of coffee while I was going through the many life saving T-shirts and books donated by representatives from various Commonwealth life saving organisations earlier. After our conversation ended, I immediately went to the back of the conference room to take a look at the coffee and enter my bid. There were several other bids but I made sure that mine was the highest.

The next morning, I went to check on the coffee during the tea break and found that two other persons had subsequently outbid me. I entered an even higher bid before returning to the conference proceedings. The auction closed at noon but by the time I went to check on the coffee shortly after that, I found that the coffee was gone. A conference staff told me that the highest bidder had already paid for and collected the coffee. S***! So close and yet so far. When I bumped into Stuart later that day, I told him the sad news that I had not won the bid for the coffee. I also realised that in my excitement I had forgotten to take a photo of that packet of coffee.

Anyway, after I returned to Singapore from Bath, I contacted Stuart and before long I was in touch with David Twyman and placed an order for a five pound case of 10 bags of coffee from Alex Twyman’s estate called the ‘Old Tavern Coffee Estate’. Shortly after arranging for a credit card payment, I received the following e-mail message from David together with the FedEx tracking details of my order: ‘Richard, your Old Tavern Coffee is on its way. I hope we live up to the years of expectation.??DT ‘(sic).

Due to modern technology, I was able to check the progress of my coffee’s journey each day from Alex Twyman’s coffee estate from my computer. Here is the complete movement log:

November 7, 2006

2.32 PM Picked up KINGSTON, JM

8.45 PM Package data transmitted

to FedEx

5.19 PM Left origin KINGSTON, JM

9.29 PM In transit MIAMI, FL

November 8, 2006

12.42 AM Arrived at FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

2.10 AM Departed FedEx location MEMPHIS, TN

7.51 AM Arrived at FedEx location ANCHORAGE, AK

10.47 AM Departed FedEx location ANCHORAGE, AK

November 10, 2006

6.12 AM Int’l shipment release SINGAPORE, SG

8.23 AM At local FedEx facility SINGAPORE, SG

9.29 AM On FedEx vehicle for delivery SINGAPORE, SG

10.42 AM Delivered SINGAPORE, SG

This was one of the marvels of the modern global supply chain. In fact, if air miles could have been claimed, the coffee I ordered would have quite a lot.

When I came home on 10 November 2006, I saw a recently delivered FedEx box. Breathless with expectation, I opened the box and found 10 packs of assorted roasts of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee from Alex Twyman’s Old Tavern Coffee Estate together with a note from David. It said among other things, ‘I am glad to be able to send you coffee, a result of a fortunate meeting with my old friend’. Me too.

Then, I realised that I had a problem - coffee beans are unlike instant coffee, the only type of coffee I knew how to make. You cannot just add boiling water to the coffee beans and stir. So began my further education in making coffee. I found out about different types of coffee makers like the french press, the automatic drip coffee maker, the espresso machine and the coffee percolator and eventually bought a Bodum vacuum coffee maker (it was on offer and looked quite cool even when not brewing coffee). Said to be one of the purest coffee brewing methods ever invented, the vacuum coffee maker apparently makes a clean tasting coffee with hardly any sediment. I also bought a Bosch coffee bean grinder (not on offer but not too costly either) to make sure that my coffee beans were properly ground. After that, I practised making coffee with some leftover coffee powder that I found in the kitchen. How was the Old Tavern Coffee Estate coffee?

There were four different types of coffee beans delivered to me: ‘Medium Roast’, ‘Dark Roast’, ‘Proprietors Choice – Medium Dark Roast’ and ‘Estate Premium – Peaberry’. The first pot I brewed was the ‘Proprietors Choice – Medium Dark Roast’ and by then I was quite handy with the coffee bean grinder and Bodum vacuum coffee maker. As I opened that first pack of coffee beans, I could smell the rich coffee aroma. Just after it was brewed, the coffee was distinctly fragrant and alluring. When I had my first sip, I confirmed that it was outstanding and the best or one of the best coffees that I have ever drunk. The flavour of the coffee was rich and lingering but not acidic. It was really worth all the trouble. The difference between that and the stuff that sometimes passes off as coffee? Miles apart.

Richard Tan Ming Kirk

Shook Lin & Bok

© Richard Tan Ming Kirk