The Story of Sherwood Blue Mountain Coffee Manor in Jamaica Coffee characteristics of St. Thomas St.Thomas

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Sherwood Blue Mountain Coffee Manor, Jamaica

Sherwood Coffee Manor is owned by a small family in Jamaica and its operating office is located in the town of Hagley Gap in the St. Thomas producing area in southeastern Jamaica. Its output accounts for 2% of the total harvest of Blue Mountain Coffee. Handmade coffee is regarded as the best coffee in Jamaica and is selected as a quality-guaranteed Blue Mountain coffee by the Jamaican Coffee Association (CIBOJ). As of 2015, Sherwood Forest is one of the estates owned by R.S.W Manor. At present, R.S.W retains only the highest elevation block Sherwood, and Sherwood has been independent ever since.

The manor and processing plant has been in operation since 1797 and was run by the Deichman family in the 1950s. At that time, the father of the current operator Charles bought the land and replanted the farmland, which is about 1372m above sea level. In 1999, Deichman upgraded the manor and processing plant equipment to handle raw beans with new and modern equipment, while retaining traditional technology and implementing strict environmental protection policies. The proportion of male and female employees of the manor is about half, and all the management and employees are from local villages.

Due to the high altitude, the shady clouds that often pervade the mountains in the afternoon are very beneficial to the growth of coffee trees, avoiding the overheated sun at noon and making the growth and nutrient absorption of coffee fruits more complete. After other Blue Mountains in Jamaica, the harvest season is from March to June each year, and fresh hand-picked red fruits from proprietary estates and a small number of fresh red fruits from well-known Blue Mountain small farms such as Arntully and Moy Hall are sent to the washing plant in Sherwood. Sherwood insists that he will never take coffee from an unknown source.

The picked red fruit was immediately peeled and fully fermented after 24 hours of washing, so as to improve the flavor. During the washing process, the pulp was rudely shaved off without machine or brush brushing, and the pulp was naturally shedded only by fermentation. Then the moisture content of raw beans was reduced to 11.5% by 100% full-sun drying, and artificial drying was completely abandoned. It also makes the overall aroma and consistency of the coffee thicker because of this sun-drying process. After drying, the shelled beans are stored in an underground warehouse with temperature and humidity control for at least eight weeks, and then shelled. The warehouse is equipped with two commercial dehumidifiers and two tons of air conditioning equipment, and the environment is controlled at 19.4 degrees and 52% of temperature and humidity. In order to ensure quality, Sherwood only provides small batches of hand-picked raw beans and well-stored raw beans to customers, and does not hoard raw beans for future sales.

In the process of dry treatment, raw coffee beans are sent to the warehouse for storage the next night until delivered to the Jamaican Coffee Association (CIBOJ). CIBOJ will check the size, defects and water content of raw beans by color inspection and cup testing. Finally, these refined Sherwood raw beans will be exported under the trademark "SFCC" (Sherwood Forest Coffee Co.).

At present, Sherwood Blue Mountain is only sold to single companies in the United States, Europe, Japan and Taiwan, and retains a small amount of self-use and limited distribution.