I love this Island and I love this Island's Coffee, for me it has to be dark roasted, this roasting brings out the oils and the delicious flavours that genuinely transport me back to this Island's Capital. The coffee there is usually espresso, but I enjoy mine in a cafetière when I can’t be bothered to fire up the espresso machine, and it still tastes fantastic. Up in the mountains it is roasted in a simple pan above an open fire, the roasted beans crushed and then hot water added, stirred and let the grounds sink, an astonishing experience, especially as you can sit under the coffee trees full of flower, green and red cherries.
This Caribbean Island's coffee is one of the best in the world, personally I think rivalling Jamaican Blue Mountain. The Sierra Maestra range of mountains includes the steepest and highest mountain, Pico Turquino at 2005 metres. This high grown coffee is definitely special and is one of this Caribbean Island's highest grades that they produced; it is also called Extra Turquino Special. Sierra means mountain and Maestra is mistress.
Most of this Caribbean Island's coffee makes for a fantastic espresso but can be prepared in whatever is your normal method. This coffee rarely appears on the International market, due to reasons I can't easily put into print, but if you visit our website and read the blog titled 'Well that was interesting...' you will hopefully understand.
Coffee was first grown on this Island in 1748, but it was in 1789, with the arrival of thousands of French planters from Haiti, that coffee cultivation here, first really took off. The main coffee strains grown are Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Catui and Catimor. The cherries are wet processed (Lavado) and then sun-dried.
