#Jamaicacoffeefest
If you are a Jamaican who grew up with a grandparent at any point
in your life, you have had some experience with coffee. My great grandmother is
the culprit in this case. Feeding my mother’s three infants with tuff crackers
soaked in black coffee, and please believe it was not decaf. She is the reason
I adore coffee so much, and also the reason my younger brother hates it. I was
most excited to hear that Jamaica (Home of the best coffee in the world) Was
finally having a coffee festival to showcase Blue Mountain coffee in all its
glory.
The location was perfection. Right in coffee country, perched
above the entire Jamaica in the blue mountains, at the Jamaica Defense Force
Training camp. We were literally in the clouds, probably the closest my bare
skin has ever been to the sun. From the highest points we could see downtown
Kingston, parts of the airport and what I think was port royal. The sun was
hot, but the breeze was so cool. I told my cousin I would wear a bipolar blouse.
She looked at me puzzled, I explained; Long sleeves in case its cold, but a
thin long sleeve in case its hot. It worked out for the best because it was
both hot and cold at times. I however wore a ‘cold shoulder’ style top, with no
sun screen. So my shoulders are now burnt crispy and I am now suffering from
sunburn for the first time in my life.
Anyway, back to the event. We were shuttled up the hill from
UTECH, which I was so grateful for. I stepped off the bus and as I got closer
to the booths, the cool breeze blew and the strong scent of coffee filled my
nostrils; I was like yes! I was beyond excited to see all the different stalls
and what they had to offer.
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| looking from the top |
Being a foodie, naturally I was more interested in the food
stalls than the stalls offering bath and body products. So I started with food
first. When you first get to a festival, if you are not given a map of the
layout and where each vendor is located and what they have, your first moments
are really spent taking it all in. You look at the stalls and what other people
are eating before your mind really decides where to start. I went from peanut
butter, to ice cream, to soup, to ribs, to iced coffee with coconut rum, to
espresso martinis, to bread pudding, chicken, pulled pork, coffee rice and peas
and coffee fried dumplings, ackee and saltfish, brownies and coffee ginger
lemonade. I loved that most places had free tastings and were willing to allow
you to sample their items before purchasing.
In addition to the food, my other interests were coffee
scrubs, coffee candles and any body oils. There were so many persons with those
items for sale, so narrowing in on one to buy from was quite a task. For me it
boiled down to price and smell. I went for whose candle had the strongest
coffee scent and was for the best price, same for body oil and scrubs. In
addition to the body products there were some really beautiful handmade
jewelry, craft and art vendors as well.
I must say for the first staging of this event it was
absolutely perfect. A solid 9.5 out of 10. It was affordable, well planned and
executed, no chaos, everything orderly, things happened on schedule (as far as
we knew) I loved that they allowed us to really walk around the grounds of the
camp. My cousin and I walked up to this really beautiful great hall that had
couches and coffee tables. The hall had the most incredible views I’ve ever
seen, It was just so perfect.
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| Best seat in the house |
My only drawback was the abundance of drink and dessert
coffee items, and the lack of coffee in food explored in a different way. I
mean, coffee ice cream, while it was absolutely delicious, is not really a new
thing. However, the coffee rice and peas floored me, even though the coffee
taste in the rice and peas was too subtle. I find the unusual uses of coffee in
food didn’t use enough coffee. The pulled pork and ribs, did not taste strong
enough. The rice and peas and bammy and fried dumpling, smelled like coffee and
had a slight hint of it. I want to taste strong coffee in everything. The jerk
chicken should have had a coffee spice rub, they could have had coffee candied
bacon, coffee BBQ sauce on burgers, coffee oxtail, coffee BBQ pigs tails, coffee
ketchup on the fries (that was a reach, but you get the picture). I just wanted
it to be coffee everything, not only the drinks and desserts but the savory food
as well. And now that I think about it, a coffee ketchup could probably work
too, imagine that on a hot dog “, all sum caaffee bun n cheese” since its Easter
season. I guess I feel this way because I’m a foodie. Also, some kind of covered eating area would be nice too, the sun was ripe. Maybe picnic tables with umbrellas, or some kind of canopy for shade.
XOXO Greedygirl
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