A Gift Courtesy of My Brother and Jamaica

Last Easter weekend, my younger brother Perry gave me some coffee he purchased in Jamaica while vacationing down there. Wrapped in a small burlap bag, it contains a pound of coffee, roasted and ground. The label on the bag boasts a beautiful design, featuring a black and royal blue background with a medieval-looking crest with a lion on it. The name of the brand is Jablum, and bills itself as "The Coffee Experience Beyond Compare." It describes the beans contained inside as being "100% Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee."

Now I freely admit that I am not an expert on coffee by any stretch of the imagination. This blog will be as much about my own coffee education process as anything else. I have been told by people who apparently know such things that any coffee not freshly roasted and ground will be mediocre at best. I have accepted this in the same way I accept the opinions of those who make a point of knowing about fine wines: I keep an open mind on the subject, and try to give myself the chance to learn more as time passes. Still, I must admit that I find myself quite intrigued by the rather exotic packaging of this coffee product that has December 2007 as its "best before date." And though I have no idea how much it cost in Canadian dollars (or any other currency for that matter) Jablum strikes me (based on its packaging, anyway) as a cut above the usual run-of-the-mill products usually available in North America markets. I will readily admit that this is is a superficial judgement based on first impressions only, but it is from Jamaica after all and is wrapped in burlap and has a fine-looking label attached to it....

I haven't actually tasted the coffee yet. I'm sort of saving it for later, when I have used up my reserves of the more prosaic Maxwell House that I still have on hand. But you will be the first to find out what I think of Jablum's Jamaican coffee as soon as I rip open that intriguing little burlap bag my brother gave me and sample what is inside.