Rosemary Gate Estate. Photo courtesy of Jill and Bill Bolton.
From the world’s most remote island comes a rare specialty coffee grown from a pure arabica strain imported from Yemen in the 18th century.
Almost 2,000 kilometers from the coast of southwestern Africa sits the tiny island of St. Helena, renowned as the place of exile of deposed French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who died there in 1821.
First sighted by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century, ruled by the British East India Company for most of the period from 1658 to 1834, this British overseas territory has long been a producer of outstanding coffee.
Arabica seeds from Yemen were imported there in 1733 by the British East India Company. The seeds were of the green-tipped bourbon varietal, which found ideal conditions on St. Helena: rich volcanic soil and guano deposits, plenty of rainfall, an almost year-round tropical climate, and relatively high elevations.
If anything was lacking it was enough land suited for agriculture, since St. Helena is almost completely covered in craggy mountains. Also in short supply was a labor force big enough for harvests, since only a few thousand people have ever lived there at any one time (and just some 4,400 today).
Nevertheless, what little can be harvested produces a brew like few others. Even Napoleon gave it a good review, albeit grudgingly: “The only good thing about St. Helena is the coffee.”
In the mid-1800s, the miniscule exports of St. Helena green beans that reached London after arduous, multiweek voyages by sailing ship commanded prices that were likely the highest of any coffee in the world at that time, at 1 penny per pound. But by the 1860s, the East India Company turned its attention to the more profitable business of growing flax on St. Helena, to produce ropes for ship rigging. Flax remained the island’s main source of export revenue well into the 1950s.
Yet coffee growing quietly persisted as a cottage industry. For decades, harvests were so small that St. Helena had to import additional coffee just to meet local demand. But as flax farming declined in the mid-20th century, coffee production slowly increased to the point where, in 1989, there was even a small surplus. For the first time in decades, St. Helena was able to export about 3 tons of green beans that year.
Revival
In the 1990s, new entrants helped revive coffee farming in St. Helena. A retired British couple, Jill and Bill Bolton, moved there and in 1991 developed the Rosemary Gate Estate, clearing land and enlarging it gradually over time. It took the Boltons a full seven years of hard work before they were finally able to bring in their first harvest. Today they have 2 hectares (5 acres) under cultivation.
In 1994, a native St. Helenian by the name of David Henry returned from the U.K. determined to ramp the island’s coffee industry up to industrial scale. He developed the Blueman’s Field Plantation and also worked the Bamboo Hedge Estate, an old coffee farm that he subleased.
Henry’s efforts helped bring St. Helena’s total coffee production volume to a new peak in the late 1990s. By 2000, approximately 7.3 hectares (18 acres) were under cultivation. Yet most of the crop was still consumed on the island itself.
Expansion
By 2005, coffee farms had come under pressure from rising wages and labor shortages. Henry gave up and left the island for good in 2008.
Two years later, the Bamboo Hedge Estate was taken over by its landlord, Solomon & Company (St Helena) Plc., the territory’s biggest company, which is majority-owned by the government. Founded in 1790, and with some 200 employees today, its operations span retail shops, real estate, logistics, and more.
Solomon & Co. invested in regenerating Bamboo Hedge Estate, which is believed to be the original plantation established by the East India Company in 1733. The firm also began developing a new plantation, the Wrangham Estate.
Once again, St Helena coffee could be shipped abroad. Meanwhile a handful of other growers also cultivate on a small scale, selling their coffee via local cafés and gift shops.
Except for small-scale farming and fisheries, St. Helena has almost no local industry. Virtually everything is shipped in, most of it by Solomon & Co.
As such, exports of coffee are a point of pride at the firm. “We export green bean to our U.K. partners and distributors, St Helena Trading (UK) Ltd.,” said Mandy Peters, CEO. The company has recently added its own roasting facility, offering roasted beans in the local retail market as well as in small amounts in neighboring Ascension Island.
Pure lineage
Remarkably, St. Helena’s arabica plants have never been crossed with any other varietals, thanks to the island’s sheer geographical isolation. This pure lineage and St. Helena’s particular microclimate and soil conditions help make the island’s coffee unique in the world.
Coffee is a challenging crop anywhere, and in St. Helena especially. “While we strive to achieve production consistency, we experienced drought conditions in 2019, which set us back a couple of years, because our trees initially aborted their crop and then took time to recover,” Peters said.
And although the island’s coffee plants are relatively disease-free, the bourbon variety is tall and requires frequent pruning. This results in a much smaller yield afterward, although it rebounds dramatically a year later.
“In the longer term there is potential to scale up production and utilize additional land reserves within the company’s portfolio,” Peters said.
Annual production of green beans at Solomon & Co. ranges from lows around 500 kilograms to peak harvests of 2 tons, about 95% to 98% of which is exported via St Helena Trading (UK) Ltd.
Wholesale orders for the 2021 crop largely went to Japan, with smaller quantities reaching Germany, Belgium, Romania, France, and the United States. Consumers can purchase St. Helena coffee from several online shops and a few retail stores in the U.K.
Passion project
At their Rosemary Gate plantation, Jill and Bill Bolton say labor shortages are difficult. The industry needs more arable land at the higher elevations required by arabica plants. Though St. Helena is covered in mountains, the highest peak rises only 820m above mean sea level. Nevertheless, the Boltons persist in caring for their 2-hectare plot as a “labor of love.”
With an annual harvest of about 2 tons of red cherry, crop yields at Rosemary Gate have remained quite stable over the years, yielding roughly 500 kilograms of processed green beans per annum. Most of that is used in the Bolton’s own cafe, The St Helena Coffee Shop, in Jamestown, the capital. The couple also sell their roasted beans in two other small shops and export 30 kilograms a year to a roaster in the U.K, which supplies Harrods of London. The famous department store retails the beans at around £80 per 125-gram bag.
“St. Helena coffee is renowned for its flavor rather than its strength. It is very mild and — lightly roasted — best brewed in a French press rather than in an espresso machine as a dark roast,” Jill Bolton said.
Timeline
- 1733 — British East India Company introduces green-tipped bourbon arabica coffee seeds from Yemen on St. Helena. Coffee farming emerges as a small local industry.
- 1839 — London coffee merchants William Burnie & Co. praise St. Helena coffee for its “very superior quality and flavor.”
- 1845 — In London, St. Helena green beans sell at 1 penny per pound, making it the most expensive coffee in the world at that time.
- 1851 — Awarded “Best Mocha” at the London Exhibition.
- 1860s — Flax displaces coffee as the island’s main source of export revenue.
- Late 1930s — British Journalist Philip Gosse writes: “…enough coffee could be grown there to supply the whole island, yet coffee is imported.
- 1962 — The territory’s annual Blue Book colonial report notes “no future for coffee growing [here]… there can never be more than a token coffee export industry in St. Helena.”
- 1989 — Coffee production revives somewhat; about 3 tons are shipped, the first exports of beans in decades.
- 1991 — Jill and Bill Bolton develop the Rosemary Gate Estate, harvesting the first cherries 7 years later.
- 1994 — David Henry, a native of St. Helena, returns from the U.K. to re-establish a commercial industry.
- 2000 — St Helena News, the local paper, reports that 7.3 hectares (18 acres) are under cultivation of coffee.
- 2005/2006 — Industry struggles as coffee pickers push for higher wages.
- 2008 — David Henry abandons farming, leaving St. Helena.
- 2010 — Solomon & Company (St Helena) Plc. takes over Bamboo Hedge Estate. A year later, it begins developing the Wrangham Estate.