Over the summer, when Paul and I went to St. Mary’s Parish, Jamaica, we had the opportunity to take a day trip to the Blue Mountains. I really only had two plans in mind – see and photograph the Blue Mountains, and drink some Blue Mountains coffee while in the Blue Mountains. One of the places we stopped at on our journey was Alex Twyman’s Old Tavern Coffee Estate. From the road, Alex Twyman’s Old Tavern Coffee Estate was pretty unassuming.
However, once we took a few steps onto the property, I knew this was my kind of place. There was such an incredible variety of plants growing everywhere. I wasn’t even thinking about the coffee anymore. Paul had to come get me for the coffee because I was still taking pictures of the plants.
The Plants
They had a few plants that I didn’t expect to see. Some classic garden plants like hydrangeas and daylilies were thriving amongst the tropical plants. I saw quite a few blue hydrangeas on our drive through the Blue Mountains.
Bee hanging out on the blue lacecap hydrangea Classic orange daylily
Of course I saw some beautiful tropical plants with unique flowers. Similar to when I visited Shaw Park gardens, I had to Google descriptions of the flowers and/or leaves in order to figure of the names of the plant. For the following plant, I googled “red and orange variegated tropical flower”, clicked on one that looked similar, looked at the related images and found one that looked most similar to my image. Then, I googled that plant name just to be sure that it was the correct name.
The next plant needed no googling. I have seen these show up in people’s feeds on Instagram for a while. I love learning the sources for names of colors that I’ve seen on my Crayola crayons since I was a kid (with FAR more crayons than one person could ever need).
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s so bizarre to see plants that we consider houseplants growing outside, in the ground. They had a considerable assortment of anthuriums growing on this hillside.
Every kind of anthurium growing on a hillside Beautiful variegated anthurium White anthurium Red anthurium
They had plants growing on every square inch of the property – on the hills, on steps, and even growing on the trees.
Strawberries in an old sink with a view of the Blue Mountains Succulents hanging in a pot outside Ferns, fuchsia, and orchids growing on and around a tree Orchid growing on a tree Ferns growing on the stairs
Even the notoriously finicky maidenhair ferns were growing everywhere – including seemingly inhospitable places, like cement stairs.
The Coffee
I guess I should talk about the coffee now! After I took a bunch of pictures, we sat down for some freshly brewed coffee and Bourbon “biscuits” a.k.a. chocolate cookies. We tried the Proprietor’s Choice, which was a Medium-Dark Roast. Normally Paul doesn’t like dark roast, but he actually liked this blend.
Could I actually tell a difference in the flavor of the coffee compared to others? It definitely tastes better than the office coffee I’ll tell you that much. It also tastes better than what I drink on a daily basis. And, yes. It’s better than Starbucks. Not being a coffee connoisseur I can’t tell you about any notes of this or hints of that, but it was purely delicious!
We had a tour of the small facilities and learned about the process that goes into preparing the coffee beans for sale.
An employee checking the beans Coffee roasting machine
Maybe it’s the fact that I was drinking Blue Mountains coffee in the actual Blue Mountains because it was just heavenly to sip my coffee while looking out at this view of the mountains.
If you get the chance to make a trip to Jamaica, make sure that the Blue Mountains are on your itinerary! You’ll need a driver with experience in that area as the roads are pretty narrow and difficult at parts. I would have easily gotten lost even with a map. What are some of your traveling bucket list items?
not only does paul not normally like dark roast, he doesn’t like any coffee! But that coffee, that day . . . it was good.