World's Most Expensive Coffee Brand - Saint Helena Island Coffee: Cultivation, History, and Flavor Profile

The Discovery of Saint Helena

On May 21, 1502, Portuguese Captain Nova's warship passed the Cape of Good Hope heading north for home. Crossing the South Atlantic, he discovered an unnamed small island and named it Saint Helena.

When Saint Helena was discovered, Europeans still did not know what coffee was, and there were no coffee trees in Asia or Latin America either. A new beverage made from brewed coffee fruits, called qahwa, was, however, beginning to become popular in Yemen, and the Arab world was swept up in a qahwa craze, while Europeans continued to enjoy beer and wine as usual.

The Introduction of Coffee to Saint Helena

In 1732, the British East India Company, caught up in the coffee transplantation trend, obtained Bourbon coffee trees from Mocha, Yemen, and casually planted them on the British territory of Saint Helena. In 1815, after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, he was exiled to Saint Helena, giving this coffee an opportunity to become known to people.

Saint Helena Coffee: The World's Most Exclusive

After Napoleon's death from illness in 1821, the delicious taste of Saint Helena Island coffee spread. Today it remains one of the world's most valuable estate coffees. Saint Helena produces only 2-12 tons of green beans annually, making it even rarer than Jamaica's Blue Mountain, which produces 700-1,000 tons. Saint Helena Island coffee costs $55 per pound, even more expensive than Blue Mountain. Truly expensive.

The Beauty of Serendipity

As the saying goes, "Carefully planted flowers may not bloom, but casually planted willows grow into shade." There are truly many serendipitous coincidences in this world, and perhaps you will encounter them too.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Saint Helena and Jamaica Blue Mountain are the two legendary island coffees, and Blue Mountain is the one you can actually put in your grinder. FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 comes from the historic Clifton estate, which has grown and processed coffee since around 1750 on land averaging 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters), where cool clouds, ample sunshine, and mineral-rich soil stretch out the cherry's ripening. Medium-dark roasted, it brings nuts, dark chocolate, cream caramel, and gentle sweetness into perfect balance, clean and complex with a long fruit finish, which is exactly the quality that made Blue Mountain a benchmark in an earlier era of premium coffee. Traditional Blue Mountain still ships in wooden barrels of 15, 45, and 70 kilograms, each stamped with full batch information, so the provenance is easy to verify. If Saint Helena is the coffee of legend, Blue Mountain No. 1 is the classic you can brew any morning.