Welcome to the Blue Mountain Emporium, the home of 'Coffee With Conscience'.
As it is currently impossible to buy Fairtrade Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, we wanted to provide an ethical alternative for the discerning shopper and I felt that this blog would give me the perfect opportunity to share the thinking behind the ethos of our business.
I first visited Jamaica 20 years ago, a few months before we were married, at a time when the British pound was worth about 8 Jamaican dollars. As the years have gone by, we have watched the rapid decline of the Jamaican economy and have been horrified to see just how little a Jamaican dollar is now able to buy. With the current exchange rate at £1 to $129 Jamaican dollars, (it was 140 dollars to the pound last summer), you must appreciate that it can be very difficult for some families to find the money to put their children through High School. Up to quite recently Junior Schools were also fee paying but the Government are not currently in a position to abolish them in secondary schools as well. We look forward to the day when this will be possible. In addition to the fees, parents have to provide their children's books as well as uniform, an even bigger expense.
We love Jamaica and its people and want to help to invest in its future. We believe that a prosperous nation needs to be a healthy and well educated one. Throughout the year we will be placing 10% of our profits into an account ready to be paid into a scholarship fund for the beginning of the academic year 2009. As the years pass we hope to be able support children not just through High School, but through college as well. If the time comes when the Goverment is able to provide free education for all, we hope to divert our 10% into funding for medical treatment.
I am sorry if the tone of this blog seems unduly solemn to you, but we are serious in our commitment to the children of Jamaica and we hope that you are too. Some coffee blogs seem to be very serious about the technical side of roasting coffee beans; we, however, want you to thoroughly enjoy drinking it. We leave the technical details to the experts in Jamaica and concentrate on putting a smile on your face when you taste Blue Mountain Coffee the way it should be roasted. Keep an eye on the recipes on our website. You might just find a new way of enjoying your favourite drink!
