'Black gold' coffee leaves a bitter taste for some

by Robert Booth
The Guardian
Saturday March 22 2008

This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday March 22 2008 on p26 of the UK news section. It was last updated at 13:10 on March 22 2008.

Two thousand feet up in the mountains above Kingston, the locals call it "black gold". The most expensive coffee in the world grows here on the misty slopes around the Mavis Bank coffee factory.

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee sells for a staggering £66 a kilogram in Britain, four times the price of a good espresso blend. It is a £20m a year business in Jamaica and its clean, refined taste and hint of natural sweetness is so popular in Japan that coffee aficionados there buy up 70% of the harvest.

But not everybody benefits. More than 200 women sort the beans for up to 14 hours a day, often six days a week, for no more than £10 a day. Their role in picking out substandard beans is vital. But it is piece work and the women complain of being underpaid. One manager admitted they should be paid more, but they are not unionised and the lack of other opportunities keeps them there.

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