Cinchona Estate Peaberry, Jamaica Blue Mountain

Cinchona Estate is on a hill which forms a spur projecting southward from the Blue Mountain range. Founded in 1868, when the British government embarked on experimental cultivation of cinchona to expand the range of agricultural products of the colony, its bark sold for six shilling per pound compared to the ‘on-board’ price of coffee of fifty-two shillings per cwt (112 lbs).

In 1868 a case of Assam tea containing 600 plants arrived in excellent condition from India. By 1872 there were a number of experiments producing tea from the plants and in 1876 the tea was awarded a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Philadelphia.

From Cinchona one gets a majestic view of Strawberry Hill, the Blue Mountains, Liguanea plains and Kingston. In 2011, St Clair Shirley had the vision to establish a model coffee farm at Cinchona which is only sixty minutes drive from Stoneleigh Coffee Processing Works which allows cherry ripe coffee beans, geisha for the most part, to be pulped, dried and prepared for resting with no delay.