• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Coffee Review

The World's Leading Coffee Guide

Advanced Search

Shop for Award-Winning 100% Kona Coffees at Hula Daddy

  • Reviews
    • Latest Reviews
    • Top-Rated (94+)
    • Espressos
    • Best Values
    • Taiwan Coffees – 台灣送評的咖啡豆
    • Top 30 Coffees of 2020
    • Top 30 – Past Rankings
    • Pods and Capsules
    • Reviews by U.S. City
    • Advanced Search
  • Reports
    • Latest Reports
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia-Pacific
    • Espressos
    • Annual Top 30
    • Processing Method
    • Social/Environmental
    • Tree Variety
    • Blends
  • Equipment
    • The New Fellow Ode Brew Grinder
    • Mid-Range Burr Coffee Grinders
    • Electric Gooseneck Kettles
    • Interpreting Equipment Ratings
  • Journal
    • The Year 2020 in Coffee
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Kenneth Davids
    • Our Team
    • Our Advertisers
    • Our Sponsors
    • Learn
      • Interpreting Coffee Reviews
      • Reference
      • Glossary
    • Contact Us
  • Trade
    • 2021 Editorial Calendar
    • Becoming an Advertiser
    • Campaign Package Deals
    • Getting Coffees Reviewed
    • Quoting Reviews
    • Award Certificates
    • Media Kit
  • 中文 – Chinese
    • 台灣送評的咖啡豆
    • 如何將您的咖啡送評
    • “行銷攻略” 促銷活動
  • Members
    • WHY BECOME A MEMBER?
    • Member Benefits
    • Our Sponsors
    • Programs and Initiatives
    • Member Support

Hype Meets the Cup: St. Helena Sandy Bay Estate

June 24, 2013 by Kenneth Davids

Some interesting green coffees have come into the lab recently. These were green samples, but you can probably find roasters who offer them via an Internet search.

Those who have some history probably are aware that St. Helena, a tiny island located in the middle of the South Atlantic roughly between Brazil and Africa, is famous as the final exile place of Napoleon I (and also, in travel writing hype, as one “of the most remote places in the world.” ) A tiny island but mountainous, its coffee apparently was first made famous by that same Napoleon, whose claim that it was the best coffee he ever tasted made it briefly fashionable in France. After that it apparently dropped out of sight until revived in recent years.

It occasionally shows up billed as a contender for the world’s rarest coffee; alternatively the most expensive, etc. etc. Typically such story-driven novelty coffees are rather limp in the cup, blown away by any decent Yirgacheffe, for example, and the two samples of St. Helena I cupped in past years did not particularly impress. The sample we had of this past year’s crop, however, was quite engaging. Maybe my colleague Jason hit the roast just right (a slow, coaxy profile to whole-bean M-Basic 48, darkish medium), or maybe some years of careful cultivation are producing healthier cherry.

The sample was rich, floral- and wine-toned, juicy: night-blooming flowers, Concord grape, peach, with a clean, balanced structure, a little like a very good Rwanda, for example.

The beans were intriguing in appearance as well. They look a little like Ethiopia beans from regions like Yirgacheffe, smallish, definitively oval, with a deep crease that tends to retain silver skin. When I finally got myself away from the cupping table and went on line I discovered that the St. Helena variety is purported to be a pure strain imported from the Yemeni port of Mocha, originally brought to St. Helena by in 1733 by a Captain Philips of the East India Company, and currently named (at least according to material floating around the Internet) Green Tipped Bourbon. Certainly both the appearance of the beans and the profile I tasted support this history. These are maybe larger beans than one sees among the old varieties in Yemen, but they of course would have naturalized in a much more lush environment than found anywhere in Yemen. And the cup definitely has a quietly East-Africa character, in particular expressing the deeply floral and richly fruit-toned side of the Bourbon heritage.

What drove me to write about this coffee is the unusual confluence of history, exotic plant variety, exotic terroir and rare coffee hype that in this is actually supported by a distinctive and distinguished sensory profile. This spring we’ve reviewed several coffees from Ethiopia and Kenya that probably blow the St. Helena away in terms of pure sensory fireworks, but I think students of coffee will find well worth trying a sample of this quietly distinctive coffee if they can find one sensitively and freshly roasted.

Filed Under: Green Coffee Origins and Issues

Primary Sidebar

Shop for 94-point Ka'u Maragogipe at Big Island Coffee

Receive 30% Off First Order at Trade Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at Kakalove in Taiwan

Shop for top-rated coffees at Amavida Coffee Roasters

Shop for top-rated coffees at Durango Coffee Company

Shop for top-rated coffees at GoCoffeeGo

Shop for top-rated coffees at JBC Coffee Roasters

Dragonfly Banner - 300x250

Shop at Rhetoric Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at Paradise Roasters

Shop for Top-rated coffees at Barrington Coffee Roasters

Shop for top-rated nespresso compatible pods at Difference Coffee

Shop for No. 15 Coffee of 2020 at Hala Tree Kona Coffee

Shop for 94-point Costa Rica coffee at Peach Coffee Roasters

Become an advertiser

Shop for top-rated coffees at Paradise Roasters

Get Coffees Reviewed

Shop for top-rated coffees at JBC Coffee

Dragonfly Banner - 300x250

Connect with Us

Sign Up for Our Free E-Newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive our free e-mail newsletter
  • Coffee Reviews
  • Tasting Reports
  • Reference
  • Glossary
  • Please Support Our Advertisers
  • Contact Us
  • Journal
  • Kenneth Davids
  • Interpreting Coffee Reviews
  • Roast Definitions
  • Caveats about Coffee Ratings
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Getting Coffees Reviewed
  • Advertising Opportunities
  • Quoting Reviews
  • Copyright
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Security

Copyright © 2021 Coffee Review. All Rights Reserved.