Napoleon is currently in vogue with the release of Ridley Scott’s lavish new biography. However, after six years of exile, in 1821 he was transferred to the South Atlantic British overseas territory of St. When he died on St. Helena Island, historians recall that the days of this fallen megalomaniac were miserable, and one of his few daily entertainments was coffee. The St. Helenian coffee he drinks is one of the rarest and most expensive coffees in the world these days; It retails for an eye-watering £96 for 3.5oz at Harrods.
After arriving on the island’s newly introduced midweek flight from Johannesburg (expanding St Helena’s air transport to two flights a week), I stroll towards Jamestown harbor to sip my first local coffee. Against a backdrop of crashing Atlantic waves and purple-flowered jacarandas, my £3 French press arrives at Jill Bolton’s coffee shop, near where Napoleon landed in 1815.
Coffee is brewed from Arabica beans, called green-tipped bourbon, brought from Yemen and introduced to St Helena by the East India Company in 1733. It has never been cross-fertilized with any other species and remains as pure as the brew. Napoleon sighed. This rarity, along with export logistics and the island’s minimal production, makes the beans worth their weight in gold.
“It’s a light coffee with floral notes,” said Jill, from Sheffield, who opened the coffee shop with her late husband Bill in 1995. Her cafe is one of the few places you can drink it on the island because its beans come from a 2.5-acre plantation her husband founded called Rosemary Gate Estate. Most of the other cafes in town serve imported coffee as even on the island a 4oz bag of home grown coffee sells for around £10.
By appointment, visitors can tour Rosemary Gate, where unroasted green coffee beans are exported exclusively to Harrods. Before my trip I had noticed that the Knightsbridge store was completely out of stock. “There were issues with our shipping company so I haven’t sent anything to the UK since February 2022,” Jill said.
Rosemary Gate is a 25-minute drive outside of Jamestown. If the Bijou capital is charming (all Georgian architecture, Union Jacks and bars with a 70s vibe selling booze for 90s prices), the coffee plantation district is like Lundy on steroids. The roads climb long steep hills and plunge into deep valleys; and cloud-covered peaks lean towards dark volcanic cliffs. Ronald, the 75-year-old taxi driver who drove me, says he can’t afford St Helena coffee.
“I buy coffee imported from South Africa for three quid a tin,” he said.
The tour takes me through the entire processing operation. From picking the “cherries” when they are letterbox red, to removing the tender flesh and drying the exposed beans in sunlight. They are then packaged for export, and the misshapen ones (which Harrods customers can withstand much higher altitude beans) are roasted for consumption on the island at Jill’s coffeehouse.
Once praised as “the best mocha” at the London Exhibition in 1851, St Helena’s coffee production declined dramatically until the early 1990s, when several small businesses emerged. Jill remembers the first time they sold beans to Harrods. “My husband started this business as a hobby in his retirement and then suddenly we became the sole supplier to Harrods. It was hard to believe. A bit like fine wine. People buy it because of its price and reputation.”
But none of this impressed St Helena’s honorary French Consul, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau. I join him for lunch at Longwood House, which was transformed into a Napoleonic house during his exile. After dessert, the quelle surprise comes with imported French roasted coffee, served in espresso bone china cups decorated with the République Française crest.
Michel said historians have misunderstood Napoleon’s love of local coffee. “Yes, he liked drinking coffee, but like me, he found the local coffee too bitter and weak. The coffee he loved was imported from Sri Lanka.”
Michel’s duties included maintaining Longwood House, which was sold to France in 1858. It is one of the most atmospherically historic places I have visited because the inside of this single-storey wooden house set in beautiful agapanthus gardens looks as if Napoleon had put up his sticks and left yesterday. Most of the furniture is original, including the deep bath in which he remains for hours every day, increasingly resigned to his fate in exile.
“Longwood is a memorial to the place where he died, not a museum,” Michel said.
After lunch, Ronald takes me to spectacular Sandy Bay, where spikes of volcanic lava rise like drumsticks above widespread greenery, including bananas that grow in the subtropical climate. St Helena’s small coffee production is concentrated here and my caffeinated day ends with the charming Debbie and Neil Fantom, who have recently started coffee production at Wranghams.
Debbie is a Saint (an islander) and Neil is from near Derby. Not only did they restore an abandoned one-acre coffee plantation from a previous venture, they also restored a majestic 18 acres.heA century-old Georgian manor house where afternoon tea is served for visitors in the gardens. Debbie, a wonderful cook, introduces me to island delicacies like “bread and dance”: spicy tomato paste spread on bread.
Neil explained that with a few tips he got from the internet, they saved the coffee seedlings from the overgrown vegetation and brought them back into production. The aim was to grow just enough for their own consumption, but last year they made 175lb and sold it for £10 a bag. “There was a report in the 70s that said St Helena could not economically export coffee, but demand for exotic roasts has changed this over the last 20 years,” Neil said.
“Would you like to try a cup,” he asked?
It has a darker roast and makes my first St Helenian espresso. If I didn’t fully understand why this smooth coffee was so sought after beyond its rarity, my first sip of my espresso was a mouthful of Catherine wheel as the bolder intensity triggered wonderful citrus notes. Even Napoleon, with all his barbed contempt in Gaul, might have nodded with satisfaction.
how to
Getting there: Virgin flies to Atlantic Johannesburg from £678 return trip. A five-hour connection from Johannesburg to St Helena costs £726 return with Airlink.
Where to stay: Mantis St Helena offers double bed and breakfast for £250 per night.
More information: Visit the St Helena Tourist Board website