Napoleon is currently a la mode with the release of Ridley Scott’s swashbuckling new biopic. But when he died in 1821 on the South Atlantic British overseas territory of St. Helena Island, after six years of exile, historians remember that the days of this fallen megalomaniac were desolate and that one of his few daily pleasures was coffee. The St Helenian coffee he drank is now one of the rarest and most expensive in the world, selling at Harrods for an eye-watering £96 per 3.5oz.
After arriving on the newly introduced midweek flight from Johannesburg – which doubles St Helena’s airlift to two flights per week – I stroll to Jamestown Harbor to enjoy my first local coffee. Against the backdrop of the crashing waves and purple-flowering jacarandas of the Atlantic Ocean, my £3 French press arrives at Jill Bolton’s coffee shop, near the spot where Napoleon stepped ashore in 1815.
The coffee is brewed from an Arabica bean, the so-called green-tipped bourbon, imported from Yemen and introduced to Saint Helena by the East India Company in 1733. The coffee has never been cross-pollinated with other varieties and remains as pure as the brew. Napoleon has swallowed himself. This rarity, together with the logistics of export and the island’s minimal production, make the beans worth their weight in gold.
“It’s a mild coffee with floral notes,” says Jill from Sheffield, who founded the coffee shop in 1995 with her late husband Bill. Her café is one of the few places on the island where you can drink it, as her beans come from a 2.5-hectare plantation her husband set up called Rosemary Gate Estate. Most other cafes in town serve imported coffee, as even on the island home-grown coffee costs around £10 per 100ml bag.
By appointment, visitors can tour the Rosemary Gate, where unroasted green coffee beans are exported exclusively to Harrods. Before traveling I had noticed that the Knightsbridge store was completely sold out. “There have been issues with our shipping company, so I haven’t shipped to England since February 2022,” says Jill.
Rosemary Gate is a 25-minute drive outside Jamestown. If the bijou capital is enchanting – all Georgian architecture, Union Jacks and pubs with a 70s vibe selling drinks at 90s prices – the terroir of the coffee plantations is like Lundy on steroids. Roads wind up long steep slopes and plunge into deep valleys, while cloud-forested peaks tilt toward dark volcanic cliffs. I am driven by 75-year-old taxi driver Ronald, who explains that he cannot afford Saint Helena coffee.
“I buy imported coffee from South Africa for £3 a can,” he said.
The tour takes me through the entire processing process. From picking the ‘cherries’ when they are reddish brown, to removing the soft flesh and then drying the exposed beans in the sun. They are then bagged for export and any misshapen beans – heaven above Harrods’ clientele would put up with wobbly beans – are roasted for consumption on the island in Jill’s coffee shop.
After once being hailed as the “best mocha” at the 1851 London Exhibition, St. Helena’s coffee production declined sharply until the early 1990s, when a few small businesses emerged. Jill remembers the first time they sold beans to Harrods. “My husband only started doing it as a hobby when he retired, and then suddenly we are the only supplier to Harrods. It was hard to believe. It’s a bit like fine wine. People buy it because of the price and the fame.”
Although none of this impresses Saint Helena’s honorary French consul, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau. I’m having lunch with him at Longwood House, which was converted for Napoleon during his exile. After dessert, quelle surprise, imported French roasted coffee arrives in porcelain espresso cups decorated with the emblem of the République Française.
Michel said historians were wrong about Napoleon’s love of local coffee. “Yes, he liked to drink coffee, but like me he found the local stuff too bitter and weak. The coffee he enjoyed was imported from Sri Lanka.”
Michel’s duties included the maintenance of Longwood House, which was sold to France in 1858. It’s one of the most atmospheric historic sites I’ve visited because this single-storey wooden house, set in beautiful agapanthus gardens, makes it look like Napoleon raised his sticks and left yesterday. . Much of the furnishings are original, including a deep bath in which he soaked for hours every day, becoming 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 the spectacular Sandy Bay, where volcanic lava peaks rise like baguettes above the lush 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 launched coffee production at Wranghams.
Debbie is a saint (an islander) and Neil is from near Derby. They have not only restored an acre of coffee plantation abandoned by a previous venture, but also a stately 18ecentury Georgian country house, where they organize high teas for visitors in their garden. Debbie is a great cook and introduces me to island delicacies such as ‘bread-‘n’-dance’: a spicy tomato paste spread on bread.
Neil explained that they saved the coffee bushes from overgrown vegetation and pruned them back into production with a few tips they gathered from the internet. The aim was to grow just enough for their own consumption, but last year they raised £175 so they sold it for £10 a bag. “In the 1970s there was a report that said St Helena could not economically export coffee, but demand for exotic roasts has changed this in the last twenty years,” says Neil.
Fancy trying a cup, he asked?
His roast is darker and he makes my first St. Helenian espresso. If I hadn’t yet fully grasped why this mild coffee is so sought after, beyond its rarity, my first sip of its espresso is an oral Catherine wheel, as its more powerful intensity produces wonderful citrus notes. Even Napoleon, with all his sharp Gallic disdain, may have nodded in satisfaction.
How to do that
How do you get there: Virgin Atlantic flies to Johannesburg from £678 return. From Johannesburg, the five-hour connection to St Helena with Airlink is from £726 return.
Where to stay: Mantis St Helena offers B&B doubles for £250 per night.
More information: Visit the Saint Helena Tourist Office website