Father’s Day, a day to honor our respective fathers, brings me to one famous Dad who is being honored in a surprising way. Legendary Reggae music artist, Bob Marley, is being honored by one of his sons, Rohan Marley, with a new company called Marley Coffee. “My father came from the farmland in Nine Mile. There, he learned a deep respect for nature and humanity,” says Rohan Marley.

An Amazing Website

If the bells and whistles on the website are any indication of the future success of Marley Coffee, it will be an amazing ride. On this flash-rich site, you can learn the history of the company and Bob Marley through photographs, video and music. There are beautiful videos like “A Little Bit about Bob Marley,” “The Organic Movement,” “How to Grow Good Coffee,” and “Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee.” You can also enjoy some of Bob Marley’s music including one of his first recordings ironically entitled, “One Cup of Coffee.”

ITAL-Organic and Fair Trade

The coffee is both organic and fair trade but stamped ITAL because Marley Coffee is “raising the bar for responsible coffee.” ITAL is “Rastafari for food that is pure, true and vital,” according to the website. “We consider farm worker treatment, compensation and working conditions a part of the responsibility of ITAL culture. Marley farm workers are paid twice the average wage and, through the Marley Coffee Foundation, recreation opportunities (soccer fields and equipment) are provided for farm workers’ children worldwide." The Marley Coffee Farm will be the first certified organic Blue Mountain Coffee farm in Jamaica, as stated by Dr. Dwight Robinson, Executive Director of the Jamaica Organic Agriculture Movement.

The Coffee

While the Marley Estate sits atop the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, the coffees offered include the famous Jamaican Blue Mountain, but also single origin and blended coffees from Ethiopia, Central America and Indonesia as well. The Mystic Morning Wake Up Coffee includes in its description, “Aromas and tastes of cocoa, spice, cedar, cinnamon and cooked pumpkin gives you the perfect morning kick.” Sounds like something I am looking forward to. The coffees can be ordered on the site and are available wholesale as well. Other coffees available are Jammin Java-Organic bold full city roast; Mystic Morning-Organic Wake Up Coffee; One Love-Organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe; Lively Up-Organic Five Bean Espresso Blend; and Simmer Down-Organic Swiss Water Decaf.

So go ahead and visit Marley Coffee, enjoy a bit of Jamaica and treat the fathers in your life to a real ITAL coffee experience while helping some coffee farmers, who are fathers, and Mother Earth at the same time.