When Warrel Jeffrey launched a Jamaican coffee import business, he felt as if he had leapt into the water without knowing how to swim.

Everything from business mark-ups to the Transport Control Department regulations surrounding putting a business decal on his car were foreign to him.

“I stayed in the water,” he said.

He started out with one product and now sells 12 Jamaica Blue and High Mountain coffee products, such as coffee beans, ground coffee, instant coffee, filter sachets and single-serve K-cups.

“In the beginning the coffee beans were my most popular items, but now my instant coffee products are selling better,” Mr Jeffrey said.

What keeps him going is his love for Jamaican coffee.

“I grew up in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica where some of the best coffee in the world is grown,” he said.

In fact, his grandfather and father both grew coffee. Taking care of the family plants was a part of Mr Jeffrey’s childhood chores.

“I would often be sent out to weed the coffee plants, water them or pick the beans,” he said.

The plants were grown on steep mountainsides.

“If you fell, you would roll down 20 feet,” he said.

The beans were green when they were picked.

“We would strip them and place them on a piece of zinc metal to dry out,” he said. “They would turn black when they were roasted in the fire. Then we would use a mortar, such as a piece of wooden tree trunk, maybe three feet high, to crush and beat the beans down. It was intensive, manual labour.”

As a child he was not allowed to actually have any of the coffee, which his family considered too strong for him.

“They were just trying to protect me,” he said.

He finally got a chance to try it when he was 10, and moved to the city. He loved it.

He said because of the intense labour that is still involved in the growing, Jamaican Blue Mountain and High Mountain coffee can be pricey.

“It is a quality product,” Mr Jeffrey said.

While living in Bermuda for the past 15 years, he has met many other people locally who are familiar with Jamaican coffee.

“Many Bermudians have either visited Jamaica on vacation or travelled there with the Bermuda Regiment,” Mr Jeffrey said.

The business started when a friend visited Jamaica and brought him back Jah B brand Jamaican coffee beans.

“I held the package in my hand and thought this is well put together,” he said. “I thought I could sell these.”

He put a notice up on Facebook and received a storm of interest.

He has since become friends with Berchel Smith, who runs Jah B.

“He grows the beans on a couple of acres in the Blue Mountains,” Mr Jeffrey said. “He was sending them to Kingston to be roasted, but he has bought the equipment now and will be doing that himself.”

Mr Jeffrey has his products flown from Jamaica to Florida, and then to Bermuda on commercial airlines. That keeps costs lower than if he brought them in through a courier company.

“If the price was too expensive, that would turn people off,” he said. “I want to get new people to try the products.”

He has done a few coffee tastings in local grocery stores and plans to do more in the future.

“That is to help people put a face to the product,” he said. “Some people want to taste it before they buy it.”

His coffees are now sold in eight different locations including Lindo’s in Devonshire and Warwick, Harrington Hundreds & Grocery, MarketPlace, Garden Market, Fish N Tings on Angle Street, Arnold’s Discount Warehouse and C-Mart.

Most places carry a combination of his items, but Lindo’s in Devonshire sells all of them. They can also be ordered through his website.

“I will deliver them straight to your house wherever you live,” he said.

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