Green Bean News
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Coffee News
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Meet Derryl Reid, Founder of Green Bean Coffee Imports
Coffee, A life long Passion
One of his fondest memories, as a young teenager, was getting up early and making coffee for his parents with their Melitta cone filter. His mom and dad always said he made the best coffee; on reflection, he now thinks it was their ploy to get him up early to make the coffee in the morning!
Walking the streets of Halifax, sampling coffee from the local cafés, is where Derryl developed his taste for good quality coffee.
Good food and good drink have always been his passion. Starting out in life as a cook, learning the art of fine food, then later on switching over to farming oysters and scallops on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, he has great memories of early mornings, thermos of coffee on the boat, sampling fresh oysters and scallops right out of the ocean for breakfast!
In the early 90’s, while on a trip to Washington State, Derryl sampled some great coffee out of the roadside espresso kiosks, up and down the coast. That’s when he knew there were real opportunities to explore with coffee.
Still in the early 90’s, back in Halifax , Derryl put a business plan together to introduce espresso carts in the Halifax area. Unfortunately, funding at the time wasn’t easy to attain and he had a young family to support.
Putting his dream on hold, he continued with aquaculture and then switched over to managing a marina. While there, he opened a restaurant, bakery and convenience store.
Then the best possible thing happened to Derryl; he landed a good job in Manitoba and soon realized he was in a job he just hated for the first time in his life.
It was one of those "now or never" moments: keep the safe secure job with all the benefits and stay miserable, or follow his passion,
The choice was easy. Over the years, he had developed a great deal of knowledge about coffee and had accumulated much business experience. So, he chose to start his own coffee business.
With his children as his quality control department and his strongest critics, Derryl launched GreenBean Coffee Imports and he has been smiling ever since!