Passion For Coffee Earns Hervin Willis National Honour

It is not every day that one is recognised for turning his/her passion into a rewarding career, especially if that passion is, well, coffee.

This is the case for Hervin Willis, who has dedicated 35 years to ensuring that every freshy brewed cup of the world’s finest coffee, harvested from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, maintains its rich authentic taste.

On National Heroes Day, Monday, October 18, Mr. Willis will receive the Badge of Honour for Long and Faithful Service (BH{L}) to the coffee industry, at the virtual National Honours and Awards ceremony.

The St. Ann native tells JIS News that he feels honoured to be receiving a national award for the work that he has done.

“To be recognised is always a good thing. I feel good, I feel honoured. My family and colleagues say that I am deserving of it,” he says.

Reflecting on his life and career, Mr. Willis says he was shaped by his humble beginnings, growing up in the community of Alexandria with four sisters and five brothers.

“It was us striving, trying to outdo each other, but it wasn’t easy for my parents raising us in the countryside and doing subsistence farming. Whatever my parents had they let us have it, but it wasn’t easy,” he says.

It was at this stage in his life that his love for coffee began “because I always saw trucks coming by to pick up coffee and take it to Aenon Town [for processing at the factory], and I understood that coffee was important,” Mr. Willis recalls.

He would develop an interest in Blue Mountain Coffee after reading about it in his geography textbook at York Castle High School.

He later attended the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST) now University of Technology (Utech) where he did a diploma in mechanical engineering.

It was at the end of his three years of study at CAST, at age 21, that Mr. Willis got a job at the Coffee Industry Board (CIB), which would define the rest of his life.

He recalls that representatives from the CIB had attended a career day event at CAST, but by the time he decided to visit the booth they had already closed off.

“However, they left application forms and I put in an application. I got various offers from other companies but what was being offered by the Coffee Board seemed more lucrative and had scope for advancement down the line, and so after many interviews I came to the Coffee Board,” Mr. Willis tells JIS News.

At the CIB, where he started out as a supervisor “for the finishing aspect of coffee processing,” Mr. Willis says he read all he could about coffee.

He says the job was fast-paced, and being a quick learner, he soon adapted to the intricacies involved in producing the best cup of coffee in the world.

“There was equipment that I had to learn about, and I trained with the General Manager, Larry Meggoe and my immediate boss, David Evans, on how to manage them, having not worked in a plant before,” he notes.

He also read a lot about coffee and the processing of the product.

“Soon, I realised that the quality had to be maintained and how you process and handle it is critical to ensuring that at the end of the day, the coffee that goes out in the marketplace is of the best quality,” he tells JIS News.

Mr. Willis developed an avaricious appetite for knowledge and was eager to understand all he could about coffee. His colleagues ensured that every magazine or article that had any information about coffee was always on his desk.

Over time, he moved up to finishing operations supervisor, and was promoted to assistant manager after completing further studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

“From there, the focus was primarily on quality – doing inspections, ensuring that there is compliance with standards and processes to achieve the level of quality of the product. So, I remained with that until Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA) was formed,” Mr. Willis tells JIS News.

Now Director of Coffee at the JACRA, following the merger of the CIB and the Cocoa Industry Board, Mr. Willis says his job is rewarding.

“Part of the rewarding thing is when you have some customers, for example, the Japanese, who are the largest buyers of Jamaican coffee, talk about the product. They usually visit Jamaica, and they will come and sit with us, and they go through testing, and you see them smile and nod and say this is good coffee,” Mr. Willis says.

He says people all over the world speak glowingly of Blue Mountain Coffee.

“As a cupper, we do a sensory analysis of the coffee where we roast it, grind it and pour boiled water on it and then you observe the aroma and then you taste it without adding anything at all. When you taste the brew, it does something to you. When the coffee is handled properly, then the whole taste that you get is something else and you see these people really bask in it and you say, ‘this is so good’,” Mr. Willis says with a chuckle.

He adds that as he traverses the globe to represent the coffee industry, the admiration for the Blue Mountain Coffee leaves him in awe.

“I remember going to Japan and when I was leaving, I gave the bell boy, who took up my luggage, the last pack of Blue Mountain Coffee I had, and he bowed his head, placed it [the coffee] in the air, and he kissed the package; just in awe,” he says.

Mr. Willis tells JIS News that the industry has faced various threats, noting that when Hurricane Gilbert came “there was hardly any coffee left… but we survived”.

More than 100 Jamaicans will be honoured during the 2021 National Honours and Awards ceremony for outstanding service to the nation.