Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience
Carry On Friends has an unmistakable Caribbean-American essence. Hosted by the dynamic and engaging Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown, the podcast takes listeners on a global journey, deeply rooted in Caribbean culture. It serves as a melting pot of inspiring stories, light-hearted anecdotes, and stimulating perspectives that provoke thought and initiate conversations.
The podcast invites guests who enrich the narrative with their unique experiences and insights into Caribbean culture and identity. With an array of topics covered - from lifestyle and wellness to travel, entertainment, career, and entrepreneurship - it encapsulates the diverse facets of the Caribbean American experience. Catering to an international audience, Carry On Friends effectively bridges cultural gaps, uniting listeners under a shared love and appreciation for Caribbean culture.
Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience
Tiffany Cohen: Blending Cultures & Preserving Traditions with Flor de la Jara
In our episode, Tiffany also opens up about her entrepreneurial journey with her husband as they merge Jamaican and Spanish traditions to create their unique olive oil brand, Flor de la Jara. We discuss the challenges they face in the import-export business and the strengths they leverage to navigate these obstacles. Discover the incredible health benefits of their preservative-free olive oil and their mission to promote well-being within Caribbean communities.
Connect with Tiffany & Flor de la Jara - Website | Instagram
Connect with @carryonfriends - Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
A Breadfruit Media Production
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Carry On Friends the Caribbean American experience. And, as always, I'm excited about my guest today. My guest is Tiffany. Tiffany, welcome to the podcast. What's going on? Am I your first real podcast that you're coming on, you know?
Speaker 2:this is my first solo podcast, for sure, absolutely so I'm very excited about it.
Speaker 1:All right, welcome to the city, welcome to the living room. It's going to be fun, all right. So why don't you tell the community of friends a little bit about who you are, caribbean country you represent and the work that you do?
Speaker 2:Sure, so I'm Tiffany. Like we've said before, I actually am representing Jamaica. My family were from Jamaica. I'm first generation American, so I was born here in the US, but everyone else pretty much was born there. I grew up in Flatbush in New York, in Brooklyn, which is to me like the little West Indies, little Jamaica, if you will, in New York, in Brooklyn. And actually I am part, with my husband, of a olive oil brand called Flor de la Jara, which is incorporating kind of my husband. They've been doing it for three generations in his family. He's from Spain and myself and our traditions and our culture and so forth. So that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:So let's go back to your childhood a little bit before we get into Flor de la. What is it, flor de la Jara? Flor de la Jara yes, I like when you roll the R de la Jara. All right, so we're going to get to it right. So, as a first generation Jamaican Caribbean person in Brooklyn, what was your experience around food at home and then, when you were outside of home, what was that like for you growing up?
Speaker 2:So I would say right. So food had all the regular traditional Jamaican dishes, right, you know curry, goat, oxtail rice and peas. You know white rice with the goat, what you would expect, you know which. To me it was perfect, it was great. And then outside, you know kind of, we live in America so you know, at that time there's still like fast food which would be like your typical fast food in America, but in our house, really like those things were a treat, right, and so you would get them when the stars aligned, right, it's not like it's not like you would get it all the time at all. So most of the food that I grew up on was basically traditional Jamaican food. And then as my mom got older and my mom a little bit older and myself a little bit older she would kind of try and incorporate some other things like we would have maybe like a grilled salmon and stuff like that, but never, ever, ever, forgetting or not eating traditional foods. So that's kind of how it worked in our house.
Speaker 1:That is so interesting because I find like I've had conversations with other people who said, yeah, in the house there was the curry goat and all the stuff, and when they went to a friend's house it was like what is this? So I I'm just curious if you had any of those experiences as well, where you're introducing to a non-Jamaican Caribbean friend the cuisine and their reaction to that.
Speaker 2:So I would say no, and the only reason is because most of my friends growing up were also West Indian, you know what I mean. And so the food wasn't very different, right, even if it was like a Trinidadian and most of them, to be honest and to be fair, were Jamaican. So, like you know, maybe you might have a Trinidadian friend, but they may probably also eating goat, right, curry goat. So it wasn't like, not until I got older, like college age or something, that I would be introduced to new foods, you know, and I was like, oh, that's interesting, I've never heard, and even some foods till this day I've never had, like I've never had meatloaf, you know what I mean, which I guess would be some people would say is traditionally American. Or we didn't grow up eating pies, you know, peach cobbler, none of that. So I have never really had any of that stuff. A lot of the stuff I still eat to this day is very, is very, traditional.
Speaker 1:I hear you. I've tried the pies but I guess texture wise it's not something that I'm like. I'm not sure. But, I have tried it, it's just not. You know the texture. I don't know Something about. It is not something that I really like. So that's interesting, all right. So tell me a little bit about Flor de la Jara. Right, I got that right, flor de la Jara.
Speaker 2:Yes, like I was saying before my husband's family. They've been producing olive oil on their family land for three generations in Spain, and so it's been passed down up until my husband, essentially. And my father-in-law is still everybody's still in Spain on my husband's side, and he loves taking care of trees and taking care of the land, right, and my husband is not so much. My husband is not a farmer, and so, but we both love tradition, right, and we both love honoring heritage. And so we thought to ourselves you know, moving forward, what can we do to kind of preserve this right? What can we do of the things that we are good at and enjoy?
Speaker 2:And one thing that we do like is good quality food, right, like there's nothing like having just good quality food. You can always remember, like back to that great meal, right, and then, good quality food, you can also taste the ingredients, like the richness of the ingredients, right. And so we thought to ourselves you know, hey, what if we brought this thing here to the States, right, and introduced it to everyone? And with that we can still, we use it and we combine cultures by making the foods that you know he grew up on, which are from Spain, and what I grew up on right, which would be the foods from Jamaica that we already discussed. So that's kind of how it came into being, basically, and we thought it would be a good way for us to go forward, because neither of us are farmers or land cultivators in that traditional sense.
Speaker 1:I think it's an interesting story because I think, in a digital age, looking at culture and preservation of culture very differently and it's not getting rid of the traditional ways of farming and tending to the land and it's like marrying I don't want to say old, because farming is sustenance right it is, you still need it to exist today but merging that with the now, the modern day, and how that works. So talk to me a little bit about how you see the oil, the olive oil, and the preservation and culture and food traditions. How do you see the work that you do? Doing more of that? Because we live in a world where you go on Instagram everybody talking about oxtail, they talk about oxtail gravy, they talk about everything. You know what I mean, and so at some point it almost feel like oxtail don't belong to us anymore, right? Or jerk, everybody a jerk, jerk rice who jerks rice? You cannot jerk rice, you cannot. The whole point of jerk and rice does not go together, you know.
Speaker 1:So like when, when we look out on the internet, we want to share our culture but, um, I feel like sometimes it gets away from us because then people just put a blanket jerk rice, jerk raisins, jerk everything. So how do you see your role and what you and your husband are doing with this brand in terms of preservation of food cultures and honoring the rich histories of both your cultures, if that makes sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think the way we look at it right is that you're right, it's very, it's very easy to quote, unquote, commercialize right, what the new fad is, right Of food. But I think for us, just kind of sharing the story is kind of what helps preserve what we want to do, the tradition and the, the, the richness of it, right. And then also using that same story and saying like, forward thinking, this is how we can do it right. So, for example, like when we go and harvest right, my father-in-law is phenomenal right, like this is something that he's used to doing, he knows how to do it, and then we are learning right, so that we now can learn to not only farm the land but then we now also living because my husband, like I said, is from Spain he's come here to the States using kind of what we have from Florida La Jara, olive oil and incorporating it with making Spanish dishes here, but then also making sometimes American dishes, right.
Speaker 2:So like, for example, like I don't know, a cheeseburger to me is very American, right, and you think of, we like to put onions on it, like sauteed onions on it, and so we use our oil to saute onions. Right, we use our oil. In the same way we would use it to make a paella, in the same way I would use it to make curry shrimp right. So it's like it's something that can. It's universal, that can be used in every dish, every culture, whereas even traditionally it may not have been used right. So for us, growing up, I didn't use a lot of olive oil, like Jamaicans we didn't. You know, my mom wasn't using olive oil back that time and a lot of other cultures don't necessarily use it. But knowing the versatility of the oil can allow you to hold on to whatever traditional foods that you like and then also kind of incorporate a little bit of that flavor from Spain, from us as well.
Speaker 1:So it goes back to blending of the traditions, right, you know olive oil isn't you know, something native to the region or Caribbean folks, right? And so it is how you leverage a versatile oil to enhance traditional meals and kind of fusing some of your culture, and I can see how that works. So, when it comes to where you are in establishing the business here in the US, what has been that experience for you? Because I don't have to tell you, you know this business is hard. Yes, so I can only imagine you running a business where there's the import situation, selling. How has that experience been for you? And is this something that? How do I word this? Is this your career path or it's just like we are learning on the fly, pretty much?
Speaker 2:Sure. So what our goal is is to make it our thing right. Our full-time thing there is learning on the fly, and what I've realized is that it's very important for the two of us, since we're working together as husband and wife, to have our goals Right and that those goals play to our strengths Right. So my husband is very much good with kind of negotiations and things with shipping and so forth, and I'm very good administratively, right. Those are the things that I enjoy doing Right. So, ok, we have to fill this form, we have to apply to this. We have, and I'm also very good at like researching.
Speaker 2:So that's what I love to do Right. And so I find that when we play to our strengths, it works out really well for us because there's not a lot of like confusion or overlap. But, to be honest, yeah, a lot of it is still learning because, you know, neither one of us has done this before in this country, and so there's a huge learning curve and we're just taking it step by step. That's just day by day. That's how we're doing it.
Speaker 1:What is one thing you wish that you learned before you and your husband started on this venture? Or what's like one thing you wish you knew before you got into this?
Speaker 2:That is a good question, let's see. I think one of the things that perhaps I wish I would have known was just the complexity of getting something from point A to point B, right. So you have this kind of like we were talking about with important exports, right, there's so many little steps. You kind of think to yourself, okay, well, on the Spain side it's ours, here in the States it's ours, so it should be fairly easy, right? But there are a lot of kind of moving pieces that have it's been difficult to kind of learn and how to figure out and kind of just to do that export import thing, and I think that maybe I wish I had a little bit more understanding of that before. But also I like to learn. So the fact that you know I had to learn that stuff or we're learning that stuff as we go, is also not, you know, a deterrent.
Speaker 1:In terms of community right, because as entrepreneurs, you know finding a community makes it more manageable to thrive. Right, I know you're working with your husband. But in terms of finding a community of other entrepreneurs doing similar things, how thought, partnerships and just like, give, get ideas and get suggestions and workarounds how has that been for you? Has that been like something easy, or is the challenge Like what has that been?
Speaker 2:I would definitely say that that it's a challenge, right?
Speaker 2:Just because, yes, there are not a lot of people doing imports and exports.
Speaker 2:But also, you know, people are very protective of, like, the inner workings of their business, right? So even in terms of saying, hey, I'm doing this, or what challenges have you faced in the past or how have you overcome that, you know it's very difficult to get someone to say, okay, listen, this is what I've done, this is how it worked for me, or this is kind of what you could potentially, you know, this is what I've done, this is how it worked for me, or this is kind of of what you could potentially, you know, do or what have you. I think people are very welcoming, I would say. But in terms of kind of getting into some type of like nitty gritty or understanding, I think that that's very difficult to find. So it's kind of a two-pronged kind of thing in terms of like the community they're there, everyone's very nice but when you think of community, you also think of like support and leaning on people and so forth, when you need or get, and that part, I think, has been difficult.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. Yeah, because I know very few people do import exports and there is a reason why they work with like brokers to manage that process. So, yeah, I do hope you find a community soon. And how long have you and your husband gone on this route with this project?
Speaker 2:Sure, so we started it in the States last year, Yep. So we're still, we're going and we're going to keep on going. But yeah, I'm sure we'll find, you know, as we grow and we keep on, you know expanding and so forth, you know we'll meet more people and more things will come. And so, yeah, it's been, it's been good for sure.
Speaker 1:So talk to me about the reception. What have you been doing to get people to use the product? Like, let me know a little bit more about that, because I mean, let's be honest, right, olive oil is olive oil for me. We don't know the difference, right? And most people don't know the difference. The most we know is virgin or extra virgin, and that's it. So, explain to us a little bit more about olive oil. I'm sure there's way more than what I just said virgin, extra virgin, that's it Absolutely so.
Speaker 2:that's one thing that we enjoy doing right, so just like educating people and letting them know, informing them of what the product is and why it's special. So we've had a very good response, right, people who've tried it. They pretty much love it, right, and we're very, very fortunate for that. Olive oil is, you know, one of the healthy oils, essentially right, and extra virgin olive oil is kind of one of the healthiest forms of olive oil that there is, right, and so what that means is that olive oil is really good because it has a lot of, like, polyphenols, which are antioxidants which help with your health, right, it's great for your skin, it's great for your nails, it's great for your hair, right, and so that's one of the things, and the thing about olive oils, or olives essentially, is also, it's a fruit, right, and so, just like you can have, like, different types of apples, right, fuji apples, gala apples you know Macintosh, but they're all apples, right, they just may have a different taste. It's the same thing with olives, right, and so because of that, for example, for Florida Lajada, we have three different varieties, three different types of olives that we use to make our olive oils, right, and so you often also hear, in addition to extra virgin olive oil, you'll hear, like the words cold pressed, right, and what does that exactly mean? So that means, basically, you're extracting, you're making the oil without any heat, without any chemicals, right? And the easiest way to think about that is like, if you think of an olive as a fruit, you think of an orange as a fruit, right, you squeeze the orange, you squeeze the olive oil, that's it. That's basically what cold press is essentially, and so that's what you want. You don't want olive oil that has been extracted from the olives via chemicals, via heat, right, because as you heat up oil or heat up anything, things get destroyed, so all the goodness gets destroyed. And then, just also, what you want is something to be fresh, because when you go to the store and you pick up a bottle of olive oil, right, or extra virgin olive oil, what have you?
Speaker 2:The issue is is that you don't know from what harvest that olive oil was from, right, it's just like fruits, it's just like anything, right? So you don't know if they harvested it this past harvest season or five harvest seasons ago, right, and if you can imagine something that's been harvested five seasons ago, it's still extra virgin olive oil, but are you getting the same nutrients that you were getting five years ago if it were bottled five years ago and you used it five years ago as today? No, it's impossible With us. We'll tell you when it was harvested, when it was bottled, so you know. Okay, this is what it is and this is when it's coming from, and you can actually taste the difference. We hear that from a lot of people Like I can taste the olive, right, I can taste the olives in the olive oil. So that's how it is.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. I have a question. Yes, honestly I'm not a food blogger, but I've heard that you can't use olive oil to fry chicken. We're Jamaica, we fry chicken, we fry holy pottings. So explain a little bit If it's the case. Yes, but just kind of educate me and the audience about that.
Speaker 2:Sure. So you can use olive oil to fry. You shouldn't use it to deep fry, right? Because deep frying is not very good, right? Deep fry destroys all of nutrients. It's not like you can't, it's not like something's going to explode or anything like that, but it destroys everything, all the nutrients. So you wouldn't want to necessarily do deep fry. But can you fry with it? Of course you can fry with it, you can saute with it, like I told you about the onions before. You can fry with it, you can just eat it raw, right? So like, for example, my mother-in-law, she drinks a tablespoon of olive oil every day, right? So it's like it reminds me of, for me, growing up, we would have the seventies cod liver oil.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what came to mind. I was like, oh I know where she goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's what I remember drinking, right, and they were drinking olive oil, you know, and, like my, my husband as well, and so it's just also just has good fats and healthy fats, so that's really good for you. So olive oil is, like I said, to answer your question, yes, you can use it to fry, um, but you could just also just take it raw, right, so that you can kind of contain and and maintain all of the goodness that's in it as well.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. I I meant to tell you I saw um before we started recording. I was looking at a bottle. I'm like so why does this look like expensive champagne? You know like the bottles are just like gorgeous. So I'm just like, not like what. I mean not like what you see in a supermarket. So I'm just like the, the bottling or the packaging is great. Cause I'm just like, ooh, this is amazing.
Speaker 2:And if you try what's inside too, you'll be. You'll be very amazing, very pleased as well.
Speaker 1:Wonderful, wonderful. So all right, as we wrap up, right, what's one thing that you would like people to know about you, the business, and why they should try this olive oil? Just simplify it for someone who's listening. They're like yeah, yeah, yeah, she has a little anaphylactic, she's going to talk it up. You know how Jamaicans are Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:I think what's important for everyone, and should be important for everyone, is being healthy, right. And so if you think about it, especially being I could just talk about being Jamaican or Jamaican background right. The things that used to keep was when you go home and you see the older people at home, right, and they look good. When I say good, 80 years old, good for them, age like good, right, the reason is is because a lot of them are eating healthy, fresh food, right. Then people come over here to the States and they think that food is food right. A lot of people don't understand that the food that they were eating back home is fresh, is healthy, and that's what's making people look good and live well, right.
Speaker 2:And so for us, what we're doing is giving you basically that we are saying listen, you know where this is coming from you, where this is coming from, you know who this is coming from, you know when it was done.
Speaker 2:It's like I always tell people. It's like we took you to Spain and pick the olives ourselves and bottle it and gave it to you, so you don't have anything in the middle in terms of any preservatives, anything in there. That's the stuff that makes you unhealthy, right. So that's why you should try it and you should use it, because what's important is that you want to make sure that you're healthy and be around, and what you want to know about me in particular is that for me, when I think about you know not only Caribbeans, but like just people in general, right, it's important for us to be around right and be around for a very long time and be around in good condition. That's one of the things that I'm very passionate about, and so I think that you know it's definitely give it a try and you will not be disappointed, and then you can see for yourself, because you'd be able to tell.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. And so where can people find this? Is it, I'm sure, in another supermarket, so you don't have to go?
Speaker 2:online Sure, so you can find it on our website, floradelajaracom. So I'm going to spell it out for you F-L-O-R-D-E-L-A-J-A-R-A, right? Or you can even follow us on Instagram, which is at floradelajara, underscore olive oil as well.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being on the podcast and sharing with us more about olive oil, because, whether it's your brand or something else, we need to be aware of what we're buying. So I really appreciate you educating me and explaining the process and also I think it's great, as another Jamaican woman, to see us diversified in the endeavors that we choose to pursue as entrepreneurs. I think it's very important to know it's not easy for you, but I'm glad that you are trying to make a name for yourself and it just takes one to make a name for yourself, and it just takes one and before you know, you're kicking the door and everybody else are roping with oil and things. So I wish you, your husband and your family all the best in this endeavor and thank you again for being on the podcast and sharing what you're doing and, as I love to say at the end of every episode walk good, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's been such a pleasure. I really appreciate it. Thank you, carrie-anne, you're welcome.
