Junior Warner, popularly known as “D Juiceman”, has made his mark as a Port of Spain phenomenon through his business of selling exotic juices. The 51-year-old operates the family business just opposite the National Academy of the Performing Arts (NAPA) at the savannah almost every evening. Today he boasts of providing over 50 flavours of fruit and vegetable juices to the public including, downes, soursop, Tobago cherry, patchoi, among a host of others. Even though the popular juice man has finally found his niche as arguably the most exotic juice blender, his journey to the top has not been easy.
Operating out of Diego Martin, Warner said his interest in juice making was sparked many years ago. “I came back from Canada with my wife and we had plums and mangoes in our yard. For some strange reason, I had the idea to try them as juice” he recalled. His first attempt at a blended plum juice concoction created such a sedating, calming sensation that he continued to do the same with other types of fruit. After holding down a series of odd jobs throughout the years, he decided to open a vegetarian restaurant with his wife. After approximately 11 months in business, the restaurant dissolved, leaving Warner and his wife in a lot debt.
“A friend of mine was importing sorrel, seamoss and mauby from Indonesia and one of his suggestions was to buy his sorrel and sell,” Warner said. Although he was not impressed with the idea, to appease his wife he complied and in 2007 started a small juice business in St James with about 20 fruit and vegetable juice options. Shortly after, he moved his business to the Savannah, but was still hesitant about the idea. “It was difficult at first because I was still traumatised from the restaurant experience. The environment was also difficult to adjust to” he said. According to Warner, 75 per cent of his juice stock is seasonal, while the others are available year round.
In order to ensure that his stock is readily available he imports from Grenada and freezes. The juicing of the exotic produce is challenging and calls for a lot of innovation from his juicing team. “Because you are dealing with non-standardised items and no one has really attempted to juice these fruits, you have to invent ways of extraction” he said. The preparation process involves sanitising, pasteurising, crushing , pulping and separating seeds from fruit and vegetable. This may take minimally 30 to 45 minutes depending on the product. Since introducing his exotic blends to the public, Warner says the response has been overwhelming. He has also been able to showcase at this year’s Taste T&T Culinary Festival, after which he said, his sales skyrocketed as his products created a “wow” factor among the familiar and not so familiar.
His focus now is expansion. “So far, this business has been a Port of Spain phenomenon and we would like it to become a nationwide phenomenon” he said. “In the next three months, we should have added three more locations – south, the east west corridor and the Avenue” he promised. Warner would also like to establish his franchise abroad , not only for the West Indian diaspora but Europeans and Americans alike. “We have so much that we can offer the world with our explosion of flavours. This business has more than international appeal” said Warner. “This juice business helped to save my life. It was not my idea, it was given to me and I stayed with it because it worked. Now l love it. I guess my emotions caught up with my reality.”
