Old rasta on the cliffs that sells bags of jerk seasoning

[MikeyNYC]

Has anyone here bought any from him and brought it back to the states? He stopped me one day and we chatted for a bit about the seasoning. He let me try some and I did like it but I just couldn't bring myself to buy any and try to bring it back. I kept thinking about the hassel if I got stopped and checked. I mean, no labels, no real packaging. Obviously there's no contraband in it but it seemed like a potential for a huge pain in the ass.

Thoughts?

[captaind]

Hi Mike,

As long as it only spice you can bring it with you but there's no guarantee it won't be a pain in the ass.

Cap

[yetta]

I think I know who you are talking about. His name was something like McIntire...or something like that. Nice man! I bought some tea and a few spices but I used it all before I left. I know in the past I have brought back coffee beans that were freshly roasted in a large ziplock bag with no labels. Packed them and no problems. Again, that doesn't mean on any given day, TSA could decide to check everything. Would be a pain in the backside but as long as one knows they have nothing illegal, hopefully just time consuming and irritating. Guess it depends on just how much you want it at home and the luck of the draw.

[liznash]

We once bought small bags of jerk spice from a Rasta we met at the bar at LTU. I believe his name was Gladstone, but I have a question mark next to that in my notes. He said he was from the Blue Mountain area and talked to us about growing coffee. Anyway, we had the bags in our carry-on luggage and had no problems. The spice was really wonderful, by the way.

[Mike_D]

That rasta stopped me on the West End Rd when I was there a few weeks ago. He showed me the jerk seasoning and told me he also had some blue mountain coffee in his bag. At the time, I had a plate of Tony's chicken in one hand and a bag of drinks/snacks from L&M in the other hand. At same time a younger guy on a bike stopped by us and tried to sell me necklaces and bracelets. At this point, I was getting frustrated as I just wanted to get back to my room and enjoy some chicken and Red Stripe. I just turned around and walked away, but in the back of my mind I was kinda interested in his products. The rasta wasn't aggressive but he was persistent. I think he even said I could pay whatever I wanted for the seasoning, as I was walking away. Now I'm curious about his stuff, particularly the coffee.

On a related note, I did have a labeled bag of jerk seasoning (from Time Square), as well as an opened bag of High Mountain coffee in my checked luggage, when we flew back to Philly. My suitcase was definitely searched in MBJ after I checked it, as I noticed the zippers were in a different spot when I picked it up from the luggage carousel. In addition, when we went through customs at PHL we were pulled out of line by a customs officer and brought into a separate room where our luggage was searched again (I wonder if they were watching our luggage and waited to see who picked it up). When they opened my suitcase, it was obviously already rummaged through. The customs officers proceeded to search it again and paid close attention to my Jamaican products. They even unzipped the liner to my suitcase searched under the fabric. They eventually let us go without incident.

So yeah, there is nothing illegal about bringing spices, etc. back from Jamaica, however having items in your suitcase that look like kilos of narcotics when put through the x-ray machine may raise a red flag with customs or security.

[goldilocks]

I gather fevergrass and cerasee, dry it and bring back about four gallon size ziplock bags of it for tea. Customs has seen it in my bag and didn't say anything about it. They know what they are looking for, LOL!

[yetta]

That reminds me of the time I brought a whole breadfruit wrapped in foil. I showed it to therm upon check in and the lady smiled. She said, you can't bring dat unless it roasted. I smiled and said, it roasted. She opened it and smiled! No problem and we tucked it away. She actually seemed thrilled that I wanted to take some roasted breadfruit back home. It made it back to West Virginia and the next night I fried some up and smiled!