Disbe® Our History
Our Journey through the smoke
What we do....
At Disbe Good ™ , we produce and ship premium ethnic smoked meats nationally and have a strong loyal customer following. We recently secured our USDA license and a small facility in Pennsylvania to keep up with the demand to share our passion for telling stories through cooking. We specialize in ethnic smoked street foods from around the world. Our products include charcoal prepared Beef Suya, Jerk Chicken, Fowl Chicken and other charcoal wood-smoked meats.
Our Passion and History....
The vision for Disbe Good ™ started when our founder Joshua Godson was studying at Liberty University at the age of 18. He experienced first hand how international students from parts of Africa and the Caribbean longed to experience authentic street food from their respective countries, but were constantly met with versions that never satisfied their cravings. We believe the universe secretly agreed that someone had to solve this problem!
Gehard Gschwandtner - CEO of Selling Power Magazine once said “Problems are nothing but wake-up calls for creativity”- we couldn’t agree more. Joshua saw the conversations with his fellow students as a wake-up call to be the solution they needed. Over the next several months, he OBSESSIVELY researched
how to make Jerk Chicken, and how he could combine his knowledge of authentic charcoal smoked meat to create unique-smoky flavors. Joshua’s dream began experiencing financial challenges, and as a college student “most” people advised he should just focus on his studies. Fortunately for Joshua, his tenacity and
creativity saw the importance of trying and failing instead of never trying. He decided to start using his book voucher dollars to buy gift cards to local hardware and grocery stores in the area. This idea was outrageous but much needed to get the ball rolling on the birth of Disbe. He purchased his first charcoal grill, some chicken and necessary supplies to create his first Jerk Chicken!
The first event Joshua hosted was at a tailgate party during a home game. He made over $100 in sales within the first 10 mins. In awe of finding people to buy what he dreamed of only a few months ago, Joshua whispered to his friend, “I think I know what I want to do with my life.” By the end of that day, Joshua had sold $650 worth of jerk chicken. In case you’re thinking $650 is nothing, to a broke college student that used his book voucher to purchase grilling supplies, this felt like he just won the lottery!
Disbe® continued hosting Saturday events during the 2008 football season. After 5 home games, Disbe sold nearly $7,000 worth of smoked Jerk chicken. Gradually, Disbe® started being the solution to “street food nostalgia” on campus. Disbe® grew 10 times over, and served a large number of students, locals in the community, and catered events for several department heads at Liberty University School of Law. Joshua quickly became the new “Jamaican in town.”
Disbe® continued to experience success and a vast following for almost 3 years, however the challenge of finding support to keep the business afloat, became too much to handle. In the spring of 2011, Disbe® decided to close its doors and pursue opportunities in corporate America.
Dream Delayed but Reimagined....
After taking on several roles in different industries across Corporate America, Joshua started having the itch to reignite his long-abandoned dream. His desire to use grilling to tell a story and create nostalgia became so consuming that he decided to put everything on the line to pursue this dream. In 2019 Joshua
decided to quit his job and relaunch Disbe® in a new fashion.
The reimagined Disbe® would ignite nostalgia, new culinary experiences and deliver authentic, freshly-prepared, ready-to-eat, charcoal wood smoked Suya to any doorstep nationwide within 72 hours. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what Suya is, it is a popular street food across parts of West Africa. It originated in the Northern part of Nigeria and ONLY cooked by the Hausa and Fulani Tribe. Suya is made with beef, seasoned with Yaji--a peanut based spice blended with ginger, garlic and other ingredients.The beef is then grilled to perfection over a charcoal with open flames. Once cooked it is cut into thinly sliced pieces; served on a newspaper with raw red onions, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and cabbage. Then sprinkled with a dry spicy pepper topping called Yajin-Badi, and a ton of toothpicks to share with friends and family.
Nigerians across the globe will travel back home just to experience this street food with their family and friends, because eating Suya is nothing like you’ve ever experienced. Quite a few people have tried to replicate this experience Stateside with no luck. The intricacies and level of detail required to create a true replica are time consuming and expensive. Most are not willing to go the distance. Still, to Joshua however, this was worth doing well a million times over!
With no model or financial support, Joshua relaunched Disbe Good ™ , and started its journey of shipping authentic charcoal wood smoked Beef Suya. It’s been about 24-months since we relaunched. We have added a variety of options that include our popular Honey Chicken Suya (Fowl Chicken), Goat Suya, Smoked Korean Short Ribs, and Jerk Chicken to name a few. To date, we have shipped over 20,000 pounds of Suya, shipped to 48 States across the US. Our Suya has traveled over a Million miles across the nation! That’s more states and miles than the average American has traveled!!
How is this possible within 24-months?! We can’t stop asking the same question. We’re incredibly grateful for the support of our customers the past couple of years!
As Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams heard a mysterious voice in his cornfield saying “If you build it they will come,” we believe our story reads something like that, because Joshua was obedient to that tiny little voice that told him to try again! We continue to be excited for what the future holds for Disbe®, and Joshua continues to use his dream of manufacturing and packing foods that tell a story to serve his immediate community and beyond. We can’t wait to share this experience with you and all the amazing people that would get the opportunity to experience this street food and the story behind it’s inception.
We look forward to serving you!
Disbe Good ™ Team!!