A good cup of coffee can do a lot to ease a bad economy’s ill effects, but brothers Jeffery and David Mullins did more than pour themselves some joe.

The entrepreneurs launched wholesale and retail Lativa Coffee Co., which since debuting in February has grown to roasting more than 100 pounds of coffee a week and selling brewed coffee by the cup, Jeffery Mullins said.

“The economy went south, there’s no jobs available, so we created our own job,” Mullins said.

Mullins was a stone fabrication manager and craftsman; his brother worked in communications sales when the pair turned to coffee.

Jeffery Mullins and his wife often visit her native Colombia on buying and research trips for her handmade jewelry line. “We’d always bring coffee back for us to drink at home, and I would go visit the coffee plantations,“ Mullins said.

The brothers decided to buy beans from those growers, roast them and sell whole-bean and ground coffee.

“We source our beans from a single farm, single-origin, basically fair-trade,” Mullins said. “It’s not just labeled fair trade; it really is fair trade.”

Roasting happens at Lativa headquarters, near the airport in Wilmington, where the Mullins brothers offer eight roasts ranging from “slightly roasted” Cinnamon Roast, named for the coffee’s color, to the “intense” Espresso Roast, which the Mullinses describe as having a “smoked sweet flavor.”

Aromas rising from the roastery attracted nearby workers who persuaded the siblings to turn their office into a small coffee shop. The spot sells brewed coffee by the cup, roasted and green coffee beans by the pound and coffee ground for any type of maker, Mullins said. Fine decaffeinated coffee is sold, too.

“Smooth, non-acidic, chocolaty flavors. Just a real good, fresh cup of coffee,” is how Mullins characterizes Lativa brews.  “If you bought a pound of coffee at the grocery store and compared it, you couldn’t even drink it (supermarket coffee).”

Find Lativa by the cup at various Wilmington restaurants, including Flying Pi, The Harp, German Café, San Juan Café and Rx Restaurant and Bar. The Mullins also sell coffee at farmers markets in Southport and Carolina Beach, as well as Carolina Beach’s Veggie Wagon.

Mullins said they hope to land soon at downtown Wilmington’s Riverfront Farmers Market and eventually at the Oak Island farmers market.

The company also delivers coffee to offices, fire departments and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Additionally, the duo wants a more visible location for a Lativa coffee shop, perhaps downtown.

Lativa coffee sells for $8-$10.75 a pound. Green beans for home roasting cost $5.50-$6.50 a pound.

Visit Lativa at 2925 Boundry St., off Kerr Avenue near Blue Clay Road. The roastery/coffee shop is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.