Chima Burey was with mates at a bar when one posed a query; if you happen to can have your individual taste of alcohol, what would it not be?
“When the dialog got here to me, I urged a salted caramel liquor much like how Fireball is paying homage to sizzling cinnamon,” Burey, who holds a Grasp of Enterprise Administration from Columbia Enterprise Faculty and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell College, advised BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“I mentioned I might do one thing paying homage to a Werther’s Authentic or Sugar Daddies sweet, and so they have been like, wow, what a terrific concept.”
A couple of years later, Burey relocated to Miami from New York. A couple of 12 months after he moved, his buddy, Amani Macaulay, who had spent the previous couple of months touring, frolicked with Burey for a couple of weeks.
“One evening, we’re having drinks and simply speaking, and I say, ‘hey man, what are you going to do subsequent?’ And he mentioned, ‘I’m open,’ so I mentioned I feel I’ve this concept from years in the past, and at this level, Jack Daniels had simply come out with Tennessee Honey, and Crown Royal Apple had simply come out.”
That began a four-year journey for the boys, which resulted in Duke & Dame, a premium whiskey that incorporates a sturdy salted caramel taste and simply the correct quantity of sweetness with out the tough aftertaste of conventional whiskey.
In its brief lifetime, Duke & Dame has received a number of prestigious spirits awards, together with The Sip Awards Worldwide Spirits Competitors, The Worldwide Whisky Competitors, The New York Worldwide Spirits Competitors , and The San Francisco World Spirits Competitors.
“Whether or not it’s Fireball and even simply common whiskey, while you take a shot, you sometimes make that whiskey face and sort of cringe,” mentioned Burey.
“The responses to Duke & Dame have been the alternative; folks have been like, wow, that is wonderful.”
The 2 males spent these 4 years working exhausting, growing Duke & Dame’s style, working assessments, giving samples to family and friends, and dealing with a distillery on the ultimate product.
“Quite a lot of manufacturers go in and say, hey, I need to make this, I need to make that, and may you inform me learn how to do it,’” Macaulay, who holds a B.S. from the College of Florida, mentioned.
“We sort of walked in and mentioned that is what we need to make, right here do that, and that’s sort of how we began.”
The following step was distribution and constructing a buyer base, which they did by getting out and assembly with unbiased liquor shops and prospects, giving out samples, and constructing relationships. Macaulay and Burey have been so profitable in networking that inside weeks of launching Duke & Dame, they started receiving buy orders from Whole Wine, one of many greatest liquor retailers in Florida.
“We obtained our first buy order inside two-and-a-half to a few weeks of launching the model,” Macaulay advised BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“Two weeks later, Whole Wine gave us our first buy order, and we have been hoping that they’d put us in two shops. As an alternative, the distributor mentioned we now have your entire state, which on the time was 28 shops.”
Whereas it could look like it’s been a easy journey for Duke & Dame, Burey and Macaulay have had their share of challenges, particularly when it got here to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the 2 males noticed the provision chain points coming, which helped them circumvent a number of points, together with bottles.
“There was a glass scarcity; you had large manufacturers that couldn’t get sufficient glass bottles, however we noticed that coming, and as we’re doing buy orders for our bottles, we thought, hey, you understand we’re going to want some extra so we utterly switched our glass producer to an area U.S. base firm in Georgia that actually helped us keep away from that concern,” Burey mentioned.
Burey and Macaulay now have large plans for the long run, together with new flavors and merchandise, however they’re holding a lid on that information. For now, the candy buttery style of Duke & Dame caramel whiskey may be loved straight, utilized in an Irish espresso, or in your favourite cocktails.