Black-owned whiskey company carves its own niche in the spirit industry

August is National Black Business Month and all month we’ve been speaking with Black entrepreneurs in our community. I stopped by Total Wine and More to meet up with one of the co-owners of a Florida-based salted caramel whiskey brand called Duke & Dame.

“So, for us, we wanted the whiskey connoisseur to really appreciate our offering, but also, the newcomer to this space, we wanted them to be able to say ‘Wow, look at this! I’ve never liked whiskey before, but I can really enjoy this,’” said Chima Burey, one of the co-owners of the Florida-based salted caramel whiskey company called Duke & Dame.

Burey and his business partner, Amani Macaulay, came up with the idea of creating a flavored whiskey over dinner with friends in 2013, after taking shots of Fireball.

That experience brought a question to mind: “If you could start your own flavored whiskey, what flavor would it be? And when the conversation came to me, I said I would create something reminiscent of a Werther’s Original or a Sugar Baby/Sugar Daddy candy and that would give you the nostalgia of this particular whiskey, but of course, we all went back to work,” said Burey.

Eventually, they ended up quitting their jobs in finance to fully focus on creating and growing this idea they had for a flavored whiskey company. They officially launched Duke & Dame Salted Caramel Whiskey in 2018.

WFTS

“Everyone in the industry told us that we would start off with a small mom-and-pop liquor store before you get to a big retailer,” said Burey. Little did they know, their trajectory would be different.

Total Wine and More loved their unique product so much that they made a deal, placing their salted caramel whiskey products on their shelves just two weeks after launching.

“The first time I saw Duke and Dame on a shelf was about six years ago to the date. Total Wine was the first retailer to pick us up and I happened to be with my daughter and the feeling when I walked to the shelf and saw the culmination of all the hard work – and to be put on a major retailer – was just unbelievable," said Burey.

Burey told me the most challenging part of growing their business was having to learn about the whiskey and spirit industry from scratch, but he said their background in business and finance helped tremendously.

As for the best piece of business advice he’s received: “I think I was a sophomore in college and I met an entrepreneur who owned a restaurant and one of the things that he said was to make sure that you understand every aspect of your business,” said Burey.