It’s 5 o’clock somewhere — thanks to this Black-owned tequila brand!
Nayana Ferguson is a ceiling smasher as the first Black woman to co-own a tequila company, something she says she initially never really saw for herself, reports Click On Detroit.
While in the race to climb the corporate ladder here in America, Nayana’s health took a turn for the worse when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 32.
In 2012, the Detroit native found herself headed down a similar path with a breast cancer diagnosis after she found a lump in her breast. She also learned that she has Neutropenia — a disease that lowers her white blood cell count, in turn increasing her risk for infection.
What all of this taught Nayana is that life is too short and so she began to truly focus on her passions.
After meeting her husband Don online in 2014, they both discovered their love for tequila and made it their mission to learn all of the ins and outs about the business.
A trip to the Dominican Republic led the love birds to the decision of owning their own tequila company. While Don brought up the idea and laughed it off, Nayana posed the question, “Why not?” And the rest you could say, was history!
As a self-proclaimed planner, Nayana went right to work and found a distillery for them to work with due to the fact that all tequila must be made within a specific region in Mexico.
Fast-forward a few years later and Anteel Tequila was born in 2018. A regular trendsetter, the brand’s first two styles included the world’s first Coconut Lime Blanco Tequila and a Reposado aged in Tennesse whiskey barrels.
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“We wanted to create a tequila that broke the stereotypes of tequila being harsh and not palatable,” said Nayana in an interview with Forbes. “The idea for the world’s only coconut lime Blanco tequila came from our research on the most popular tequila cocktail in the world, the margarita.”
To date, the company has won several awards that include titles at the World Spirits Competition and the SIP Awards.
For more on Anteel Tequila click here.
