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Oakland’s first Black-owned spirits company launching with bourbon

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A new Black-owned spirits company in Oakland doesn’t just want to make smooth bourbon and vodka. Its founders want to empower African Americans nationwide to launch their own booze businesses, reports SF.Eater.com. “If you go to bars across the country, how many African American-owned spirit companies do you see at those venues? Hardly any,” said Stygian Corp. founder and CEO JD Stewart. “How do we make sure spirits there are representative of minorities?” The entrepreneur is looking to launch Stygian’s Black Bourbon this November, and he believes it will be the first of its kind in the U.S. “There are no African American companies in the country producing bourbon,” he said. “We’d be the first. There are whiskies, wine, but there’s no bourbon.” According to Nielsen data, 40 percent of African Americans’ alcoholic purchases are spirits. Stygian’s plans include making vodka, gin and rum next. He says he started with bourbon because of its history, and how Blacks have largely been erased from it. Historians know slaves helped make bourbon in the early days, but it’s unclear to what extent. Meanwhile, he points out, old bourbon labels often included racist imagery. “There’s a deep history there,” Stewart said. According to SF.Eater. Stygian’s bourbon will be made in Kentucky at a still-unnamed distillery co-owned by one of Stygian’s board members. (“I’m a bourbon purist, so it has to come out of Kentucky,” Stewart said.) Stygian will also have an unusual proprietary distilling process which speeds up the aging. According to Stewart, the company can take a two-year bourbon and distill it further so it tastes like a five-year bourbon within two days — but it wouldn’t be as expensive. Soon after launching the bourbon, Stygian will also reveal the People’s Bourbon and Juice, a bottled cocktail flavored with pineapple juice. Stygian sold out of the drink at Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival in August — the first and only time Stygian has poured for the public thus far. By the end of the year, Stewart expects that locals will be able to find Stygian at East Bay.

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