Six Nineteen Spirits is Greenville’s First Black Woman-owned Spirits Brand | Post and Courier

Photos courtesy Tytanium3 Photography

Sure, Babette Jones loves her sweet tea, but the serial entrepreneur has always had a natural energy.

That’s why even a day before the official launch of her new spirits company, Jones, who also owns an Allstate Insurance agency and also works a full-time job as senior director at The Greenville Tech Foundation, has a natural effervescence that is enviable.

This month, Jones officially launched Six Nineteen Spirits, a line of ready-to-drink canned cocktails and mocktails that was inspired by friends, community and a mission to give back.

The Greenville-based brand is the first Black woman-owned spirits company in Upstate and one of only a few in the state, and represents an underrepresented segment of the alcohol and spirits world.

While Black Americans represent 12 percent of alcohol consumers, they make up two percent of executives in the industry, according to Pronghorn, an initiative focused on cultivating the next generation of Black entrepreneurs and leaders within the spirits business.

Six Nineteen is named for the moment when Jones’ dear friend, Charles Anderson Jr., developed a rum-based cocktail for a friend gathering on Hilton Head in 2022 as a reference to Juneteenth, the historic day when the final group of enslaved African Americans were freed in Texas, two years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. 

“It’s a very overpopulated space but very underrepresented,” Jones said of the spirits business.

If things go as planned, Six Nineteen products, which currently include the coconut rum cocktail, grapefruit agave cocktail and a passionfruit mocktail, should be available in stores by the end of the year, Jones said.

Continue reading at the source: Six Nineteen Spirits is Greenville’s first Black woman-owned spirits brand – Post and Courier.

Photos courtesy Tytanium3 Photography.