Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey has already achieved the feat of becoming the world’s most successful Black-owned spirits brand. Now they’re paying it forward to the next generation of Black leaders by investing in their learning institutions.
The company recently announced the launch of its second annual HBCU Old Fashioned Challenge, an effort aimed at raising at least $1.4M for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This is equivalent to a full in-state tuition scholarship for an HBCU student. The challenged began on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday, January 15) and will conclude on Juneteenth (Tuesday, June 19).
“Before we sold our first bottle of Uncle Nearest, we were already funding the college education of Nearest Green’s descendants,” said Fawn Weaver, Founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest. “Every semester, writing those checks brought me immense joy, knowing the significant impact they would have on each student’s life. This same feeling resurfaced when I began writing tuition checks to HBCUs for our Old Fashioned Challenge. It’s an honor, and my hope is that we can continue this tradition annually with the checks growing larger as the Uncle Nearest whiskey family expands.”
The brand’s passion for honoring strong Black legacies is ingrained in its DNA, as ESSENCE noted in 2020 when Weaver spoke about the company’s inception. A New York Times best selling writer-turned-spirits entrepreneur, Weaver shared that the brand was an homage to Black legacy building.
“I was chasing a relationship story when I began working on this,” she previously told ESSENCE. “I was chasing a story of love, honor and respect with the full intention of writing a book and focused on the movie. That was the intention. Charli [Penn] actually asked me the last time I saw her, “When do you think you’ll write your next book?” and I responded, “The next time I feel inspired by a story.”
Nathan “Nearest” Green was a mentor to a young Jack Daniel and taught him how to make whiskey. Daniel went on to become a household name. Uncle Nearest was largely forgotten, until now.
“Uncle Nearest gives a lot, with ‘pulling as we climb’ being part of our DNA right from the start,” said Victoria Eady Butler, great-great-granddaughter of Nearest Green and four-time Master Blender of the Year in a news release. “But this challenge is something special, ’cause we’re inviting our whiskey family to join us in giving back. Seeing the excitement from them, and our thousands of retail, restaurant, bar, hotel, and airline partners across the country even before this year’s challenge kicked off, well, that lets me know we’ve started something extraordinary. To our whiskey family and partners everywhere, thank y’all!”
More information can be found at www.oldfashionedcocktail.com.