For years, the cocktail industry has been dominated by men. But women, especially women of color, are taking their rightful place on the throne and are doing what we do best - being a boss! Recently, we sat down with some of the leading mixologists that are literally shaking up the cocktail industry.
From winning cocktail competitions, becoming the first of their kind to publish a cocktail book, and to being booked and busy by some of the world's most influential brands, these women know a thing or two about the art of mixology.
These women have all worked their way through the trenches, are self-made bosses, and in their own unique way, have built companies that have notably disrupted the game.
Because we can definitely appreciate a good cocktail or two, we couldn't help but to connect with these ladies and of course, we asked them to give us the tea on how they got started and what they've done to achieve the success that they have now. Keep reading to get to know these leading mixologists and learn how they are stirring up far more than just well-crafted cocktails.
The mixologist that you and your favorite brand love to book:
Jessica Robinson of JusTini Cocktails
Courtesy of Jessica Robinson
How did you get started?
I've been a mixologist for 12 years. I started when I was in college at Southern University. A classmate of mine started talking to me about a job at a bar she was working at. At the time, I didn't know much about liquor, just really the basics - I would just mix up Malibu and pineapple juice. But my friend convinced me and said that she would be able to help me get the job. So I started working there and that's how I got started. I fell in love with everything that came with the job, from the atmosphere to the people. Once I got started working as a mixologist, I never stopped.
Before I graduated from Southern, I actually started working in retail, and was juggling being a manager, going to school, and bartending on the side. Once I graduated, I got a job in my major which was doing marketing for a McDonald's franchise and I was also still bartending at night. I ended up getting laid off from McDonald's because they were downsizing and during that time is when I started building JusTini Cocktails. Shortly after that, I worked in HR doing contract work which allowed me to get started with bartending full-time. Now, I've been running Justini's for about a year and a half now.
What makes you unique?
I typically get a mix of both weddings and corporate/social events. I've done events for Essence, Pepsi, and the Urban League.
In my business, my brand is more than just a drink. I create an experience for my guests, from the presentation of my drink, to the name of the cocktail, and the fact that my drinks are actually really good.
What has been your biggest challenge and how do you stay motivated?
I think in the beginning, the biggest challenge that I went through was branding myself to show the need for my type of service. Once I was able to show the need, I was able to get the clientele that I wanted. A quote that keeps me motivated is by Elizabeth Gilbert and it says, "The women I love and admire for their strength and grace did not get that way because shit worked out. They got that way because shit went wrong and they handled it. They handled it a thousand different ways on a thousand different days, but they handled it. Those women are my superheroes."
The mixologist creating Instagrammable cocktails that’ll give your friends extreme FOMO
Kimberly Hunter of Potent Pours
Courtesy of Kimberly Hunter
How did you get started?
Potent Pours launched two years ago but I've definitely been a mixologist for longer than that. Potent Pours was actually birthed from my kitchen bar area. I would often make cocktails for myself, my sister, and friends when we couldn't get to happy hour because of rush hour traffic. When my sister and friends would come over, I would create really potent and beautiful cocktails for them using gorgeous glassware and over the top garnishes.
After a while, my sister actually suggested that I consider making cocktails professionally because of the beauty, attention to detail, and energy that I would put into every drink that I would make. When I started thinking about working in the industry, I tried to figure out where my place would be and how I could start working in it. Because of my schedule with my children, I always knew that working late nights at a bar wouldn't be ideal. From there, I did some research and started looking for a way to bring craft cocktails to the masses and saw that there was a booming market for mobile mixologists. I went ahead and did more research, got my license, and then started working on my brand.
What makes you unique?
My secret sauce is really the whole Potent Pours experience. Every person that has had my cocktails love how I create really potent, over-the-top, Instagrammable cocktails that overall makes the whole experience in indulging so much better. Also, my clients and their guests can always count on me to create original, unique cocktail recipes that they haven't seen or had anywhere else.
Since I launched my company, a lot of my business actually comes from social media. Typically, I've found that clients will book me after seeing their friends post about my cocktails. One thing about my cocktails is that I'm obsessed with making every single drink very potent, very pleasing to the eye, and really something that you would be excited to share with friends on social media.
What has been your biggest challenge and how do you stay motivated?
One of the challenges that I've faced is getting the right client. It's important for me to service clients that really appreciate all of the work and creative energy that goes into my business. Whenever I'm booked for an event, I never show up with a bunch of alcohol and pre-made, store-bought mixers. Literally, every cocktail that I make is handcrafted and are my original recipes. All of my cocktails are also made with juices or add-ons that are all created in-house. None of my cocktails have extra preservatives or anything like that. Finding the right client to appreciate all of this and the work that goes into creating the cocktail has been a challenge. I've been able to find awesome clients that get it, but every now and then, I run into some that don't.
A quote that keeps me motivated when I'm having long days is, "Just do that shit!" Whenever I'm scared to launch a new product or when I get overwhelmed, I tell myself to really "just do that shit" and it gives me the motivation that I need to keep pushing and to just get it done.
The #Blackgirlmagic mixologist duo putting Charleston on the map
Johnny Caldwell & Taneka Reaves of Cocktail Bandits
Courtesy of Johnny Caldwell & Taneka Reaves
How did you get started?
Taneka:Cocktail Bandits ended up becoming a business because we were living in Charleston and we saw the food and beverage industries growing. Even though we saw it growing, we didn't really see a place for us in it. At the time, I was working at an urban bar and they didn't care about being creative with the cocktails. It was really about just making rum and coke or gin and juice drinks.
When I would make my cocktails really creative, my boss didn't like it because they were unable to recreate the drinks when I wasn't at work. So I started trying to find work at a high-end bar, but I couldn't find work there because of my appearance (I was natural). In Charleston at the time, we had over 400 bars downtown and maybe 5 Black mixologists. In 2012 and 2013, a lot of people weren't used to the natural look from people of color so it was hard for me to get a job. Since no one was responding back to my job applications, Johnny and I decided to create a lane for ourselves by launching our own brand.
What makes you unique?
Johnny: We talk about spirits in a very approachable way. I think in the beverage market, buying spirits can be very intimidating. Sometimes a lot of people speak about cocktail spirits in a very elevated way that most consumers don't understand. We work hard on exposing people to new things, and on educating, entertaining, and empowering the consumer so that when they go to the bar, they are confident in what they are ordering.
What has been your biggest challenge and how do you stay motivated?
Taneka: I think one challenge for us has been figuring out the budget cycles for companies. We learned that every company pretty much has a different budgeting cycle so we've been working on figuring that out for companies we're interested in. Whenever we run into challenges, one quote that keeps us motivated is to not look at anything like an obstacle but look at it as an opportunity.
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Brittani Hunter is a proud PVAMU alumni and the founder of The Mogul Millennial, a business and career platform for Black Millennials. Meet Brittani on Twitter and on the Gram at @BrittaniLHunter and @mogulmillennial.
The Mecca Of Fashion: The Top Street Style Moments At Howard Homecoming
Outfits were planned, bags were packed, and cameras were ready to capture Howard University's collegiate spirit during its centennial Homecoming celebration. Not only does it hold the number one ranking as the most elite Historically Black College and University or its top performing academics, diversity of students and alumni, but the HBCU also leaves a legacy of style and grace.
The essence of effortless poise and refinement shines bright through the iconic university colors of indigo blue, red, and white. Every October, Howard University students, alumni, staff, and friends gather on the prestigious campus in Washington, D.C. to take part in time-honored traditions and events, which is Homecoming. This year's theme, “The Meccaverse,” was a week-long celebration of Howard University’s heritage, including the Homecoming football game and Bison Pep Rally, the Fashion Show, Greek Life Step Show, Homecoming Day of Service, Lavender Reception, and the iconic Yard Fest Concert.
As 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of the Howard Bison trek back to The Mecca and after two years of virtual events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was to be a celebration of a lifetime. We enlisted HU alumnus Sharmaine Harris, a luxury retail buyer, as she revisited her alma mater as eyes on the yard for fashion-forward outfits mixed with personal style and campus pride for the weeklong celebration.
Before we get to the looks, discover how attending Howard University impacted her career in fashion and her day-to-day style:
Credit: Sharmaine and Friends
xoNecole: Describe your personal style. Did attending Howard have any impact on developing it?
Sharmaine: Howard taught me that there’s no such thing as being TOO dressed. There’s always a reason to “put it on” and look presentable, even if it’s just for a day of classes. Standing out was celebrated and encouraged with my peers embracing the opportunity, giving me the confidence to try new styles and trends.
xoNecole: How did Howard shape your career as a luxury buyer?
Sharmaine: I studied Fashion Merchandising, through which I was fortunate to have professors who were very connected to the industry and able to give first-hand accounts of opportunities and what to expect post-college. I was also able to build a network through my peers and other Howard Alum, which has opened doors to endless possibilities both within fashion as well as daily life.
The same confidence instilled in me through my style has also been rooted deeply within me as I step into any role or project I’m faced with throughout my career.
xoNecole: This year marked Howard’s 100th-anniversary Homecoming celebration. Can you describe what the weekend looked and felt like?
Sharmaine: I’ve gone to many Howard Homecomings since graduating, but this year’s 100th anniversary felt like a huge family reunion filled with nothing but love. It was beautiful to see so many Bison return home looking great and radiating joy. It was beautiful!
xoNecole: What makes Howard fashion different from other HBCUs?
Sharmaine: Being that Howard is The Mecca, we have such a diverse population with each individual having their own spin on fashion. Getting dressed is second nature for us, but the layered confidence is our secret ingredient to make any look come together. Through that comfortability to push barriers, we have a legacy of setting trends, as indicated by the many alumni we have in the fashion and entertainment industry.
Keep scrolling for the top street style moments from The Mecca's Homecoming weekend:
Credit: Lacey Gallagher
Credit: Alan Henderson
Credit: JaLynn Davis
Credit: Dylan Davis
Credit: Caleb Smith
Credit: Kendall W.
Credit: Jordyn Finney
Credit: Vanessa Nneoma
Credit: Dr. Mariah Sankey-Thomas
Credit: Caleb MacBruce
Credit: Tiffany Battle
Credit: Teniola
Credit: Ilahi Creary
Credit: Nicolas Ryan Grant
Credit: Dylan Davis
Join us in celebrating HBCU excellence! Check out our Best In Class hub for inspiring stories, empowering resources, and everything you need to embrace the HBCU experience.
Featured image courtesy of Sharmaine Harris
Message From A Mad Black Woman: Y’all Keep The Blue Bracelets, We’ll Take Our Rest.
Mere hours after the 2024 presidential election results made it clear that the United States would need to gird its loins for a second Trump presidency, a gaggle of women ran over to social media to announce that blue bracelets would serve as a new sign of solidarity. A safe space, if you will.
This declaration came about in response to Black women openly voicing their disappointment in both the election results and exit poll data that showed that not just white people, but Latinos and women of “all other races” had played a surprising role in the now President-Elect, Donald Trump’s reelection.
These exit polls quickly became the object of Black women’s attention and ultimate disappointment. Because while Black women went out and reliably voted for Vice President Kamala Harris to the tune of 91%, white women handed Trump 53% of their collective vote, Latino women 36%, and women of “other races” 46%.
On the night of November 5, 2024, Black women were left in shock. This shock would morph into disappointment, and the disappointment was a consequence of what, some would begin to argue, felt like, well, betrayal.
Like Rome, though, this heart-wrenching disappointment wasn’t built in a day.
Screenshot from "2024 Exit Polls," NBC News, accessed Nov. 12, 2024.
The Set-Up
On Sunday, July 21, President Joe Biden announced that he would not be seeking reelection - a decision that followed the disastrous one-and-done debate against former president Donald Trump, the subsequent wavering of major donors, and growing calls for a new candidate to run on the Democrat’s ticket. Hours after Biden’s announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris would send Beyoncé's internet into a frenzy by announcing that she would seek the party’s nomination.
That July night, 44,000 Black women assembled via Zoom to stress test the limits of the meeting app, break historical fundraising records, and strategize - subsequently setting into motion a series of virtual meet-ups. As a result, more Zoom meetings cropped up, bringing together attendees connected through countless combinations of backgrounds, orientations, and genders.
One said meeting was held by and for 164,000 “White Women for Kamala” who’d come together to publicly declare that they’d regretted not doing more in 2016 and were ready to use their privilege for the sake of advocacy and allyship.
A woman wearing an anti-Trump button as she listens to Democratic presidential nominee VP Kamala Harris speak at a campaign event on Oct. 18, 2024.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
For months, white women made it a point to convince Black women that they were on board - ensuring us that they were ready to seize their second chance at pushing back on the pillars of the patriarchy. The same group who’d failed to answer the call of rejecting Trump’s racist, sexist, and xenophobic antics before swore, for months, that they’d seen the error of their ways and were looking for redemption. The alleged fix? Betting better. Doing more. Voting differently.
While there was an understanding undertone of apprehension from Black women, the rhetoric began to lend itself to hope — with some going so far as to lift the moratorium on cookout invites. There seemed to be a collective sigh. A brief moment of unity.
The Let-Down
Little did Black women know, they were about to be played like a fiddle by the same group who, like in 2016 and 2020, were more interested in their own self-preservation than in actual change. This short-lived hope was dashed on Nov. 5 as the true nature of performative allyship became evident.
Turns out, the Black women who’d served at the helm of the movement, bless their hearts, had been bamboozled. Hoodwinked. Swindled. Like a modern-day Boo Boo the Fool. Believing the hook, line, and sinker, it was almost cute, in a tragic sort of way. They saw the potential, the hope, and the promise, drinking the red Kool-Aid, so to speak, eagerly awaiting the revolution.
The excessive blue hearts and social media commentary pledging solidarity had turned out to be performative or had over-indexed the voices of the 44% who were actually in solidarity. Either way, the seemingly overwhelming allyship wasn’t there, reminding Black women that while they are constantly expected to stand on the front lines for so many, rarely is there any ally who will actually show up for them.
A History of Short-Lived, Self-Serving Allyship
The 2024 election wasn’t the first time we’d seen this type of performative allyship, though. While a noble concept in theory, the kinds of allyship that have been displayed in many movements across The States have far too often missed the actual point. In fact, throughout U.S. history, allyship has actually been used more as a tool to bolster a single group’s positioning in the social hierarchy rather than genuinely advocating for the progression of marginalized groups.
Think back to 2020. Just months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced much of the country into isolation, remote work, the acknowledgment of essential workers as, well, essential, and, for some reason, bread-making. For 9 minutes and 29 seconds, the world watched, helplessly, as a powerless George Floyd was slowly pulled away from the world, drained by Officer Derek Chauvin's knee to his nape. In a traumatic 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the world seemingly changed.
Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images
Protests quickly spread across the globe, and along with it, a wave of “allyship” swept across America. Large corporations, scrambling to answer the calls of Black employees, consumers, and investors demanding that they use their financial prowess to do more to prevent the next Floyd, almost instantly began releasing statements of solidarity, pledging donations to “racial justice” causes, and promising to promote more Black employees.
However, as quickly as these gestures showed up, most were forgotten, with almost all proving to have provided minimal impact on the groups they’d pledged to help. While some companies, like Target, increased their spending on Black-owned businesses, others faced scrutiny for their lack of substantive change.
A study by Color Of Change found that only 17% of companies that pledged donations after Floyd's death had fulfilled their commitments. Data compiled by theWashington Post found that two years after America’s 50 largest publicly traded companies pledged a collective $50 billion to racial justice causes, just 37 had disbursed a collective $1.7 billion. What’s worse?
Ninety percent of the pledged amount - or $45.2 billion - had been allocated in the form of mortgages, loans, and investments that the companies themselves would more than likely benefit from. These companies said one thing and did another and still found a way to benefit from the delta.
Performative Allyship: Civil Rights & Women’s Liberation Movements
This type of allyship is new, though. It didn’t take long for powerful groups to figure out that the simple appearance of allyship was, for the most part, good for business and the bottom line. For decades, powerful entities have publicly supported movements only to be later found to have engaged in discriminatory practices, highlighting the consistent disconnect.
During the Civil Rights Movement, companies issued statements of solidarity and even donated to civil rights organizations, but behind the scenes, they continued to segregate their workforces and refuse to hire Black employees for higher-level positions. During the Women's Liberation Movement, advertisers capitalized on the feminist moment by incorporating imagery and slogans associated with women's empowerment into their campaigns, while the underlying message of many advertisements reinforced traditional gender roles and stereotypes.
The difference between what is said and what is done has time after time exposed the shallowness of allyship, highlighting how it has mostly served as a tool for public relations rather than a genuine commitment to social justice and to the marginalized groups who are most at risk by the upholding of the status quo.
For two election cycles straight, white women posed as allies and still voted in a way that upheld the power structure that they benefit from - with many understanding that the survival of white supremacy is of more value to them than sexism and misogyny is a threat. In 2016 and 2020, 52% and 55% of white women, respectively, decided that they’d rather keep their position of second place in the social hierarchy than risk dismantling it and being forced to find a new place in society.
Latino women and women of “all of the races” followed the trend - blatantly ignoring the warnings of the same Black women who have not only been on the front lines of social justice but who are often called into the lead movements in communities that are not there own - increasing their support for Trump between 2016 and 2025 by 13% and 15% respectively.
Screenshot from "2020 Exit Polls," NBC News, accessed Nov. 12, 2024.
The Blue Bracelets are Going to Be A “No”
On the night of Nov. 5, 2024, Black women watched their country look at a qualified, experienced, capable, and willing Black woman and say, “Nah, we good.” It was on this night that a group that had been denied democratic rights for centuries, but had still attempted to rescue American democracy far too many times, only to be let down, put away the warnings, and began issuing a new declaration - they were opting out.
Black women have decided to lean into rest and recuperation - uninterested in any additional work that will, more than likely, end in disappointment and betrayal. For many Black women, the suggestion to wear blue bracelets as a symbol of solidarity is patronizing and dismissive of a greater and more complex issue. It’s a way to absolve the women who let Black women down for failing to keep promises made while simultaneously positioning the wearer as morally superior.
It fails to address the historically deep betrayal that Black women have experienced at the hands of their country and, more specifically, their own countrywomen. The request reduces the fight for equality to a simple, superficial gesture when allyship isn’t aesthetic and Black women deserve more than a symbol.
While the blue bracelets may be the new fashion choice for white women attempting to set themselves apart, to symbolize that they were on the right side of history, for many Black women, it’ll always be difficult to trust. In fact, it may serve as a symbol of a hollow and fleeting promise for the Black women who have done the tireless and thankless work for justice and equality.
For now, Black women are choosing themselves. Anywhere between a few days and the next four years should be enough time to reset and recoup. And who knows, they may even find the excess capacity means energy to train as pilots, restart forgotten yoga practices, expand the business, or earn that second Ph.D.
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Featured illustration by nadia_bormotova/Getty Images