How Brooklyn entrepreneur Jackie Summers used his second chance at life to break barriers

NEW YORK –  August is National Black Business Month and one Brooklyn man used his second chance at life to spotlight his Caribbean ancestry. 

Jackie Summers sometimes begins his story from the toughest second of his life, 12 years in the past. 

“The doctor found a tumor the size of a golf ball inside my spine. He said you’re probably going to die, and if you live you might be paralyzed,” Summers stated. 

He survived the surgical procedure, however says the expertise adjusted his perspective.

Soon after, his story turned a story of a brand new journey. While questioning what he needed to do with his second chance, he realized his dream is to give you the chance to day-drink. 

“I want to be around cool people, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, having a great conversation over great food and alcohol,” he informed CBS2’s Hannah Kliger. “I thought to myself, I know what I’ll do, I’ll launch a liquor brand!”

It took 623 failed recipes in his kitchen, he says, however in 2012, his model, “Jack from Brooklyn,” was born. Operating out of a micro-distillery in Red Hook, he targeted his efforts on perfecting his signature drink, “Sorel,” impressed by a conventional Caribbean recipe made with Hibiscus flowers and different botanicals. 

“The Africans knew Hibiscus was a powerful medicinal plant,” Summers defined. “The trans-Atlantic trade starts and bodies and spices are stolen from the continent of Africa and transported in the bottom of ships to the Caribbean.”

His grandparents, immigrants from the Caribbean, handed down their love for this drink. He turned the primary Black particular person in post-Prohibition America to maintain a license to make liquor. However, he could not sustain with demand, and in 2016, he closed his Brooklyn operation. 

For 5 years, he by no means lost sight of his dream. Last year, he joined forces with Laird & Company, which additionally occurs to be America’s oldest distiller, and moved manufacturing to Eatontown, New Jersey. With their capabilities and his recipe, they’re ready to put out tens of 1000’s of bottles a month. 

He now has a staff of specialists, together with meals chemist Dr. Hoby Wedler. Wedler’s position is to guarantee high quality and constantly enhance the system. And he is acquired a singular capability to try this.

“I was born totally blind so I never experienced the world visually, with my eyes, and I feel like my blindness is a tremendous advantage. I would never want my eyesight back because I can see flavor, literally when I taste something,” Wedler stated. 

The finish product is a deep ruby-colored liquid that captures centuries of historical past. Summers and his staff say the drink is lastly getting the eye it deserves.

“So far this year in 2022, Sorel has won gold or better in 27 different international competitions,” Summers proudly says. “It has very quickly become the most awarded liquor in the market, hands down, bar none.”

His story is one which begins with tragedy, however ends in success. By the top of this year, Summers estimates that his product can be in 20 states, with an growth to the remainder of the nation in 2023. 

Have a narrative concept or tip in Brooklyn? Email Hannah by CLICKING HERE.