In 2019, Tiffany Capri Hainesworth got into the history books.
She launched TCapri Tequila and this made her the first Black woman to completely own a tequila brand.
How Did She Reach This Milestone?
The journey to making history has not been an easy one. In 2012, the D.C. native survived a tragic car accident.
In the accident, she suffered a traumatic brain injury that caused a seizure disorder along with crippling migraine headaches. This incident forced her to rethink her life.
At the time, she had been a federal government employee for close to 30 years.
However, after the accident forced her to reevaluate her life, she decided that this way of living wasn’t worth it.
Her passion had always been to become an entrepreneur, and she chose not to delay it any longer.
She started by making and selling various alcohol-infused sweets like gummy bears, bread pudding, and cakes.
These were all under the company she had just established, called TCapri Gourmet Treats. Selling the treats was a success, and it allowed Tiffany to dream even bigger.
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Why Tequila?
While the boozy treats made money, Tiffany soon wanted to own a spirit brand. She loved tequila, so this was her spirit of choice to make.
She started by doing research on how to make tequila and how it gets regulated.
To do this, she flew to Jalisco, Mexico, in hopes of finding the ultimate tequila. This was back in 2018.
Tiffany soon discovered a little-known distillery in Guadalajara, a city famous for its tequila. She started to work with the local farmers who harvested agave plants, an essential ingredient for tequila.
She then made a small batch of tequila and signed a contract that made her the first Black woman to fully own a tequila brand.
The Entrepreneurial Struggle
T-Capri, LLC, became an official licensed spirits distributor in 2019.
However, COVID-19 hit and put a halt to all of Tiffany’s plans. She couldn’t travel to Mexico for a while, and she was forced to wait for the CRT (Tequila Regulatory Council) and IMPI (The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property) to reopen their offices so they could process her documentation.
Once she got the paperwork, she faced another issue: glass and bottle factories had run out of supplies and already had a massive backlog.
To make things worse, they didn’t even know when they would resume production.
The tequila brand ended up suffering thousands of dollars in losses.
Tiffany had to shift gears to keep the company afloat.
She pivoted to setting up a tasting box that introduced the company’s new Reposado tequila, along with their award-winning Blanco.
Eventually, Tiffany was able to resume the distribution of her products. They were an instant success, with each batch selling out almost immediately.
Well-Deserved Success
After the number of struggles she has gone through to reach this point, Tiffany is basking at the moment.
She hopes to inspire young Black girls to believe that they can achieve anything if they have passion, drive, ambition, and determination.
