Ja Rule On Amber & Opal, His New Honey Rye Whiskey Model

Ja Rule admits he wasn’t a whiskey drinker — till he launched his personal. 

“I’m probably not a heavy drinker like that,” says the Queens-born hip-hop icon. “I’ll drink a sip of wine, just a little purple wine, just a little white wine, and be simple with it.”

However in 2024, together with longtime associates Herb Rice, Sandy Sandiford, and Kelvin Barton, Ja Rule launched his personal honey-infused rye whiskey, Amber & Opal, in Maryland. Now he hopes to increase it throughout the nation. 

What drew a non-whiskey drinker to the spirits enterprise within the first place? It began off as an funding concept, says Ja Rule. “We purchased this warehouse stuffed with whiskey [in Ohio], and there have been barrels that had been getting old. We had been going to age them to seven years and promote them at a premium. What occurred was, a purple gentle goes off and [we say], let’s create a model, a enterprise with this.”

However once they determined they needed to create a distinct segment “honey botanical whiskey,” they had been suggested to not use the barrels they bought. (These barrels at the moment are being put to make use of for a 10-year-old “premium bourbon” that Amber & Opal will launch in a number of years.) 

This led the foursome in a distinct path. Baltimore-based Rice, who Ja Rule calls a “whiskey connoisseur,” sought out an area distillery, and related with the Baltimore Spirits Firm, which was based in 2015 with the “raison d’etre of bringing Maryland rye manufacturing again to it’s cultural house.”

In partnership with the spirits firm, the founders settled on a mix of Maryland Straight Rye Whiskey — aged for 2 years in medium-charred oak barrels — with orange blossom honey and botanicals like lapsang souchong tea, cinnamon, ginger, and fig. The botanicals are sourced from one other Baltimore enterprise, Wight Tea Firm.

Rice says they tasted 30 forms of honey to search out the one that might finest go well with the smokiness of the lapsang souchong and the pure spiciness of rye. Ja Rule provides that his entry-level palate and his associates’ whiskey experience had been the proper “yin and yang” to create a whiskey that’s appropriate for each veteran drinkers and the “whiskey-curious.” 

“We needed an entry level for brand spanking new whiskey drinkers,” says Ja Rule. Though their product is good, Rice notes that it isn’t a liqueur, however a flavored whiskey with a 80-proof spine.

They advocate serving it neat, with just a little ice, in a Gold Rush (which they name the “Amber Rush”), in an Previous Long-established, or in a rye whiskey riff on a Moscow Mule. 

“I’m a Mule man,” says Ja Rule. “I like Moscow Mules. I do Mexican Mules [with tequila]. So now I’m doing whiskey Mules.”

The identify of the model displays each the amber liquid contained in the bottle and the range that Ja Rule, Rice, Sandiford, and Kelvin hope to embody.

“Opal is a treasured stone that is available in numerous hues, and that’s what we wish Amber & Opal to be about,” Ja Rule says. “We would like it to be about inclusivity and all-inclusive to everyone. Numerous occasions when folks see it’s a Black-owned model, they suppose meaning Black solely. We don’t need folks to take a look at our model as that. It is a model [that is] first owned by 4 Black guys, however that is for everybody and we wish that to be our assertion.”

Along with Baltimore, Amber & Opal is now bought at Complete Wines areas in California, Florida, New York, and New Jersey, and likewise ships to 35 states through seelbach.com. They plan to finally increase nationwide, says Ja Rule, however they’re not in a rush.

“We don’t wish to rush and do it the mistaken approach,” he says. “We wish to transfer very strategically, so we wish to personal our markets. Herb’s in Baltimore, Sandy’s out in Atlanta, I’m right here in New York and New Jersey.”

Ja Rule, who’s becoming a member of Nelly for parts of his “The place the Social gathering At” tour this summer season, plans to advertise the product at stops alongside the best way, visiting Complete Wines areas throughout the daytime and assembly followers.

He additionally plans to launch a long-awaited album — his first in over a decade — in June. So how does releasing a whiskey examine to releasing an album?

“It’s very nerve-wracking when you’ve got a brand-new product and you need to witness folks attempting it for the primary time,” says Ja Rule. “It’d be the equal of me going onstage, performing a model new report,” he says together with his trademark husky giggle.

However the objective is maybe extra simple.

“I wish to see a whole lot of empty bottles.”

Baltimore Spirits Firm Amber & Opal Honey Botanical Whiskey; $69.99 for one 750-milliliter bottle at seelbachs.com