The Hip-Hop Icon Building A Whiskey Brand For Everyone

0:10Hey folks, I'm Ray Lateef and you're tuned in to taste radio the leading podcast for entrepreneurs and innovators in the food and beverage industry. In this episode, we're joined by multi-hyphenate celebrity Ja Rule, alongside Herb Rice and Sandy Sandiford, the co-founders of upstart whiskey brand Amber and Opal. A hip-hop icon, a lifelong bond, a shared passion for craft spirits, and a warehouse full of aged whiskey. When these elements came together, they gave rise to Amber and Opal, a premium honey botanical rye whiskey that's already turning heads in the spirits industry. Launched in 2024, Amber and Opal was co-founded by Ja Rule, Herb Rice, Sandy Sandiford, and Kelvin Barton.

1:00A rye whiskey blended with orange blossom honey and an elegant mix of botanicals, including cinnamon, fig, ginger, and black tea, the spirit was crafted to bridge worlds, approachable for newcomers, yet complex enough to intrigue seasoned whiskey enthusiasts. At the buzzing Amber Noble booth during the 2025 Bar Convent Brooklyn trade show in June, Ja, Herb, and Sandy shared insights into the brand's origin story and the meaning behind its evocative name. They also discussed the intentional measured way they're leveraging Ja's star power, and why they're confident that the flavor Ford whiskey has the potential to redefine what modern spirits can be.

1:46Hey, folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am supremely honored to be sitting down with the founders of Amber and Opal. We have Herb, we have Sandin, we have Jaw. The Jaw being Jaw Rule. Jaw Rule, great to see you. Great to see you too, man, for sure. I was having a hard time. I was thinking about this. I was like, how do I address you? I'm not really sure. How do you like to be addressed? Let's call me Jeff for the day. We're going to run with Jeff today. Have people been calling you Jeff? Nobody calls me Jeff. I'm a mom, really. But we're going to go with Jeff today. That's my business name.

2:15When you sign checks, you probably sign Jeff. They call me Mr. Atkins in the bank. And Herb and Sandy, how are you guys doing? Doing well, man. Glad to be here, man. Bar Convent, Brooklyn. It's my second time here, man. Having an amazing time. It is a fantastic event. And, I mean, Sandy, I mean, I feel like this is an event that you absolutely need to be at if you are launching a beverage company, launching a beverage alcohol company, that is. Yeah, definitely, man. We're definitely happy to be here. This is our first time here. Well, my first time here. And it's exciting. We're excited to be here.

2:48Yeah, absolutely. Now, Ja, I mean, you're no stranger to the beverage business. I know you've been involved with a lot of different brands. But this is your first entrepreneurial brand, Amber and Opal. What is it all about? It's a Honey Botanical Whiskey. I think we kind of captured a unique time in the beverage space. Yeah. And we have a unique brand. You know, we're a niche brand. You know, we're Honey Whiskey. So we really are starting something, or not starting something, but we're entering into a space where we're not heavily competed in this space, if that sounds the right way to say that.

3:26Honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed. I haven't heard of a Honey Whiskey before yours. Honey Jack. Yeah, Honey Jack, sure. The only other, it's just others, but that's the most popular out there. Ours is all natural, natural honey. We use, you know, two botanicals. You know, we got an amazing orange blossom taste. I'm going to let my guys, Herb and Fess, explain it a little better because Herb, he is the whiskey enthusiast out of the crew, and the way he breaks down and explains the brand is like none other. So I'm going to let Herb introduce all of the amazing notes and the smoke finish and all of those things that we have that make the brand special.

4:10Herb, take it away. Well, I mean, that's a perfect segue, actually, because I was going to ask, when this brand was introduced to me, people said that it's kind of a whiskey for people who don't drink whiskey all the time. You're calling the whiskey curious. Yeah, there you go. It seems like there's an opportunity for a brand like that on the market, but what did you want to incorporate into the brand, the liquid itself, the branding, the package? How did you want to attract people who are in that space of, I'm not always a Wixly drinker, but I'd try this? You know, as John mentioned, when we went down this path to create this brand, we knew that we had to do something different.

4:46It's a space that's filled with lots of legacy brands that's been doing it for many years. and it'd be hard to capture market share with a new product. So the niche has to be something that's going to attract an audience to a product, if done right. Our niche was we wanted to create a flavored whiskey that was a little bit less intimidating than a traditional rye whiskey. Something flavorful, but still an 80 proof, 40 % alcohol by volume product. So this product is a straight rye whiskey, 75 % rye, 25 % malted rye. We infuse it with orange blossom honey, and we use two types of botanicals. The first is a herbal tea with notes of cinnamon, fig, and ginger.

5:29And then we finish it with a Chinese black tea called Lapsang Souchong, which gives it a little bit of a smoky finish. And we think we've captured a product that's like no other on the market. We've done a lot of R &D to get to this place. And, you know, there's other honey whiskeys out there, but there's nothing quite like Amber and Oval. There's also nothing quite like this bottle that I'm holding in my hand right now. Sandy, this is an incredible custom bottle. Obviously, never seen anything like this. If I can describe it, it's a very thin but wide bottle with a beautiful cap. Everything about this screams sophistication.

6:04Is that who this is for, the sophisticated consumer? Yes, definitely. That's what we're aiming for. You know, this here is like our beacon. And when you look at it, it's definitely eye-catching. It's just gorgeous. We spent a lot of time in this. We picked this bottle, the top. Everything has been thought through, you know, even the shape of the bottle, even the cork. If you look at the top of the bottle, it's shaped like a honeycomb. You know, even the label is shaped like a honeycomb. And we also have a bee that's on it as well, you know. So we really thought this thing through. Significant to the honeycomb, giving a nod to the bee community of what that is.

6:37If you know anything about the beat community, they work together as a community. And so the name Amber and Opal in itself, the word Opal is basically our brand messaging. Opal is a very precious gem. Herb came up with the name Amber and Opal. But Opal is a precious gem. It comes in many different colors, black, white, yellow, tan. We wanted that to be indicative of what our brand stands for and inclusive of all. Sometimes when you say you're a black-owned brand or people, you know, see you as a black brand, you kind of get that stigma as for blacks only. And we didn't want people to feel that way.

7:18You know, we are a brand that happens to be owned by four black guys, you know, and we like to hang our hat on that. It's not a celebrity brand. This is the celebrity in the brand. And so this is our messaging, and this is what we wanted to bring to the table and let people know that Amber and Opal is inclusive of all. It's not a celebrity brand. It's not a brand specifically for black consumers. But when you think about the opportunity for the whiskey space, how do you attack it? How do you go about talking to distributors, to the retailers, and introduce them to a product like this that is differentiated in taste, that is owned by four black men, and who has, a part of the group, is a very well-known musician?

8:11I mean, so what is the key selling point? How do you lead the conversation, Herb? So, while we're not a celebrity brand, we are in a pretty good space that we're able to use Ja's celebrity when it makes sense. Okay. And we're very strategic about that, right? Unfortunately, there's a stigma attached to many celebrity brands because oftentimes the celebrity isn't really a part of the creation of the product. Sure. Ja is not an ambassador of this product. Ja is an actual co-founder of this product, okay? He assisted with the R &D. He assisted with the labeling. He assisted with the branding, right?

8:52So, you know, this isn't a celebrity brand by any stretch of the imagination, but we're lucky to have a celebrity that's truly involved in all aspects of the business, you know, and getting us into places like this, like Bar Convent in Brooklyn. You know, it probably would have been difficult for us to pull this off by ourselves. But just think about it. there's probably a lot of celebrities that are connected to a lot of brands in this building. I'm the only celebrity here. That's true. Because that is not important to me. What's important to me is the brand. You know what I'm saying? Well, I was actually expecting to see your signature, perhaps, on the bottle.

9:31Now, I know on your Instagram, I see you pouring amber and opal, and I see you involved in the brand that way. But it's not necessarily something, Sandy, where, you know, you have to have Ja to sell this. At a certain point, you probably don't want Ja to be the key. You want the brand to sell itself. Right. It definitely has its own legs. So, yeah. So, Jami gets you in the door. But what keeps you in the building? Oh, man. The thing that keeps us in the building is that we have a great product. Right? And once somebody tastes it, it just speaks for itself. Because what we do right now, our biggest marketing thing is that we want to put liquid to lips.

10:07And once they get liquid to lips, people are in love with it. And that's what brings the value. and it's to repeat customers over and over again. But as soon as you taste it, it stands on its own. Ja is ja, and we are who we are. But this product by itself, as soon as someone tastes it, it's over with it. Like, it just sells itself, you know? And then it just keeps on going over and over again. I couldn't tell you how many people just keep on buying it over and over again. People tell me, listen, I don't drink whiskey, I'm a tequila drinker. As soon as they drink it, they're like, oh, my God, I just bought three bottles.

10:34Or I just bought four bottles. Or I just told my mother. I told—but we're watching people transition from tequila to us. Yeah. That's interesting. There's a shift happening. Quick break. If this episode has you thinking about what's next in food and beverage, explore BevNet and Nosh Insider, our subscription platform with deeper insights from the BevNet team. Visit tasteradio.com slash insider to learn more. Tequila has overtaken bourbon in this country as the most consumed spirit. And I feel like maybe the tables are turning a little bit because the market's so oversaturated with tequila. I got to think there are probably people...

11:13There's a hundred tequilas in here if you walk around today. Well, I got to think that people have approached you, Joe, with this opportunity to be part of a tequila brand. And it seems like a lot of brands would love to have folks like you as part of their board or marketing strategy. But what really moves you to get involved with a brand? What gets you out of your seat and into the game, so to speak? I mean, this happened in a very different way. We have a really cool investment team. You know, we do a lot of cool investing. And during COVID, we were doing some stuff, you know, some cool investment stuff.

11:46And one of the investments that we did, we bought a warehouse full of whiskey in Iowa. I thought you just bought a random warehouse. No, we bought a warehouse full of whiskey in Iowa. And the initial idea was to, you know, wait till it hit its aging process of seven years and sell it as a premium. Sure. So whiskey got to a seven-year aging process period, and some of the guys in the group started making personal bottles, and we decided to start a brand. And what happened was, it's been a journey. It's been a whole journey. So what happened after that is Herb, he lives in Baltimore now, and so he found a distillery near him out there.

12:31If you know anything about Maryland and whiskey, it's the home of the rye whiskey. Sure, yeah. So the distillery he found, they told us it wouldn't be smart to use our premium barrels to make a honey whiskey and to use their barrels that were two-year-age barrels to create our blend that we wanted. So we embarked on that. So we still have a warehouse full of whiskey that is premium-aged to about eight years now, I think. By the time we come out with it, it'll probably be nine to ten years' age. And, you know, that'll be our premium bourbon that we put out on the market is the Amber Noble. So this started very organic, very genuine, very on brand to who we are and what we do.

13:17We invest in companies and other things, you know, real estate and other things like that. So this kind of happened very organically, very naturally. And I'm happy to be in the space that we're in right now because, like I said, Herb loves whiskey. He loves the space that we're in, and he's passionate about it. And so, you know, we've done the research, and I think we've came up with an amazing product that people love. I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know yet how amazing it is because I haven't tasted it. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, you say so. So right now, you see, Ja Rule himself is about to pour me a sip.

13:54Oh, he's giving me a double shot. Triple shot. Oh, my gosh. No, not a quarter. Okay, triple shot of some amber and opal here. The shots are real little. You can't even call it a shot. That's true. It's my first taste right here, live on Taste Radio. We're serving liquor to the lips is what we're serving. That is delicious. Yes, it is. You like that? That is a really delicious product. The viscosity is great. It's got that good vanilla to it. It feels, you know, just enough burn. I love that it's 80 proof. You know, if it was a little bit more than that, if it was a little bit less than that, I don't think you'd hit.

14:26You really nailed it. Well done, guys. Well done. Thank you. Appreciate that, man. And thank you guys so much for taking the time. It was insane in here before we sat down. It was crushed. Everyone was trying to take pictures with you guys. We're about to get the vibe back going. Okay, yeah, but I'm so happy that you shut everything down for 15 minutes for me. I'm really honored. Thank you so much. Good luck with Amber and Opal. Appreciate you. Thank you. And I think it's going to be a big hit. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for your time.

14:54That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNet.com Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cratchy. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt. And our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smirlinski. And our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. check us out on instagram our handle is bevnet taste radio as always for questions comments ideas for future podcasts please send us an email to ask at taste radio.com on behalf of the entire taste radio team thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time