New Jersey natives Dasime and Tiffany Asberry met while in high school back in 1997. Twenty-two years and two kids later, the couple is still together and are now officially part of the Black-owned spirits club with their vodka, AsLegacy97.
Dasime, who joined the military in 2008, found himself away from his family often due to deployment and other career obligations. The one bright spot of it all was that when he did reunite with them there was always a celebration, usually with a spirit involved.
“My husband came to me one day like, babe I want to create a vodka,” Tiffany Asberry told Travel Noire. “He said he wanted to find something that would allow him to be home full-time and retire from the military life. We also wanted to create something that would allow more time together and benefit our children in the long run.”
The idea started in 2017, and the couple knew from the beginning that they wanted to stand out from every other brand out there. After doing their research they decided to create the vodka from grapes, instead of grains which most other brands do.
“The only other brand that does it this way is Ciroc,” Tiffany said. “By using grapes it gives it a smoother feel and lessens the bite once it goes down.”
Next they wanted to come up with a name that reflected their mission of creating the Vodka. ‘As’ which is short for their last name Asberry, Legacy because they are creating the brand to leave that legacy for their children, and 97 to signify the year that the couple met.
Since its official launch in 2018, the brand has found placement in 22 stores across New Jersey. The Asberry’s personally research each store before partnering to sell their spirit.
To ensure that customers are able to put a face with the name, the couple agrees to host one tasting per month, over a 6-month period in each store that they partner with.
“We want to make sure that the store is also benefitting and customers are able to meet us face-to-face.”
If you aren’t in the New Jersey area, you can also find the brand on the Total Wine website.
The couple recently had the opportunity to showcase their vodka at the annual Black-owned wine and spirits festival in Washington, D.C and look forward to tapping into other markets in the future.
“Before we started, we didn’t see many others who looked like us doing this. But to see us representing all over the world, it’s amazing and humbling. This hasn’t been easy but we have each other. We all started from the ground up without any manual yet we all ended up at the same place and we’re evolving.”
To learn more about the brand you can find them on Instagram: @aslegacy97.
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