Imbibe 75 Person to Watch: Amma Mensah

Accra, Ghana

Amma Mensah’s parents landed in London in the ‘60s intending to return home after studying to help rebuild Ghana, post-independence. Her parents’ dream became her own reality. In 2023, Mensah launched Reign Rum, a rum brand produced, distilled, and bottled on the Reign Forest Estate, approximately 2,000 acres of land owned by Mensah located between Ghana’s rainforest and savannah regions. Her team on the farm is 100 percent Black and about 60 percent women in a country that has the third-highest number of female entrepreneurs in the world.

Now sold in 160 countries, Reign Rum has three expressions that showcase Ghanaian ecology and native and historically traded ingredients: an aged rum made with fresh-pressed local sugarcane; a spiced rum flavored with calabash nutmeg and notes of blood orange; and a hibiscus and baobab infusion.

Using ingredients such as hibiscus native to West Africa and spices that pay homage to the spice trade (and illuminate the dark history of rum for diasporic Black people), Mensah wanted to create a brand that honors her Asante heritage in its design and connects Black communities through shared, recognizable flavors.

For Mensah, Reign represents a proud, full-circle moment in the story of rum, sugarcane, and the transatlantic trade of African people. “It feels right,” she says, “like there’s a heavy responsibility on my shoulders. I remind myself that my ancestors are not putting the weight [on me]. Instead, they are [propelling] me to achieve their wildest dreams and my own.

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