Ciara has had a lot to celebrate this season. The singer’s eighth album, CiCi, was released in late August, and Sarah’s Oil, the movie that she and her husband, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson, produced in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios, debuted in theaters in November. And Ten To One, the Caribbean rum company of which she is a proud director and cofounder, is one of the fastest-growing and most-awarded rums in the U.S. So make that woman a cocktail. Her request? A Sorrel Daiquiri, made with Ten To One, of course.
It was a celebration that led her to the rum company. Ciara had just finished breastfeeding her third child, Win, during lockdown and, as she recalls, “It was time to celebrate the moment.” Her first drink? “A mojito made with Ten To One White Rum.” As Ciara says, it was love at first sip. “I knew I was sipping on something very special — rum as I’d never experienced before.” Serendipitously, she’d just been connected with Ten To One founder and CEO Marc Farrell by a mutual friend. “Once I met Marc, it was like all the boxes were checked off: I love the product first and foremost. I also like how he had beautifully crafted Ten To One, from the product to the actual bottle. And so I joined him very quickly after as an investor, director, and cofounder, and we’ve been rolling ever since.”
Her strategy for keeping a party rolling? “You’ve got to have good music! I love having games out. And you’ve got to have the drinks. Obviously, Ten To One is in the mix.” (This year, she’ll include a Sunrise, which mixes sweet tea, lemonade, a touch of orange juice, and rum. “I like to experiment,” she says.) The buffet is the center of the action: “I like to have everything you can think of.” From her own “mean, lean, juicy” turkey recipe to honey-baked ham and fried chicken to dishes from her favorite Brooklyn soul-food spot, FlamingoBaby Kitchen, it’s always anchored by mac and cheese, featuring Muenster and a touch of Velveeta. While she’s made the recipe her own over the decades, she admits it came from another soul diva: “Honestly,” she says, “I got a little inspired by Patti LaBelle.”
The songwriter and singer Ciara Princess Wilson has been an inspiration to millions practically since she was discovered in Atlanta in the early 2000s. Clearly she was already planning to be a star; she signed a publishing deal for her songwriting while still in high school. After graduation, hitmaker L.A. Reid added her to the LaFace Records roster and released “Goodies,” which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart and went quadruple platinum, earning her the title of the First Lady of Crunk&B. What followed was a decade of successful albums (and videos: Do a deep dive into her dancing, which The Guardian praised as “damn near untouchable”), including collaborations on hit singles with Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake, and Ludacris, plus tours with the likes of Jay-Z and Rihanna. She also began acting and became a global brand ambassador for cosmetics giant Revlon. (Fitting, considering her name comes from the 1970s Revlon perfume.)
She has also added entrepreneur and philanthropist to her profile. In 2014, she and Wilson created the Why Not You Foundation, which aims to empower youth. Five years later, she attended an intensive course at Harvard Business School called “The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports,” which allowed her to hone her decision-making, as well as to learn from past business mistakes. During the pandemic, she and Wilson signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios for their production company, Why Not You Productions, and launched The House of LR&C — as in Love, Respect, and Care — now a certified B Corp suite of fashion brands that gives 3% of sales to the Why Not You Foundation.
And then there was rum. Ciara and Farrell, who left his native Trinidad at 16 to study chemical engineering at MIT before becoming the youngest vice president at Starbucks, are on a mission to get people to reimagine rum. “That is a great challenge, because rum is a category that is often overlooked,” she says, explaining that in the U.S., rum is typically associated with piña coladas and strawberry daiquiris. Ciara shakes her head, a gleam in her eye: “When people come out of that understanding, it’s like, no: Rum can level up.” And as the woman behind the hit single “Level Up,” she knows what she’s talking about. With its round, full flavor and smooth finish, Ten To One is a new experience.
The pan-Caribbean blends eschew the additives, coloring, and flavoring in other popular brands. The herbaceous white rum combines column-still rum from the Dominican Republic with pot-still rum from Jamaica, while the dry, spicy dark rum blends Trinidadian rum, pot-still rum from Jamaica, and eight-year-old column-still rums from the DR and Barbados. The Five Origin Select features rums with up to 15 years of aging, including one distilled in the Port Mourant Double Wooden Pot Still in Guyana, the last of its kind in operation. Limited-edition bottlings, such as an annual February release for Black History Month, play with extended aging time and unexpected casks, such as oloroso sherry. Converts from tequila and vodka are realizing that Ten To One’s white and dark blends can flex in their favorite cocktails, from Negronis to mojitos — Ciara recommends the white rum in a Sorrel Daiquiri and the dark for a Garvey Old-Fashioned and a Caribbean Coffee, a rum-centric twist on an espresso martini. They’re also exceptional neat or with a splash of coconut water.
The brand’s name derives from “the idea of the first federation of 10 countries of the Caribbean coming together to become one,” Ciara explains, citing a quote from Eric Williams, the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago: “One from ten leaves nought.” Ciara agrees: “We’re stronger together than we are apart.” Ten To One also honors the Caribbean culture of joyful celebration, where rum so often plays a role, whether it’s a community party to mark a major milestone or a toast to honor the day’s victories.
And this holiday season, Ciara’s victories are many.
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