Timeline

Jaime traveled to Consuelo, Dominican Republic on a grade 12 humanitarian trip. One of the days she spent the morning working in a sugar cane field and then was taken to a distillery to see the full process of producing rum. Jaime fell in love with this process & was inspired to learn more about the alcohol manufacturing process.

September 2018 – February 2019 – Jaime started at Dal in the fall of 2018 as a business student who was encouraged to write a business plan. Jaime always wanted to start her own business after graduating and never realized there could be opportunity during her university years.

Still only being 18 at the time, Jaime spent lots of time researching, reaching out and learning all about the industry while writing the business plan on opening a distillery in Nova Scotia. On her 19th birthday she submitted all the required permits and was ready to get started by the end of February 2019. Making her the youngest person in Canada to obtain a distiller’s license.

In this time Jaime continued to work on the plan of providing quality spirits, while looking for a place to call home. Jaime grew up spending her summers in Hubbards NS and always loved spending her time in this community. As a little girl she always said she wanted to start a business down in the Hubbards community.

After the first walk through, Jaime fell in love with an old 100 year old school building in Fox Point, just minutes outside of Hubbards. Being back in this community inspired the name Black Harbour Distillers, an old show filmed in Hubbards that was her grandfather’s favourite show. She named this after her grandfather that used to make moonshine and loved the show, as well as the community.

It was time to bring Jaime’s vision board to life, and working along with an amazing local team, those dreams and visions can be seen walking through the distillery today. During this time Jaime worked hard to start producing her first two products to be able to start selling.

The day has finally come to open the doors to Black Harbour, a space producing quality spirits and a welcoming environment for all to enjoy.

With Covid hitting six months after opening Black Harbour had to pivot and adapt. Jaime turned to social media to help get her name out there to sell products and was successful in reaching new and returning customers by offering free delivery and having a strong presence on social media.

During this time Jaime played around with unique flavours that were not offered on the market, the first one being Cotton Candy Vodka that sold out in 40 hours and blew up on social media. This helped Jaime get the BHD name out there, and she continues to offer unique quality spirits. Like the Moon Mist Vodka that sold out in 45 minutes on site and then another batch had over 600 people pre ordering bottles! If you have not, these are products you will want to try!

Although there were many unexpected obstacles on top of the challenges that come in the first year of opening a business, Jaime continued to be positive, eager to learn and grow with BHD and her studies at DAL.

Another amazing year of producing quality spirits with unique local flavours, the support from the community and beyond has been so appreciated and humbling. Jaime always says she has the best customers ever!

Jaime is beyond grateful for the support and following that BHD has gained over the last three years and is beyond excited to continue to grow BHD with quality spirits, in a welcoming environment, with unique local flavours and stories!

It is amazing to see a school project of one employee, to three, to now a team of 7 amazing individuals and the best customers be a part of Black Harbours journey.

Jaime is forever grateful to have the opportunity to continue to grow and expand Black Harbour Distillers. She is honored to have a community space that all people can feel welcomed to come to. Once here you can enjoy samples of the quality spirits, sip on a cocktail flight board and leave with your favourite bottle. It has been amazing for Jaime to have a space that people can enjoy in the community with live music, tasty drinks and all while building a brand of quality spirits with a story behind each bottle!

Black Harbour is beyond excited to announce the expansion happening on-site, coming July 2023. It is exciting times around the distillery as we are getting ready to expand our production space. We can’t wait to have you down to see all the new things happening, expanding our production space and allowing more space to provide new unique local spirits!

Stay up to date by following us on Instagram ( @blackharbourdistillers ) or Facebook ( @bhdistillers). We also keep our website up to date and you can subscribe to our mailing list! And best of all we look forward to having you down to our location at 419 Hwy 329 Fox Point, NS!