AUGUSTA, Ga. () – Tequila Moore understands the importance of being a part of a community, and that is what makes her business Sweets By Tequila a major success.

Moore stops by to talk about how she got started in making and designing “Sweet Treats,” plus, some taste testers join us for the Sweets on the Streets experience!

Welcome to Celebrating Black Excellence. How did you get started with designing sweet treats?

So, when I was younger, every summer in high school, I would go spend the summer with my aunt in Aiken, and she made candy lollipops and personalized them for people’s weddings and things like that. So fast forward some years later, she passed, and it never was a desire. I got pregnant, and I was sitting in the doctor’s office. I saw blue and pink candy apples in a magazine, and I was curious on how to make them. So, I had them for my baby shower. After that, people just started messaging me like, “Hey, how did you get those apples that color?” Because, you know, we’re familiar with just red apples at the fair. So, what started as a hobby turned into a business, and so here we are almost ten years later.

How did that make you feel when people wanted to actually support your business?

It felt so good because when I look back where I started and what my treats used to look like, people were literally spending their money for that. So, what I offer now is like, “Oh, my God, people really supported me back then.”  So, it’s a great feeling, especially knowing that there are other businesses out that probably have been in business that they could have went to, and some of those people are still my customers. I’ve watched their babies grow up. We’ve done baby showers, birthday parties, graduations, etc.

What do you specialize in?

So, we do all things sweet. We have candy apples, Rice Krispie treats, pretzels, anything sweet we make it. We don’t bake a lot, but we do birthday parties, weddings, engagements, office parties, whatever you want to throw we make a treat for it. We do engagement boxes. We do personalized orders as well. So, it doesn’t always have to be party orders. If you want to pop the question, we can make a box for her to have so we do things like that.

What is the most popular thing that you sell? What do people ask you for the most?

I never do party orders without candy apples. That’s the number one thing. I’ve literally made a candy apple look like a baby doll or a spray can. So, yeah, people always want candy apples with their package orders. I never get away from them. (Laughs)

What is your favorite thing to make?

Oh, I love to dip strawberries, but I love candy apples, too. We have a love hate-relationship. (Laughs) It’s the packaging. If I could just dip and not do the packaging, I would be good to go, but of course, you can’t leave them open because they’ll get sticky. But yeah, I love to dip strawberries, I do. (Laughs)

What makes your particular business different from everyone else’s?

I think it’s my drive, and I’m willing to teach others as well. I’ve taught classes on how to make treats. I’ve helped a lot of other treat makers, and we support each other as well. So, a lot of us work together with parties and things like that. However, I’m always looking for something different, and I’m always a student. I like to learn more, so I learn from other treat makers online as well.

If people want to know more about you, or if they want to order from you, how can they do that?

So, I have a website, and it is sweetsbytequila.weebly.com. I also have Facebook and Instagram pages @SweetsByTequila, or my personal page, Tequila Moore.