Virginia Dare wine—

from Langston Hughes – Harlem Sweeties on Rap Genius

On their website, the V.D. folks explain: “Virginia Dare is a Brooklyn, New York based flavor and extract company that was originally founded in 1835. The company evolved into the Virginia Dare company in 1923 with a focus on creating and supplying flavors for the food, beverage, nutritional products, dairy, bakery, sweet goods, pharmaceutical and oral care industries.” They add, with just a hint of wistfulness: “Although we are no longer vintners, we never left the wine world. Virginia Dare’s wine flavor portfolio consists of stock flavors for commercial scale wineries.”

Virginia Dare is also said to be the first white pilgrim born in North America. Given the subject of the poem, Hughes may be invoking her as a kind of sly joke.

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