Joyson BaLisamore is giving Baltimore a healthier way to celebrate

Joyson BaLisamore calls growing up in Baltimore "the best of both worlds." In a video interview for Illuminate Baltimore, he said the city showed him joy, beauty, art and creativity, and it also exposed him to violence and poverty. His family didn't have much money, but he said they loved him enough to give him a comfortable childhood.

Diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems ran in his family, as they do in many communities of color, and he has lost family members to those health disparities. His mother, Lisa Whiting, died of breast cancer in 2014, when he was 14.

In the years after her death he struggled with severe depression and developed high blood pressure. Then he woke up with chest pain, and his bloodwork showed signs of a heart attack.

He switched to a plant-based diet and started exercising, which was hard for someone who had never been athletic. He also began counseling for grief he had pushed down for years. In a 2024 interview with VoyageBaltimore, he described those years as especially hard because he tried to carry everything alone. Asking for help, first from counselors and later from business mentors, made life much more manageable, he said.

From cookouts to a company

Watermelon was his favorite fruit growing up, and one of the few fruits he liked at all. He later learned that it contains L-citrulline, a compound researchers have studied for its effects on blood pressure.

The idea for a drink came from the city's big gatherings. At Baltimore festivals, concerts and community events, he noticed that sugary drinks were almost always the easiest thing to grab, even though they're linked to diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. He wanted something refreshing with no added sugar that kids and adults could both enjoy, and that would show the light he sees in Baltimore. He also saw the city's problems as a chance to be a problem solver and put his creativity to work.

The business started with watermelonade he made for cookouts and community gatherings. In 2023, the year he graduated from the University of Baltimore, he officially launched Jay's Watermelonade, and that fall it became his full-time job. Nobody in his family had owned a business before, though he had been studying stocks and business since he was a teenager, partly because he wanted to earn enough to buy his mother a house. He has since gone back to UB for an MBA in entrepreneurship and innovation.

The drinks are cold-pressed from black-seeded watermelon and have no added sugar. The Classic Watermelonade mixes watermelon and lemon with fresh mint, and the Hydrating Colada adds pineapple and coconut water. There's also a watermelon iced tea. Joyson, whose title is chief hydration officer, began juicing at home and later moved production to a commercial kitchen.

You can find the drinks at farmers markets and community pop-ups around the city, and the company caters for local businesses and organizations. In 2024 it teamed up with another Baltimore brand, Taharka Brothers ice cream, for National Watermelon Day. Joyson sees the business as a creative outlet and a way to show other people what's possible.

Putting young people to work

The company's stated vision includes a healthier Baltimore and jobs for the city's youth and young adults. In the summer of 2024, Joyson hired young people as Summer Hydration Specialists through YouthWorks, Baltimore City's summer jobs program. The Baltimore Times reported in 2026 that the company also employs returning citizens.

Pitch competitions have helped pay for that growth. In May 2024 he won the Existing Business Ventures category at the University of Baltimore's Rise to the Challenge competition, which came with $5,000, and picked up a separate $1,000 Baltimore Fund Award for community and civic engagement. He wrote afterward that the money would help him hire and expand that summer. In November, Salisbury University's Ratcliffe Foundation Shore Hatchery competition awarded the company $10,000.

In February 2025 he took first place and the $20,000 grand prize in the Community College of Baltimore County's business plan competition, and he credited his mentors, Dan and Maude Swearingen, with shaping his plans for growth. Along the way he also went through the Greater Baltimore Urban League's Restaurant Accelerator Program.

In August 2024, after finishing BOOST, Innovation Works' bootcamp for social entrepreneurs, he was one of the local business owners featured on 16 digital billboards and kiosks around the city. The campaign included a billboard at the corner of Light and Lombard streets. The message he submitted for it said Baltimore had believed in his vision of healthy hydration that captures the city's charm.

He told WBAL he had wanted to be known for something since he was a kid, and that seeing his face on screens across Baltimore felt like a dream come true. He also said the campaign mattered because he wants other young African American men to know they can start businesses that lift up their families and communities.

In 2025 he was named a Who's Who in Black Baltimore honoree. In a post thanking the organizers, he described himself as the shy kid who worried about how he spoke and kept his ideas and problems to himself. He said his community had helped him find the confidence to be seen.

A festival for heart health

In February 2025, during Heart Health Awareness Month, Joyson organized the first B'More Heart Healthy Fest at the Pava Center. It fell on his 25th birthday. The evening included a wellness panel, a resource fair, heart-healthy food and drinks, and a pitch contest for young people ages 13 to 21, with $100 for each of three winners. Afterward the company said he wanted to give back after his own pitch wins by investing in young people who are trying to make a difference. More than 200 people came, The Baltimore Times reported.

The second festival was scheduled for May 9, 2026, over Mother's Day weekend, at 4MLK BioPark. The lineup added a maternal health panel, "Hearts, Grief & Healing," along with yoga and a Youth Innovation Showcase for changemakers 25 and under. Joyson told The Baltimore Times he wanted the day to be a safe space to talk about grief and honor loved ones who have died, while still choosing to live fully.

Changing what's on the table

Joyson grew up in a Black household where love often came through food, The Baltimore Times reported. Sugary, processed food was normal around him, and healthier options were hard to find. He wants to change how people think about nutrition, including the foods Black families have passed down for generations, and his brand presents watermelon as part of that culture as well as a source of nutrients.

He told the paper he planned to start selling online, get into select stores around Baltimore and team up with other local juice makers on a shared juicing facility that would also train workers. He also told the paper what he hopes people take away from every bottle: