Moonshine Tasting

On my road trip back south I stopped off in Gatlinburg to do some moonshine tasting. We went to Dollywood years ago when I was a kid, but I have not been back into the Smoky Mountains since then. To get to the distilleries I drove through Pigeon Forge and through some adorable touristy areas! My first stop was Sugarlands Distilling Company where I gathered around a round bar with others to hear about and taste the many varieties of shine they produce. Once carded and stamped I was ready for my communion cup to runneth over (that isn't what they called it, but that is what they are--the same cups we use for communion at church!). Our guide had us sample the following: 

• Silver Cloud, 100 proof
• Appalachian Apple Pie, 50 proof
• Blockader's Blackberry, 40 proof
• Butterscotch Gold, 40 proof 
• Jim Tom Hendrick's Unaged Rye, 100 proof
• Mark Rogers American Peach, 80 proof
• Tickle's Dynamite Cinnamon, 70 proof
• Blueberry Muffin, 70 proof

They offer a few other flavors including PB&J, Sweet Tea and Lemonade, but those were not sampled out. I'm not sure I would want to drink a PB&J moonshine...sounds weird! 

After my initial sampling I made the trek further up the mountain (by foot, not car: all of these distilleries were among the hundreds of other shops and restaurants built for visitors along a main stretch of street) to the Ole Smoky Distillery. There they were sampling the following:

• Blue Flame, 100 proof
• White Lightnin', 100 proof
• Hunch Punch, 80 proof
• Margarita, 40 proof
• Pumpkin Pie, 40 proof
• Moonshine Peaches, 100 proof (actual chunks of peaches soaked in White Lightnin')
• Cinnamon, 80 proof
• Apple Pie, 70 proof
• Apple Pie, 40 proof (yes, they have 2 Apple Pies and one bites harder than the other!)
• Butterscotch, 40 proof
• Maple, 80 proof (I passed on this one)
• Shine Nog, 35 proof (described as "like Baileys")

After my hooch sampling I meandered up and down the street checking out all of the little shops along the way. Despite it being January, the town still had a ton of Christmas lights up. When you drove over one bridge it was covered with green and white lights. Very pretty. I'm glad that I made this pit stop on my drive back to New Orleans :)