Recently, my whole family spent a week in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. One highlight I refused to miss was a moonshine tasting—especially one that featured Popcorn Sutton’s shine!

And that’s exactly what we found on the main drag at the Ole Smoky Distillery. A big draw for a multi-generational family is that the kids can eat ice cream and listen to top-notch bluegrass music while those adults who aren’t driving head inside.

A large four-sided bar in the middle of stacks and shelves of products is manned by several bartenders. When an opening occurs, you sidle up and get ready to taste. With seven or eight people in a group, you can choose a Regular tasting for $7.00 or, as I did, the Premium version for $10.00. That one includes Popcorn’s recipes.

Our bartender, Britt, served me first since I was the only Premium taster. She showed me bottles of the two Popcorn Sutton recipes I’d sample, explaining the company made a deal with the old moonshiner’s widow to use his recipe.

She placed a communion cup before me and poured the “Likker,” his basic corn liquor. It hadn’t aged too long and, boy, could I tell! Ooh, the burn.

It wasn’t the roughest hooch I’d ever poured down my throat. That was back in my early days when I taught in Australia’s Outback. While the town I lived in, Mt. Isa, had a population of about 30,000, friends and I often took weekend trips to dots on the map that were home to 30 or so people.

These little towns had annual horse race meetings followed by evening balls. As the party went into the night, the silver cup from the races would be filled with wine and passed around. In one place, I took a healthy swig that set my throat on fire. Turns out it was rotgut rum instead of the expected vino.

The good rum I drank there has been described as “rough as a badger’s arse” with flavors like “ginger snaps, a little rubber, light molasses, lemongrass and squishy bananas in hot weather.” This other stuff I inadvertently inhaled was much worse than that.

So, I’d say Popcorn’s moonshine wasn’t too hot. But it did sting a bit.

Next, Britt poured a shot of Popcorn’s five-year-old dark bourbon whiskey. Night and day! Those years in the barrel really took the edge off.

Both these liquors were 100-proof. They took the edge off me, as well.

Next, Britt—who described herself as a professional drunk—set communion cups in front of all of us. We sampled nine shots much weaker than Popcorn’s backwoods brew. A wide variety of unusual flavors, each was about 40-proof.

Some examples included buckeye, apple pie, banana pudding, pickleback, and lavender. Lavender was not a crowd favorite. Frankly, I can’t picture Popcorn Sutton mixing a batch of Snickerdoodle cream.

If you haven’t read my post about Popcorn, you may wonder why this experience meant so much to me. He was quite a character you’ll want to learn all about. Read “Four Damn Fights to a Pint” here.

When all the flavors had been tasted and bottles to take home had been bought, we left without even a buzz. Just a sense of contentment.

Works Cited

“Australia.” The Lone Caner, thelonecaner.com/category/rum-reviews-by-country/australia/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.