Sugarlands Shine – Sweet Tea
November 9, 2017
Last week, some of my students played at Dawsonville’s Moonshine Festival. It was freezing (winds around 20 mph, 42 degrees). But my kids were great sports. They played guitars with fingerless gloves, smiled, and managed to sound great despite the terrible weather.
When I first moved to the south, I was dumbfounded that there was a festival all about Moonshine. I was quickly educated on the history of moonshine, Prohibition, and the birth of NASCAR.
For the last four years, I’ve had students performing regularly at the festival. After all, what’s a better story to tell the friends back home then, “My middle school student played in a band at a festival all about Moonshine.”
In fairness, there is no moonshine being served at the festival. There are lots of booths selling all kinds of festival fun – scarves, hats, candles, belt buckles, and the like. And food – the best boiled peanuts and BBQ you’ll find.
But if you’re in Dawsonville for the first time, always eat at The Pool Room. It’s a southern institution.
Sugarlands Shine comes out of Gatlinburg, TN. One of my students’ parents brought me a couple of jars this fall. The flavored shines aren’t as high of an alcohol content as the clear shine. (The Sweet Tea shine is 40 proof.)
However, don’t let that fool you. The Sweet Tea shine smells and tastes like McDonalds sweet tea. It’s really sweet. Really, really, sweet. And the sweetness covers up the bite of the shine.
But once it hits your stomach, you warm up. Fast. And you’ll realize very quickly that 40 proof isn’t as weak as it sounds.
Moonshine is a fun change of pace for drinking. It’s different, unique, and doesn’t taste like any other alcohol I can think of. Although the clear does taste a little bit like I think rubbing alcohol should taste. There are dozens of distilleries out there, now that it’s been legalized. I’ve been advised Sugarlands is one of the better ones.
Dawsonville, the home of NASCAR, does have it’s own distillery. It even operated out of the county courthouse when legalization of moonshine came about. (It was a fun publicity stunt – moonshine being produced in the oldest continuously functioning courthouse in Georgia.)
November 9, 2017
Last week, some of my students played at Dawsonville’s Moonshine Festival. It was freezing (winds around 20 mph, 42 degrees). But my kids were great sports. They played guitars with fingerless gloves, smiled, and managed to sound great despite the terrible weather.
When I first moved to the south, I was dumbfounded that there was a festival all about Moonshine. I was quickly educated on the history of moonshine, Prohibition, and the birth of NASCAR.
For the last four years, I’ve had students performing regularly at the festival. After all, what’s a better story to tell the friends back home then, “My middle school student played in a band at a festival all about Moonshine.”
In fairness, there is no moonshine being served at the festival. There are lots of booths selling all kinds of festival fun – scarves, hats, candles, belt buckles, and the like. And food – the best boiled peanuts and BBQ you’ll find.
But if you’re in Dawsonville for the first time, always eat at The Pool Room. It’s a southern institution.
Sugarlands Shine comes out of Gatlinburg, TN. One of my students’ parents brought me a couple of jars this fall. The flavored shines aren’t as high of an alcohol content as the clear shine. (The Sweet Tea shine is 40 proof.)
However, don’t let that fool you. The Sweet Tea shine smells and tastes like McDonalds sweet tea. It’s really sweet. Really, really, sweet. And the sweetness covers up the bite of the shine.
But once it hits your stomach, you warm up. Fast. And you’ll realize very quickly that 40 proof isn’t as weak as it sounds.
Moonshine is a fun change of pace for drinking. It’s different, unique, and doesn’t taste like any other alcohol I can think of. Although the clear does taste a little bit like I think rubbing alcohol should taste. There are dozens of distilleries out there, now that it’s been legalized. I’ve been advised Sugarlands is one of the better ones.
Dawsonville, the home of NASCAR, does have it’s own distillery. It even operated out of the county courthouse when legalization of moonshine came about. (It was a fun publicity stunt – moonshine being produced in the oldest continuously functioning courthouse in Georgia.)
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