Every so often, I’ll go on iced tea benders. I think it comes from growing up in the mid-to-late 90s and across from the elementary school was a convenience store with a veritable smorgasbord of classic 90s drinks and snacks. Things like Crystal Pepsi, Orbitz, Surge, and yes, Snapple- both its juice and tea offerings as well as its original ‘Elements’ drinks of Rain, Fire, Air and Earth. If I’m being honest with myself, my mild obsession with Doritos probably began here, because my obsession with iced tea also began here as well.
The timing sort of makes sense. Even though Snapple has been a company since 1972, I feel like they really broke into the cultural zeitgeist with the ‘Wendy the Snapple Lady’ commercials that were all over the place back in the day- so Snapple, at the time, was absolutely everywhere and I was a thirsty youth and drank plenty of it.
I want to make it clear: I’m a Northern boy. I grew up on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line, so while the Missus enjoys Sweet Tea now and again, I am firmly convinced that when it comes to sugar in tea, one can have way too much of a good thing. I know, that’s rank iced tea heresy to many, but that’s my position on the matter. I will stick with the regular variety- specifically, Arnold Palmers, occasionally raspberry tea but really my favorite by far is Peach Iced Tea.
And what better way to spike a peach iced tea than with some peach whiskey?
I had some doubts about this one. Some flavors work really, really well with whisky. Ole Smokey does an excellent Salted Caramel. Jim Beam Maple is so good you could put it on a pancake and die happy. I am not usually a Jack Daniels person, but Tennessee Honey is delicious. One thing I had not tried, prior to this tasting, was any fruit-based whiskey flavors.
Ole Smoky has been around and distilling since 2010— Tennessee state law changed to allow the distillation of spirits and it became the first federally licensed distillery in the history of East Tennessee. Its Distillery ‘The Holler’ is America’s most visited distillery and at the time of its opening in 2010, it was one of four distilleries operating in Tennessee. Jack Daniels and George Dickel had been around prior to Prohibition and Benjamin Pritchard’s opened up in 1997 (at least per the Wiki page.)
There’s not a lot on their website in terms of history or back story, but I found this:
Ole Smoky has been making moonshine in the Smoky Mountains ever since our ancestors settled in the area over a hundred years ago- but it wasn’t until Tennessee state law changed that were able to legally open up our first federally licensed distillery in Gatlinburg. That’s right, the moonshine business hasn’t always been on the right side of the law, but since it led us to where we are now, crafting some of the best moonshines and whiskies you’re ever gonna taste, you could say it was totally worth it. (And you’d be right.)
I’ve seen more detail from other whiskey producers and I’ve seen less and I’d say this is a pretty solid summary overall. I do have some Moonshine cherries in the old cabinet and I use them from time to time, but I haven’t gotten too crazy with moonshine yet. Maybe that will have to change…
I approached this tasting a little differently than I usually do, so my tasting notes don’t really follow the usual format, but let’s break it down and see what we got:
Color: Honestly, I didn’t really look at the color. It’s Ole Smokey Peach Whiskey and even though I tasted it multiple times, I never actually checked the color. (I said it with my Johnnie Walker Blue Tasting and I’ll say it again here: I need to do my homework on this aspect a bit more and get better at this.)
Nose: The biggest question on the nose is a simple one: where is the peach flavor at? You kind of get it at the front, but it’s drowned by the whiskey of it all.
Body: It’s heavy and syrupy and unfortunately, if there’s one word I would use to describe this, it’s ‘medicinal’ which is probably not what you’re looking for in a whiskey. There’s a bit more peach flavor evident at the front here, but it gets drowned out quickly.
Finish: Look, you can say this for Ole Smokey— it’s drinkable. You can drink this on the rocks and it’s okay. You can drink this straight and it’s okay. Even if it’s a bit too medicinal for my liking, I will admit: it’s a pretty tasty medicine. A lot more people would be Robo-Tripping if Robotussin tasted this good, so it’s genuinely not all bad. Where it shines though is where you would expect it to if you want to spike your peach iced tea- or really any iced tea with this stuff, it’s excellent. You could argue that it’s made for that and that alone. By itself, I find it to be something of a mixed bag, but if you believe that every whiskey can be awesome in the right circumstances, then Ole Smokey Peach Whiskey can soar if you use it right. My Grade: 7/10
(Big unanswered question I’m still pondering: would I try more peach whiskey? I think I might, just to give the flavor a fair shake. Would I try more fruit-flavored whiskey? Probably, just to see what it’s like.)