South Carolina - Wadmalaw Island (Charleston) - Firefly Distllery

Firefly Distillery -(July 2017) We had to walk in the back door, so to speak. All the products are made from local grown, on St Johns Island, sugar cane.

My wife started with the Firefly Southern Lemonade (vodka), with mild lemon flavor, was smooth tasting exactly like Country Time lemonade without the sour pucker. The fresh lemons are added at the end of the process so this has a short shelf life if not refrigerated or frozen; it is not a keeper so to speak. The Firefly Sweet Tea vodka smelled of mild fresh-brewed tea and tasted as a glass of iced tea, but not as sweet as sweet tea. Maybe adding the two together would be equivalent to a Long Island Iced Tea. The Firefly peach moonshine was served from a mason jar and the aroma was as if sniffing the peach itself, fuzz too. It was balanced with yellow peach flavor.

She then went to the whisky’s starting with the Firefly Sweet Tea Whiskey. Aged three years in the barrel, the whiskey flavor came first followed by a mild tea finish. The Whiskey Jam started as whiskey with a mild strawberry flavor finish. but we would not call it jam; missing a sense of sweetness. She ended her tasting with Southern Accents Banana Pudding Liqueur, with the right amount of banana and a creamy finish. It was immediately thought of being used for an adult milkshake.

I started with the Firefly Classic vodka, clean, smooth, and dangerous. Distilled six times, it did not have the sting some vodkas have. I then tried the Firefly Blackberry moonshine. I'd compared it to Chambourd; smooth, starting with the berry aroma and the berry finish. The Firefly Apple Pie moonshine name said it all. A nice mild spicy apple aroma followed by the taste of baked apple pie filling. After tasting this one, we agreed this could be one of the versatile spirits.

I continued with the Southern Accents Coconut Cake liqueur. The initial aroma reminded me of a candle. The flavors brought out the coconut taste, including the crème icing, with the coconut texture. The Sea Island Spice rum had the same aroma as the coconut cake liqueur, but not spicy. The Sea Island Java liqueur had a mild coffee aroma, but tasted more like brewed coffee that was allowed to cool.