The moonshiners who arrived on Main Street in El Segundo last year took some special satisfaction in their new address.
When Joe Baker’s great grandfather made his moonshine, he had to hide from the law. For more than a century, the Baker family distilled its liquor under the cover of the dense forests of the Smoky Mountains in Eastern Tennessee. Even as the family recipe survived into the 21st century, it remained illegal to make in the dry counties of their home state.
State law loosened its restrictions on distillation in 2009, and Baker and a few friends jumped at the opportunity to bring the family’s “corn liquor” to the light of day. In 2010, they built a distillery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and founded “Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine.”
Baker’s intent was not only to make some money, but to give moonshine respectability.
“Moonshine played an integral role in the daily lives of families in this region,” Baker said in a statement not long after the company’s launch. “Too often, people rely on the stereotype of a backwards old man making a cheap, dangerous product. In truth, a lot of good people made and sold moonshine in order to feed and clothe their families. Without moonshine, many mountain families would not have survived.”
The business took off immediately, growing at 300 to 400 percent a year. In 2010, the company sold 8,400 cases of moonshine; last year, 250,000 cases were sold, reaching every state in the USA as well as 30 other countries.
As the business burgeoned and the moonshiners went pro, they brought in CEO John Cochran, a beverage industry veteran who lives locally. Rather than bring Cochran to the distillery, Ole Smoky brought its headquarters to El Segundo. “They got stuck with a CEO from Manhattan Beach,” Cochran said, laughing, in an interview this week.
The moonshine business is still booming. Under Cochran’s leadership, Ole Smoky has broadened its product line to include 15 different variations of its moonshine. Ole Smoky’s bestseller continues to be its Apple Pie Moonshine, which blends pure apple juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg with moonshine, followed by Moonshine Cherries, maraschino cherries soaked in the company’s original 100 proof moonshine. The company has added some heavy hitters to its roster — like 128 proof Blue Flame pure moonshine — as well as more creative combinations, such as Hunch Punch, a blend of pure juices and moonshine. It’s also partnered up with Harley Davidson to create its first aged product, Harley Davidson Roadhouse Custom Charred moonshine, which goes well with its sponsorship of the annual bikers’ rally in Sturgis, South Dakota.
The biggest challenge, says Ole Smoky marketing director Meg Bruno, is customer education — that is, what exactly is moonshine?
“It was called ‘quick liquor’ for a reason — you could make it today and sell it tomorrow,” Cochran said.
“I prefer ‘unaged whiskey’,” Bruno said.
The traditional term was simply “corn liquor.” But Bruno said that whatever you call it, it’s a rare thing in today’s beverage industry — a brand new category, something that hasn’t occurred since “ready-to-drink” cocktails launched more than a decade ago. And with the current trend toward both handmade “craft” products (the moonshine is made in 300 gallon batches) and bartending “mixology,” Ole Smoky’s timing could not have been better.
“I think what the brand, and moonshine, has tapped into is part of the smaller, handcrafted approach,” Bruno said. “What we makes comes from a traditional heritage. But a lot of it is also moonshine is more fun — it’s a little bit naughty and has that great instigator mentality to it. Something a little bit different.”
Though the blends are not pure moonshine, the approach still emphasizes simplicity. Ole Smoky shies from any artificial additives. The Blackberry Moonshine, for example, contains only pure berry juice and moonshine.
“The simplicity of it is something that I think a lot of people just appreciate,” Cochran said.
The company’s market research indicates Ole Smoky has been a particular hit among the so-called “Millennial” generation, which unlike older generations tends to be more widely ranging in its its drinking inclinations. Whereas Gen X or Baby Boomers tend to settle down to “one or two segments” of the drink industry — gin and beer, say, or wine and bourbon — millennials tend to mix it up depending on the occasion.
“A millennial is much more apt to range across four to six segments, really open to adding a segment,” Cochran said. “But they are also really fickle within a segment or across a segment.”
One advantage Ole Smoky has is that its product line suits wildly different occasions. On one street, for example, bar drinkers might be taking shots or eating 100 proof cherries or peaches, while across the street a bartender in an upscale restaurant might be utilizing Blue Flame for mixology creation.
“So either way, you have fun,” Cochran said.
Mixologists have created hundreds of new drinks with Ole Smoky. Even the blends have proved popular.
“They like a spirit with a story and a backbone, as opposed to, ‘I just need to cover this up because somebody told me I needed to use this,’” Bruno said.
The company has found a particularly welcome home in El Segundo, where it partners with the likes of the El Segundo Brewing Company and South Bay Customs motorcycle shop for events, and where many other “new creative” firms have likewise recently arrived to help form a vibrant and emerging scene. The company hopes at some point to find a partner to help open up a tasting room next door to its headquarters, which are on the 200 block of Main Street, just down the street from the El Segundo Museum of Modern Art and across the street from the brewery.
“Things are really happening here,” Cochran said. “El Segundo is the best kept secret in LA. We couldn’t love our neighbors, or our city, any more. It’s wonderful.”
Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine has an open house during the El Segundo Art Walk tonight and August 20.
