troy and sons asheville distillery found at 12 old charlotte highway (or next to the highland brewing company, like literally, they are in the same building) in asheville, nc. distillery you say? as in moonshine? in the mountains of north carolina? yep. and i didn't even have to visit anyone's dirty basement bath tub to get it. i swear. they offer a tour. it's free. and samples. also free. i had 4 shots of whiskey at the end of the tour. i am not a fan of whiskey, but i am not one to turn down free anything, most especially free booze. the tour is fairly short, maybe 15 minutes...
unless, of course, you get stuck on a tour with people from kentucky who apparently know everything there is to know about distilling moonshine, but still proceed to ask a thousand questions and turn a 'fun' tour into a 'dear god, make it stop' tour and snaky comments about my appearance aren't welcomed lady. i'm a zombie, i'm not supposed to be pretty, zombie girl doesn't seem to have a problem with my looks so why do you? anyway, sans the talky talky know-it-alls, it was a pretty interesting tour. you will take away some interesting tidbits about moonshine distilling and they do have a corn whiskey (or white lightening, if you prefer) to purchase along with some others. you can't purchase them on location because of local liquor laws. you can drink it, but you can't buy it? okay. so i had to stop in a local abc store to find my souveniers.
i do have to admit, my favorite part of the tour was the sample room. it was a bar. we all lined up and they placed shot glasses in front of us and we sampled away. the tender gave us a little info on each type of whiskey he plunked down in front of us, but darned if i can remember any of it. they were more than happy to answer and questions you had, i didn't have any but you know what i mean. there is a small souvenier shop, but like i said, don't expect to buy any actual moonshine or whiskey here, but you can buy a cool tee shirt. just be sure you have a designated driver. after visting the distillery and the brewery next door, driving home may not be an option! on to my next adventure...
