I've met people who swore by moonshine, but I'm just not sure. My own experience of moonshine was not that great. It came in a rinsed-out milk gallon, had no flavor and gave me an instant headache. I couldn't exactly refuse it, because it was offered to me by a crazy Scotsman who was known for his sharp-shooting skills and his distorted perception of reality. Actually, let's not mince words- his nickname was “Madman,” and his claim to fame was that he liked to climb mountains with a shotgun in one hand and a bottle of moonshine in the other, blasting anything that moved.

So in that situation, when he offered me some moonshine, I didn't really feel I could turn him down. The context might not have helped too much, but it does seem appropriate. What it comes down to, in the end, is that it just didn't taste good. When you think about it, why would it?

The difference between moonshine and whisky is in the age of the product. When you make your own moonshine, you usually serve it right up, but whisky is aged in oak barrels over a period of years. The aging process gives the whisky its character and smoothness, and all those layers of flavor and nuance.

Early whisky was pretty much all moonshine, because people didn't know about the effects of aging. At some point, someone must have misplaced a barrel for a number of years, and whoever stumbled across it discovered the secret of making good whisky. I'm sure they never looked back- and neither will I!