21 Popular Ole Smoky Moonshine Flavors Ranked

Ole Smoky is a brand that's made its name through the great American tradition of taking something with a shady past and turning it into a modern-day money-maker. Its moonshine is not the kind that comes from illegal stills hidden back in the hills, nor does it much resemble the stuff, which is preferable as no one wants their booze to come with a side of blindness and possible death. (As Drizly points out, it's difficult for amateur distillers to tell the drinkable stuff from the deadly). 

Ole Smoky's Moonshine is basically white whiskey, meaning it's unaged and clear in color. Where it truly differs from backwoods 'shine, however, is in the price tag. You pay just as much, if not more, for Ole Smoky than you would for many a barrel-aged whiskey, and it's way more expensive than a handle of generic hooch.

So what does Ole Smoky offer, if not the cheap drink that was once moonshine's raison d'être? For one thing, the stuff comes in cute mason jars, even if the containers now give off a vibe that's more boho wedding than backwoods. Ole Smoky's real attraction, however, is the fact that the company has branched out into a wide variety of moonshine flavors. Some of these are clear, some are cream-based, and some even come with an added bonus in the jar. The flavors also range in quality all the way from yuck to yum, so read on to discover our top picks.

The illegal kind of moonshine was notoriously pretty high-octane stuff, since if you're running much of a risk to make or obtain said hooch, you probably want the most bang for your buck. That plus the fact that it's kind of hard to check for alcohol content if you don't have the proper equipment. Commercial moonshine, Ole Smoky's included, has to abide by federal regulations that limit its alcohol content. At 64% ABV, Blue Flame is the most overproof option. It's basically the company's answer to straight grain alcohol, although admittedly not quite as boozy as Everclear.

We're going to assume that people buy Ole Smoky Blue Flame for the novelty value (oooh, it's not only moonshine but super-boozy moonshine!) since the taste has nothing whatsoever to recommend it. Eau de cleaning chemicals, we'd call it, and the diluted Ty-d-bol blue hue does nothing to dispel those associations. Drink it straight only on a dare -– or better yet, exercise valor by walking away from anyone who'd issue such a stupid dare. As a mixer, use it in place of cheap, nasty vodka in drinks where the flavor will be well disguised.

Ole Smoky White Lightnin' got on our bad side from the get-go with the gratuitous dropped "g." Okay, we get it, Ole Smoky is going for a folksy vibe here, but seeing colloquialisms in print just comes off as condescending. (Admittedly that's pretty much Ole Smoky's whole shtick, what with the "ole" in its name, plus turning moonshining's sordid history into today's tourist attraction, per Business Wire.) As far as the booze itself goes, it seems to be a stepped-down version of Blue Flame, coming in at just 50% ABV for something that's a little stronger than your average clear liquor but not out of line for a whiskey.

White Lightnin's taste is not quite as chemical as the Blue Flame's, nor does its clear hue lead one to either expect a fruit flavor and be disappointed at the lack thereof (or to fear there may be a hint of cleaning fluid in the mix). It's advertised as being made from corn spirits, although it's unclear as to how (or if) this differentiates it from any of Ole Smoky's other moonshine varieties. In a mixed drink, the White Lightnin' blends okay, but there's nothing to make it stand out, either. On its own though, the flavor skews towards the unpleasant and it's not something we'd care to drink straight up.

Original is, we presume, the first product offered by Ole Smoky, and we can see how it might have been a must-try product back when the whole idea of legal moonshine was new. It has been over 10 years since laws passed by the state of Tennessee turned craft moonshine into a big business though, and the novelty has long since worn off.

Ole Smoky Original (just like White Lightnin') comes in at 50% ABV, and honestly, it's hard to tell the difference between the two. Both taste like slightly sweet, extra-strong cheap vodka, and as such, make for okay mixers but aren't something you'd really want to drink on their own. While you might buy this moonshine once to try it and maybe another time or two as a gift, eventually you're going to realize that you can get the whole cheap vodka experience for a lot less money by simply buying cheap vodka instead.

We kind of struggled with where to place Hunch Punch in our ranking — should it sit below the plain no-flavor varieties on account of its rather obnoxious taste, or should it rank above them because at least it offers a little something besides a mason jar for its premium price? (Hobby Lobby, at the time of writing, is selling quart-sized canning jars for a buck fifty.) Eventually, we concluded that it had some sort of added value to it. The flavor of the Hunch Punch Lightnin' may not be one that appeals to us, but at least it's undeniably there.

Per Ole Smoky, the 40% ABV Hunch Punch Lightnin' is meant to combine the flavor of cherry, pineapple, and orange, but the result is more like a boozy fruit drink with maybe a drop or two of cough medicine. If you have fond memories of spiking the punch bowl at your eighth-grade prom, this fruity moonshine may remind you of those long ago glory days. On the other hand, if your grown self finds the flavor a bit too sweet, we suggest mixing it with some pineapple juice to help balance out the excess sugar.

Ole Smoky is apparently trying to be all things –- or at least all boozes — to all people. This sour watermelon flavor, which is a liqueur-strength offering (20% ABV), is apparently its answer to something like DeKuyper's Watermelon Pucker, only at a price that tends to be a fair bit higher than most bottom-shelf mixers.

If you have the stomach to drink sweet liqueurs straight up, you'll find that Ole Smoky's Sour Watermelon tastes very much like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, albeit a slightly boozy one. It's more likely that you'll want to use it in a cocktail, though. You could try it in place of Triple Sec for a watermelony (and slightly sour) spin on a Cosmo, or blend it with lime juice and vodka and top it with a splash of seltzer for a watermelon smash. It could also be used in place of rum to make a low-alcohol watermelon daiquiri with lime, fresh watermelon, and ice. 

All in all, Ole Smoky's Sour Watermelon could make for quite the fun summer mixer, but we can't move it much higher up the list for two reasons: We're not huge watermelon fans, and as we mentioned, you can get a very similar effect from a cheaper product.

Ole Smoky Moonshine Pickles are a bit of a conundrum. Are they meant as food or as a beverage? Or perhaps as a way to capitalize on the everything pickle trend? If it's the latter, this clever bit of marketing may in fact be working out okay for Ole Smoky. The product has been around for a number of years now, which would indicate that it has some sort of fan base. As far as we're concerned though, these pickles are kind of a pricey gimmick.

If you want strongly pickle-flavored booze, there are numerous pickle vodkas and even a handful of pickle whiskeys out there. If you want a trendy pickleback, just take a shot of plain pickle juice to accompany your booze. Pickle juice also makes a much cheaper and far more picklish flavoring agent to mix into your Bloody Mary or splash in your beer. Our verdict: Both the pickles and the booze in Ole Smoky Moonshine Pickles are so-so in flavor, and at 20% ABV, the latter isn't even all that strong. On the whole, we see these pickles as a novelty product that no one really needs.

If you love peaches (not everyone loves peaches ... sorry, but there's always a certain amount of subjectivity in any ranking), then you may feel that this product belongs several notches up the list. The peaches are plenty peachy, although we did detect a slight hint of chemicals. Then again, peaches soaked in booze of any sort aren't going to taste like they're fresh off the tree. If you want some boozy peaches plus some fairly peachy booze (32.5% ABV), then Ole Smoky's Moonshine Peaches may well be the product for you.

If you're a true peaches-in-booze afficionado, though, you'd probably be better off making your own. We feel that peaches pair better with a more flavorful liquor such as brandy, rum, or bourbon — something that is strong yet has a bit of sweetness. Another benefit of making DIY boozy peaches is that unless you go with super-premium spirits, your homemade version is bound to be a whole lot cheaper. The main problem with Ole Smoky Moonshine Peaches is that once the fruit (barely a few bucks' worth, if that) is out of the jar, all you have left is maybe half a bottle's worth of booze.

We're kind of on the fence about Ole Smoky Strawberry Moonshine. It's not exactly a liqueur, although at 32.5% ABV it's not quite as strong as most stand-alone spirits. Still, this is the sort of product you could pretty much use in place of a berry-flavored vodka in any mixed drinks recipes calling for the same. One word of caution, though -– this stuff is on the sweet side. While Ole Smoky suggests mixing it with lemonade, we'd recommend cutting back on the sugar in that drink unless you like your lemonade to be super-sweet and not at all sour.

If you're thinking of drinking it on its own, though, this moonshine faces the issue that strawberry is one of the more difficult flavors to capture, even when there's actual fruit in the mix. Somehow, strawberry-flavored anything always comes across as ever-so-slightly artificial, possibly because while the sweetness of the fruit is retained, the tanginess always seems to get lost. While we don't dislike Ole Smoky's stab at strawberry booze, it's not something we'd go out of our way to acquire either.

Apple pie moonshine, according to VinePair, may be one of the oldest types of flavored moonshines — and yes, flavored 'shine does date back to the days when the stuff was made illegally. Adding fruit to the hooch tended to disguise the flavor somewhat, which was necessary due to the fact that most bootleg booze was really pretty awful-tasting stuff. Ole Smoky's Apple Pie, however, has no nasty aftertaste, nor could it be said to really kick like a mule either. At 35% ABV, it's just a bit less boozy than your typical spirits, although stronger than most apple liqueurs. You could think of it as moonshine's answer to Calvados, except in addition to its apple flavoring it also has cinnamon and other spices that play up on the whole resemblance to pie.

If you like boozy apple cider, then Ole Smoky Apple Pie is your drink. In fact, you can mix it with hot apple cider to make an extra apple-y cold weather drink. For summer sipping, it's pretty good on its own with a couple of ice cubes to cool it down, or you could drink it at room temperature out of a metal mug for a nostalgic, old-timey feeling.

Pumpkin pie moonshine is Ole Smoky's autumnal answer to apple pie -– not that the apple variety goes away in the fall, as it's part of the regular lineup. Pumpkin pie, however, is one of the company's seasonal offerings, so look for it once the leaves (or at least the store displays) start to change color.

Unlike the apple pie flavor, Ole Smoky Pumpkin Pie is more of a liqueur-strength booze at 20% ABV. Just like everyone's favorite pumpkin pie-spiced fall goodies, this moonshine has notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla in addition to the pumpkin itself. It is on the sweet side, as liqueurs tend to be, and can serve as an after-dinner drink on its own or maybe with a splash of cream. You could also try adding it to a cup of coffee and topping the drink with whipped cream for a slightly boozy PSL, or mixing it with bourbon to give it more of a kick.

Ole Smoky's Sour Apple is not dissimilar to the sour watermelon flavor in that it too, is liqueur-strength (20% ABV) and also bears a certain resemblance to other sour apple liqueurs. Why then does it rate so much higher with us? Well, in this case, we admit it's primarily due to the fact that we much prefer sour apple Jolly Ranchers to watermelon ones, so it's kind of a personal preference. There's really no way to reduce reviews to an exact science, and they wouldn't be nearly so much fun if you could,

Ole Smoky Sour Apple does, however, have a significant advantage over the sour watermelon variety in that it's more versatile. It's perfect in an appletini, which is a far more popular drink than a watermelontini for good reason, but it can also be used to add a sour punch to hot or cold apple cider. For a fun, fruity, and not-too-boozy summer refresher, this sour apple moonshine can be mixed with a citrus or other fruit-flavored seltzer or soda. While there are cheaper sour apple liqueurs out there, Ole Smoky's does taste just a bit fresher and more apple-forward, so we give it thumbs — not to mention bottoms– up.

All those nice things we said about Ole Smoky Sour Apple? Ditto, and even more so, for the Sour Razzin' Berry. What can we say, we're just a sucker for all things blue raspberry. Which yes, is not a real fruit, nor is it a color typically found in nature, and yet we can't get enough of the stuff. 

While the Sour Razzin' Berry is not quite as sour as the Sour Apple, it still has enough tang to it to offset the sweetness that you'd expect from a liqueur (it too is 20% ABV), so it's something we wouldn't mind drinking straight up. As a mixer though, Ole Smoky Sour Razzin' Berry really comes into its own. It's great in lemonade or mixed with a berry-flavored seltzer, delightful in fruit daiquiris, but perhaps our favorite thing to do is to mix it with sparkling wine for a sour blue spin on a kir royale.

Blackberry is such an underrated flavor, particularly when it comes to boozy concoctions. Even in the blackberry bramble, which is one cocktail in which you'd think the stuff would be de rigueur, it seems that other fruit-flavored liqueurs are often substituted. Well, Ole Smoky is giving the blackberry its due with its Blackberry Moonshine and we're loving every bit of it.

At 20% ABV, Ole Smoky Blackberry is basically a liqueur much like crème de mûre, and both are perfect for all of your bramble-making needs. The manufacturer suggests mixing it with lemonade, but we also love using it to sweeten up bourbon drinks. In the summertime, this blackberry moonshine makes a great refresher when mixed with blackberry or raspberry seltzer and it can also add some extra fruitiness to sangria. In the fall, however, we love mixing it into mulled cider and could imagine it working well with mulled wine too.

Banana pudding is a classic Southern dessert that includes vanilla pudding, sliced bananas, vanilla wafers, and a whole lot of whipped cream. Moonshine too is another Southern tradition of sorts, so naturally Ole Smoky thought to marry the two. The result is a cream liqueur that at 17.5% ABV, is one of the least alcoholic offerings of all Ole Smoky's moonshine since the dairy component cuts down on the booze.

What Ole Smoky Banana Pudding Cream may lack in alcohol, it more than makes up for in flavor. You can use it in mixed drinks if you wish — both chocolate and tropical fruit flavors make a natural banana pairing, and Ole Smoky even suggests mixing it with peanut butter whiskey for an Elvis-themed cocktail called the Hound Dog (bacon garnish optional, but strongly suggested). Still, mixing this banana cream liqueur seems a bit like gilding the lily, since it's pretty much dessert in a glass all by itself.

Moonshine for breakfast? While it may sound like a terrible idea on the surface, if there's one type of 'shine that could well make for a fun way to kick off your day -– or an even better way to wind one up, perhaps -– it would be Ole Smoky Mountain Java. Like the rest of Ole Smoky's cream-based liqueurs, Mountain Java is just 17.5% ABV. As such, it makes a great coffee add-in because you get a whole lot of flavor but only a small amount of alcohol with every spoonful you stir into your morning (or after-dinner) brew.

Mountain Java is delicious on its own as well, either chilled or at room temperature. You can also use it to make all manner of kicked-up coffee drinks or perhaps employ it in an affogato. Try stirring it into hot chocolate to make a mocha or add it to chocolate milk to make a ... we're not sure what you'd call this, but it tastes amazing.

Perhaps the most popular of all the Ole Smoky offerings at present are the Moonshine Cherries, thanks to the fact that this boozy fruit (or fruity booze) is currently trending on TikTok. As most TikToker's reactions (or overreactions) indicate, yes these cherries are fairly strong. The moonshine they soak in comes in at 50% ABV, so the cherries are somewhat stronger than the Moonshine Peaches and a lot more alcoholic than the Moonshine Pickles.

Ole Smoky Moonshine Cherries make a great replacement for maraschinos as a garnish in fruity mixed drinks, plus the cherry-flavored booze itself makes an excellent mixer. For cherry-flavored liquor, it is kind of pricey though, since once the fruit is out of the jar you've only got half a bottle of moonshine. The main issue we have with these cherries is that we'd never want to have them on hand in a house with young children –- and definitely not one with TikTok-addicted tweens. Cherries in strong liquor are what you'd call an attractive nuisance, which is a polite legal understatement for serious trouble waiting to happen. In an adults-only household though, they make for a fun addition to any bar setup, as well as something that can add a heck of a kick to an ice cream sundae.

While Ole Smoky's Moonshine Pineapples have yet to achieve the viral fame of their cherry counterparts and are considerably less boozy at just 20% ABV, we're even fonder of this moonshine-infused fruit. The reason? Well, part of it lies in a slight preference for pineapple itself, as it just has that irresistible tartness to it that few fruits can match. The sizable chunks of pineapple in the jar are also more satisfying to eat than the cherries. The best part of all though is that rather than floating in plain old moonshine, the pineapple is paired with Ole Smoky Pina Colada. While this flavor is not available as a standalone at present, it would rate pretty highly with us if it were.

The best thing to do with the pineapple may just be to eat it right out of the jar, although we also love it on top of ice cream along with a splash of the piña colada-flavored liqueur. We actually would not use it in a traditional piña colada though as the delicate flavor would be buried by the pineapple juice and coconut cream. Piña coladas work just fine with cheap rum, whereas this stuff deserves to be savored on its own or with just the most barely-there of mixers such as pineapple seltzer as suggested in Ole Smoky's Pina Colada Spritzer.

It will become apparent as we approach the top of the list, that we think Ole Smoky has really found its niche not with the plain unembellished white whiskey of its straight-up moonshine but with its cream liqueurs. At a lower strength, the moonshine loses the unpleasant lighter fluid overtones found in the overproof version, while its slightly sweet flavor plays perfectly with dessert-like drinks.

Ole Smoky White Chocolate Strawberry Cream is perfect for drinking on its own at 17.5% ABV, and we also love it in coffee. It is very sweet, true, but such is the nature of cream liqueurs and white chocolate. The strawberry flavor here is a lot less pronounced than in the plain strawberry 'shine of course, but that also tamps down on any artificiality. This drink really doesn't make any pretense of tasting like fresh strawberries, but instead is more akin to a strawberry-vanilla milkshake with just a teensy touch of booze. Needless to say, this pretty pink drink makes for the perfect Valentine's Day present, but it should be popular for gifting purposes at any other time of the year as well.

Shine Nog, as its name implies, is Ole Smoky's take on eggnog and as such, is only available on a seasonal basis. To add to its festive nature, it even comes with a red ribbon and holiday-themed trim. While Shine Nog is also a cream liqueur, with an ABV of 17.5% it seems to be somewhat lighter in texture than eggnog should be.

Ole Smoky Shine Nog tastes pretty amazing on its own either chilled or at room temperature –- unlike eggnog from the dairy case, there's no need to refrigerate the jar unless you want to. It's also really good in coffee, like an eggnog latte with a little kick to it. You can also mix it with another liqueur such as Kahlúa or else combine it with some rum, brandy, or bourbon for boozier eggnog. The one thing we do suggest is that when you see Shine Nog on store shelves, you should buy more than one jar. While this drink seems to come around again every year, it's still a long wait from one holiday season to the next. With something this delicious, you may want to extend the merrymaking as long as you can.

One consolation for being half a year away from Shine Nog season is the fact that summer brings the even more delightful Ole Smoky Some Beach. Unusually for Ole Smoky, the name of this seasonal offering doesn't give much of a clue as to the flavor, unless you draw the line from beach to tropical fruits to coconut. (If Atlantic beaches are what come to mind, you might be thinking of cod-flavored liquor instead, but Ole Smoky has yet to go that deep into pure weirdness.) 

And yes, coconut cream liqueur (17.5% ABV) is exactly what you get here, and it's every bit as incredible as it sounds. Our favorite way to drink Ole Smoky Some Beach is all on its own, although it also works perfectly in either hot or iced coffee as well. It can also make for fun cocktails -– try it with crème de cacao and amaretto for an Almond Joy-flavored dessert drink.

It was a tough decision to come up with the number one contender out of Ole Smoky's cream liqueurs — since as we've already admitted, we feel that these drinks are the best product Ole Smoky has to offer. One factor boosted Butter Pecan over such strong candidates as Shine Nog and Some Beach. Unlike those seasonal offerings, this delightful drink is available throughout the year.

Just like the rest of the cream liqueurs, Ole Smoky Butter Pecan is 17.5% ABV, so it's not something that's going to get you all liquored up. Yes, it's kind of ironic that a company purporting to be modern-day moonshiners should be at their best when concentrating on low-alcohol offerings, but you know what they say, irony can be delicious and never more so than when it tastes just like butter pecan ice cream with a slight hint of booze. This drink is something we like to savor on its own one small glass at a time to make it last as long as possible — although we'll occasionally stir a few spoonfuls into a cup of coffee, as well.