# Is the "Moonshine" on the shelf at my liquor store authentic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708 "2015-01-23T19:51:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708/21 "2015-01-26T15:11:28Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > … > > Plus, given that the general understanding of the term moonshine, going way back to contrabrand brandy in England, is that it’s an illegal spirit, distilled and transported under cover of dark. So “legal moonshine” unpacks to “legal illegal liquor”. At least how I see it. Yes, moonshine is, by definition, illegal. But I think the point of “legal moonshine” is to produce a product that _tastes_ like the illegal stuff. This could, of course, appeal to people who used to drink the illegal stuff, developed a taste for it, or want to relive fond memories of drinking it. It’s not much different than the women who wear imitation schoolgirl uniforms as part of a fetish. Nobody is committing statutory rape because everyone is over 18, but there is a roleplay mystique that someone is not. ---
**Author:** ![Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/das_glasperlenspiel/32/2944_2.png) [@Das\_Glasperlenspiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Das_Glasperlenspiel)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708/22 "2015-01-26T15:39:15Z")
I have had póitín and I have had moonshine. After the póitín, my legs didn’t work. 😃 I spilled the moonshine and it stripped the wax off the floor. :eek: I know which I would rather drink. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708/23 "2015-01-26T16:00:59Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > As an aside, I don’t quite understand why there’s a market for fake “moonshine”. That market niche has been ably filled by Everclear for as long as I can remember. Indeed, the WSJ included high-end moonshine on its year-end list of things not to waste one’s money on. My brother-in-law bought a bottle for the lulz, and I tried it. Meh. > [@Gordon\_Urquhart](#): > > It really is just amazing what marketing can do. In the last five or six years, the whiskey shelves of the liquor stores I frequent have expanded to include fruit-flavored whiskies, cinnamon-flavored whiskies, and now whiskies that haven’t even been aged in barrels. They’re products that offer the consumer none of the subtle flavor and aromas of bourbon, and allow their producers to mask awful grain alcohol with false flavors and, in the case of “moonshine,” save the cost of aging the product in oak barrels for years without reflecting that lower price in the MSRP. > > Bah. The point is to expand the ways to get one’s date drunk faster. Subtlety is not on the agenda, and of course money is no object. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708/24 "2015-01-26T16:26:08Z")
The other day I saw “Junior Johnson” brand moonshine at the liquor store. [rolleyes] ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708/25 "2015-01-26T16:34:58Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > The other day I saw “Junior Johnson” brand moonshine at the liquor store. [rolleyes] Junior actually owns part of the company and supposedly visits the stills himself every so often. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708/26 "2015-01-26T17:01:44Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I had some moonshine in college that was distilled in a dorm-room closet. I’m not sure if it was sugar or corn based. That was a pretty poor decision. Probably sugar. Making sugar wine is trivial and the ingredients are readily available. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708/27 "2015-01-26T21:25:06Z")
Could’ve been worse – at least it wasn’t pruno. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-moonshine-on-the-shelf-at-my-liquor-store-authentic/710708.md?page=1)