Merry Moonshine from Digger and His Fellow Distillers on Discovery's "Moonshiners"

The moonslide is the moonshine way of making a mudslide a confection of a cocktail traditionally made with Irish cream liqueur coffee liqueur vodka and heavy cream But with moonshiners the booze naturally must change to shineMoonshiners now in its tenth season and its spinoff Master Distiller a competition show which kicks off its second season next Tuesday have a seasonal crossover special tonight December 22 Digger an east Tennessee native and others from Moonshiners including his partner Mark Ramsey and Tim Smith are judges on the Christmas special Shiner Steven Tickle is the hostquotMake us something that makes us want to ride a reindeerquot Digger tells contestants Josh Owens Mike Cockrell and Daniel Maner in the special The three contestants will be familiar from Moonshiners as they try their hands at mixing potent potables that include candy cane and caramels mixed with alcoholManer crafts a Mistletoe Martini a bright red drink made with vodka elderflower liqueur and mintquotYou look at that rascal right there and think 39There39s your holiday drink39quot Digger says as he holds a martini glass with the gemtoned liquid to the light to appraise itWhile some drinks may look like hangovers just still in their liquid form it39s not as if traditional seasonal favorites such as coquito or eggnog are any less sweet or powerful Moonshine Christmas cocktails though take the merrymaking to a new level Digger39s been making these for a bit and has some ideasquotWe normally do them and have for several yearsquot he says quotOf course the old standby with the peppermint just seemed to be getting a little stale A few years ago we decided to experiment a little bit more We made cranberry orange apple brandy That39s another one folks love as well We call it Cosby Cognac our neck of woods is Cosby TennesseequotNot surprisingly for a moonshiner Digger is a man who likes his booze unadornedquotThey are all a little sweet for mequot he admits of these holiday drinks quotPersonally I love straight aged liquor I am not a huge fan of a lot of these syrup liquors people are coming up with They might get you where you need to be but damned sure they will make pretty puke I drink my homemade bourbon I age it And of course as you get older it seems it doesn39t take as much to suit you as it once did It39s a couple of drinks instead of a couple of gripsquotDigger bespectacled and softspoken and quick with the jokes is doing what he had always wanted to do which is make moonshine Growing up his father owned a funeral home and quotdid a little liquor here and there because it actually got more favors than a pocket full of moneyquot he saysWhen he was about 14 Digger saw his first still and it was love at first sight and smell His dad was picking up some shine to take to Nashville A bill pending before the legislature concerned the elder Manes so dad needed to ensure the wheels of lawmaking were well lubricatedquotIt had a wonderful smell to it and I was soldquot Digger recalls But the moonshiner was not about to take advantage of a kid even if all teen Digger wanted to do was learn the ropes quotThe oldtimers around here were good moral men and he wouldn39t let me help until I was 18 and my father said it was okayquot he says quotAnd here I am all these years laterquotHe would like to see all distilleries especially those handmade oldfashioned setups nestled in the Appalachian woods made legal Tax them Digger suggests He is genuinely puzzled as to why marijuana is getting legalized before shinequotLiquor sales went through the roof in this here pandemicquot he notes quotIt is unreal how much liquor is sold It doesn39t matter where it went as long as it39s put to good usequot He says he doesn39t know if buyers are quotusing it for hand sanitizerquot or consuming itFor Christmas all Digger wants is quotthis damn COVID to go away and to get back to normalquot Otherwise quotI got way more than I will ever need and way more than I wantedquot he saysAbout Moonshiners he advises quotKeep watching the show You never know what kind of stupidity will show upquotMoonshiners is telecast Tuesdays at 8 pm on Discovery Master Distiller will be telecast Tuesdays at 9 pm beginning December 29Click the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Merry Moonshine from Digger and His Fellow Distillers on Discovery's "Moonshiners"

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Jacqueline Cutler

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Merry Moonshine from Digger and His Fellow Distillers on Discovery's "Moonshiners"

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Jacqueline Cutler

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

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