Liquor-articles 1866

Dawn Gadsby, 52, was drinking a litre-and-a-half of vodka a day by the time she was in her mid-thirties after turning to alcohol to ‘numb the chaos inside’.

A therapist has revealed how her personal battle with alcohol addiction helped her lose five stone. Dawn Gadsby, 52, was consuming a staggering litre and a half of vodka daily at her lowest point.

She began drinking heavily in her teens following an assault at the age of 12, finding that alcohol could ‘numb the chaos inside’. “By my mid 20’s I’d started to experience withdrawal symptoms from alcohol if I suddenly stopped, but brushed it under the carpet. I was in denial so deep looking back it is almost scarily unbelievable.”

Despite working as a pharmacologist, Dawn was a functioning alcoholic, suffering regular fits and seizures whenever her alcohol levels dropped. “I was drinking a 70cl bottle of spirits and cider or wine on top. I couldn’t work anymore when I was about 37 and sank to the depths of the bottle.”

“My usage crept up to a litre and a half of vodka daily, though I always had two litres available at any time, plus assorted ciders or wine as a longer drink. I was drinking vodka neat straight from the bottle in one hand then having a sip of coke on top from the bottle in my right because it was a pain to pour into a glass and mix,” reports the Liverpool Echo

.

“Alcohol consumed me and I didn’t drink anything that didn’t have at least some alcohol in it,” she admits. As her health deteriorated, Dawn was sectioned for her own safety and found herself trapped in unhealthy, abusive relationships.

Dawn has recalled periods when she was plagued with sickness and mobility issues, and said: “I hated myself and my life. I felt loathing, shame, embarrassment. I felt like I was a disgrace and a disappointment to my family. I couldn’t look in the mirror.”

Describing her verge of death, she shared: “I was dying, I could feel it. I was physically and mentally at the end. I’d had jaundice multiple times, had been admitted to hospital multiple times and I was a juddering mess”.

About a decade ago, Dawn, during one withdrawal episode, made an oath to quit drinking forever, despite many failed attempts before. And so, she enrolled herself into rehab – which turned out to be a success.

Within half a year after getting sober, she geared her career towards assisting fellow alcoholism sufferers, retraining as a counsellor and addiction expert.

However, Dawn confessed that as she recovered from alcohol abuse, she ended up replacing it with food. She explained: “I was eating everything. I didn’t have set meal times; I would graze and eat quick and easy things. With my only goal being to stay off the drink, I had massive sugar cravings, which is quite common because alcohol is made from sugar.”

Feeding into her newfound cravings, she said: “I inhaled bags of Haribo, popcorn, chocolate, toffee, sweets, glasses of milkshake and bowls of ice cream. I didn’t know this at the time, but it was because I had given up. I just thought I was getting my appetite back after not eating for so many years. The alcohol addiction had left me malnourished, and I did a lot of comfort eating.”

Three years ago, Dawn was tipping the scales at 15 stone and feeling utterly miserable. She decided that if she could conquer her alcohol addiction, she could do the same with food.

“I went back to basics. First of all, I stopped hiding behind my own lies; I was fat, no two ways about it. No amount of flowing clothes could hide the fact that I was overweight and unhealthy,” she admits. Dawn began researching the healing power of food and cut out the junk.

She started paying attention to portion sizes, focusing on foods that provided real energy, and took up daily walking. “When I was about to eat something, I tried to imagine how it would feel and what good it would do; for example, fruit and veg are easy because they feel clean and filling.”

“A pasty or a KFC or burger on the other hand, I would visualize as a greasy slurry entering my body and sticking to my thighs, arms and stomach. Then I asked myself if I really wanted it. And 90 percent of the time if I was honest ‘no’,” she explains.

In just five months, she shed five stone – but she didn’t weigh herself. “This is because I genuinely didn’t feel like I was ‘on a diet.’ I was on a mission to make the most of myself and give myself a chance after treating myself so poorly for 30 years. That’s the same principle I apply today.”

“My lowest weight was at Christmas 2023 when my mum passed away and I dropped to 9 stone 4 – and I looked gaunt. So I’ve settled at 10 stone now, and I’m content.”

“I don’t feel pressured to eat at any time or join in with social cakes. If I want it, I can have it, but I always ask myself – what are the benefits and is it worth it? Both giving up alcohol and changing my diet were based on the four points of acceptance, understanding, learning and change.”

“I now feel utterly fantastic. At 52 I feel better than I did in my 30’s, I also look better. I’m also proud to be the purple-haired quirky me who is a bit different. I’ve battled and beaten my two biggest enemies alcohol and food,” she said.

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The exterior of the new Whiskey House in Elizabethtown, Kentucky

For many, the allure of visiting a legacy whiskey distillery lies in its history. Distillers can be borderline superstitious, arguing that if they change anything about production — from changing the size of the still to altering the fermenters — it will impact flavor.

The founders of Whiskey House, a new, state-of-the-art facility from the founders of Bardstown Bourbon Company, would not argue that those old distilleries have a certain kind of magic. But their goal is to keep experimenting and advancing to stay at the forefront of spirits innovation.

“It will be the most advanced distillery in the country, hands down,” said Whiskey House’s cofounder and CEO David Mandell during a recent hardhat tour of the 176-acre campus in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, which is projected to cost $350 million over the next decade to fully build out and complete.

Whiskey House began producing whiskey on July 1, crafting the spirit for friends, family, and employees.

The founders and initial team at Whiskey House

By “most advanced distillery,” Mandell refers to multiple aspects. The team has attracted talent from several renowned producers, accumulating 347 years of collective experience.

The facility has no master distiller and is the first to focus exclusively on highly-customizable contract whiskey orders without establishing its own brand or handling investment barrels. Production for contract orders is scheduled to start next week.

“We are taking processes, technology and procedures from an advanced manufacturing standpoint,” Mandell said, citing Industry 4.0 — the kind of integrated tech and AI you see from companies like Amazon and Tesla. “The idea that there is one person saying this is how everything is made doesn’t work for us, because we have 30 to 40 different customers doing custom mash bills and highly customized production. So we have to have a huge system with tremendous flexibility.”

John Hargrove, Whiskey House co-founder, president and COO, was in food manufacturing before working at Sazerac and Bardstown. He has taken lessons from that field. Whiskey House’s production building is 110,000 square feet, and is laid out where raw goods come in one side, and the semi-finished product comes out the other, ready to head to on-site warehouses.

The Whiskey House lab

Every piece of equipment has monitors on it, explained Roger Henley, the vice president of engineering and technology, who had a background in the oil and gas sector as well as the automotive industry before moving to work in distilling at Barton’s and Bardstown Bourbon Company.

Customers will be able to log into a custom dashboard and see in real-time all the details about how their whiskey was made, from the source of grains in their custom mash bill to where in the warehouse their whiskey is aging and what current conditions are.

Other distilleries use a lot of this technology, but data collected often stays siloed within departments. Think of QR codes on some whiskey bottles now — it’s likely that data, such as where the grain was sourced or where the barrel was stored in the warehouse, was collected and then entered by hand before reaching the consumer. This system is seamless. Henley said what sets it apart is the ability to centralize that data and have AI models utilize it to create efficiencies and save resources.

One easy-to-understand example is how to optimize alcohol production during fermentation.

“When you think about fermentation, you have multiple different variables: corn grown in different seasons with different nutrient contents, yeast that performs in a certain parameter of temperature degrees, and the same thing for enzymes. You can collect all that data using AI,” Mandell explained. “We could actually figure out the exact conditions to increase alcohol yield and proof gallons, and that will be a game changer.”

The facility is also designed to capture and reuse latent energy throughout the production process, resulting in a 50% decrease of energy consumption as compared to the EPA’s Energy Star Certified Distilleries. It’s got a slew of certifications to assure domestic and global clients everything is up to international code — and is even Kosher certified.

A rickhouse on the Whiskey House campus

The experimentation will continue throughout the aging process. During my recent visit, JT Thomas, the senior warehouse manager, and Phil Mays, the assistant warehouse manager, showed how they were testing a new type of food-grade sealant to help fix barrel leaks, as well as how the windows in the warehouse were designed to open at specific angles to experiment with airflow and its impact on aging.

And speaking of those warehouses, they also have airflow ducts at the base and are built longer and thinner than typical warehouses, so no client ends up in a less-desirable position in the rickhouse.

If a client has a specific request on where they’d like to be placed in the rickhouse, Whiskey House will do their best to accommodate it. It speaks to a larger business model of a contract facility that is built to service clients that have a clear pathway to using the whiskey in a brand. Whiskey House won’t be creating their own brands (or nabbing those most desirable warehouse spots themselves) and it won’t be making or holding investor barrels, something Mandell has seen drive up price and tie up capacity for brands that need production.

“It creates a bubble in the market and it’s really not healthy for the industry,” he said last fall.

In the intervening months, there is now more capacity in the industry as some legacy whiskey brands have slowed down their own production and other contract whiskey makers have expanded, lowering prices that had made it difficult for craft whiskey brands to survive. Mandell said the change in the market has not changed their business outlook.

“They [other producers] watched what we did at Bardstown and they thought it was going to be easy. But they don’t have the knowledge in many cases or the experience to do this type of production. It’s easier said than done,” Mandell said. “So what we’re seeing is that while there’s excess capacity, the best business is coming to us. And it’s what we predicted.”

Monica Wolf, a founder of The Spirits Group, a consulting firm that advises clients on business, production and distillery design, has a holistic view of the industry because she also brokers barrels.

“The frothy nature of the barrel market the last few years, born from financial interest by groups outside of the whiskey industry, was never going to be sustainable,” Wolf said. “The inflated pricing has now corrected and we’re seeing aged barrel pricing at or below where it’s been historically.”

Wolf said the market is nuanced and complicated and “with all times of feast and famine there are winners and losers.”

“From a brand perspective and something that will never change: having the patient capital to invest in new fill barrels at their lowest cost basis, in order to control costs, will always be a winning proposition,” she said.

Wolf mentioned that they are set to commence distilling at Whiskey House for both Lucky Seven and EJ Curley this fall. Ashley Barnes, the group’s Master Blender, has carefully selected and submitted the custom mash bills, yeast strains, and specified the level of char, toast, and seasoning for the barrels.

“Having Whiskey House of Kentucky for quality distillate, made to spec, is an incredibly important part of our process. Choosing a quality barrel cooperage along with the toast, char, and seasoning level of the staves that properly compliment the kind of products we’re intending to make is another important part,” Wolf said.

For Lucky Seven and EJ Curley, the barrels will be taken to their own facility, The Blending House in Shelbyville, Kentucky, where Barnes will oversee the aging and blending process.

Whiskey House has secured sales for 90 percent of their production capacity for the next five years. They are also collaborating with clients including Milam & Greene, Chicken Cock, Western Spirits, and Whiskey JYPSI, in addition to handling overseas production for large legacy spirits companies and ready-to-drink beverages.

If all goes to plan, production will soon double. The company started operations with greater than seven million proof gallons of annual capacity and will expand to more than 14 million proof gallons in 2027.

The space will soon include areas for clients to design their products with the Whiskey House team as well as space for them to host events. Eventually the campus will house 33 rickhouses, a palletized warehouse, a spent grain processing facility, a bottling facility, a rail system, as well as access to one of the highest-yielding hydro stratigraphic limestone aquifers in the region, which sits 120 feet below the property.

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Crossfire Hurricane Rum is a bold, premium blend of exceptional Caribbean rums from Jamaica, Barbados, and the Dominican Republic – fusing three distinct rum-making traditions into one potent spirit. The name is inspired by the opening lyric “I was born in a crossfire hurricane” from the Stones’ 1968 hit single “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

For six decades, The Rolling Stones have epitomized rock and roll, enchanting audiences worldwide with their timeless music and electrifying performances. Now, they’re extending their legendary influence into the spirits industry. In collaboration with Crossfire Hurricane Rum, the iconic band is launching a limited-edition gift set. This exclusive collection not only showcases their signature style but also celebrates their highly anticipated Hackney Diamonds 2024 Tour, offering fans a unique fusion of music and premium rum.

Crossfire Hurricane Rum is not just any rum; it’s a harmonious blend of flavors from Jamaica, Barbados, and the Dominican Republic. This fusion of three distinct rum-making traditions creates a spirit as intricate and captivating as the Rolling Stones’ music. Each region contributes its unique qualities: Jamaica offers robustness and depth, Barbados provides smoothness and balance, while the Dominican Republic adds a vibrant aroma and sweetness. Aged up to 5 years in charred oak barrels, this 40% ABV rum reveals flavors of caramelized bananas complemented by a gentle hint of tropical fruit. The premium barrels enrich the complexity, fostering the development of subtle spice notes and a velvety texture. On the nose are baking spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, oak, and toasty tobacco.

The partnership with the Rolling Stones and Crossfire has deeper roots than you may think. The Stones’ affinity for rum traces back to the 1970s, when they recorded their album “Goats Head Soup” in Kingston, Jamaica. Immersed in the island’s vibrant culture, they were enchanted by the Caribbean’s tropical rhythms and the rich flavor of Jamaican rum. This local spirit became a studio session staple and infused their music with an unmistakable island vibe. The name Crossfire Hurricane pays tribute to the Stones as it appears in the opening lyrics to the “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

Now, in 2024, the timeless allure of the Rolling Stones is celebrated with the release of the Limited Edition Hackney Diamonds Gift Set (starting at $125). Available at concert venues and online at Reserve Bar, this exclusive set is purposefully designed for the Hackney Diamonds Tour, making it a must-have for ardent fans. Enclosed within a deluxe box, you’ll discover the exquisite Hackney Diamonds bottle—crafted from sophisticated black gloss glass, adorned with a striking gold cap, and emblazoned with the iconic Rolling Stones tongue logo, encapsulating rock ‘n’ roll rebellion and style. Additionally, the set features a flagship bottle of Crossfire Hurricane Rum, an homage to the band’s fiery spirit and enduring legacy.

“The Stones’ love affair with rum began in the ’70s while we were recording our album Goats Head Soup in Kingston, Jamaica,” said Mick Jagger. “With Crossfire Hurricane Rum, we’ve crafted a complex yet smooth spirit that captures the essence of laid-back Caribbean nights spent with mates, music, and mischief.”

If you can’t make it to the Hackney Diamonds Tour there’s still a way to “Drink Like a Rockstar” this summer. Take a look at this cocktail recipe:

Crossfire Hurricane Rum represents a groundbreaking first for The Rolling Stones – their very first product ownership venture. Launched in November 2023, it is the culmination of a pioneering partnership between the iconic rock band, Universal Music Group, and Socio Ventures. This spirit marks a bold new frontier for the legendary Stones.

2 ounces The Rolling Stones’ Crossfire Hurricane Rum

1/2 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed

Ginger beer, to top (about 5 ounces)

Garnish: lime wheel

Add rum and lime juice to a tall glass filled with ice.

Top with ginger beer.

Garnish with lime wheel.

Crossfire Hurricane Rum represents a groundbreaking first for The Rolling Stones – their very first product ownership venture. Launched in November 2023, it is the culmination of a pioneering partnership between the iconic rock band, Universal Music Group, and Socio Ventures. This spirit marks a bold new frontier for the legendary Stones.

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service.  We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

So, how can you be a power user?

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.

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Sweet Grass Vodka owner Jarrod Swanger toasts with actor Jeremy Renner, then his celebrity brand rep, in September 2023.

The owner of a rapidly unraveling Charleston vodka company sold his million-dollar house and lost a large chunk of the profits in a court order.

Jarrod Swanger bought a 2,300-square-foot house in Mount Pleasant in 2020 months after launching Sweet Grass Vodka, a business investors now say was built on a series of falsehoods. Swanger convinced those investors to give him millions of dollars and lured actor Jeremy Renner to be the face of his brand, even calling him a co-owner.

Renner cut ties with Swanger earlier this year, while people who sunk money into Sweet Grass are suing Swanger for failing to pay back nearly $750,000 in loans. He also stands accused of owing Renner nearly half a million dollars and employees as much as five weeks in back pay.

Swanger officially sold his Snee Farm home for $1.7 million on June 21, when the deal closed. A sales contract was signed in late April, court records show.

More than a quarter million dollars — the bulk of Swanger’s share of the profit from the sale — was handed over to the court as part of an agreement in a lawsuit brought by investor Stephen McCord.

Alicia and Jarrod Swanger pose for a portrait in the future location of Sweet Grass Vodka inside of The Refinery on Meeting Street Road on Dec. 9, 2021, in Charleston.

The agreement allowed Swanger’s wife, Alicia, to keep half of the $680,000 in net proceeds after a previous order by Judge Jennifer McCoy had called for all proceeds from the sale to be seized. An exemption in South Carolina law also allows Jarrod Swanger to keep $73,700 from the sale.

The caveat protecting Swanger’s wife was the main reason he agreed to the June 12 order, said Swanger’s lawyer, Ronald Jones Jr. He said Swanger’s wife has nothing to do with the business or debts of her husband and noted the judge has yet to make an order on who is to receive Swanger’s cut of the profits.

McCord and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Far from the jet-setting lifestyle brushing shoulders with celebrities he enjoyed in recent years, Swanger’s story has devolved into a tale of professional failure mixed with personal tragedy.

With his business shuttered and debts mounting, Swanger’s 16-month-old son fell into the family’s backyard swimming pool on June 11 and nearly drowned.

Swanger and his wife were both at home when the child was found unresponsive in the water, a police incident report states.

The Mount Pleasant house sold this month by Sweet Grass Vodka owner Jarrod Swanger. A judge ordered his share of the profits held by the court until a final decision is made on one of the lawsuits against him.

Story continues below

Police are still investigating and have kept further details under wraps, while refusing to release records related to the incident. A spokeswoman for Mount Pleasant police could not be reached for comment.

The infant was taken to East Cooper Medical Center and then to the pediatric critical care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Shawn Jenkins Hospital. The child was still there as of midweek. No update was available June 28.

Swanger has been selling off his furniture on the Snee Farm Villa HOA Facebook page, posting this month: “Anyone need an office set up for cheap? Or just the table or just the bookshelves?”

Nearly 20 people, among them investors and former employees, told The Post and Courier that Swanger took millions from investors while operating a business built on deception. The craft vodka, billed as made from locally sourced potatoes in a Charleston distillery from his wife’s family’s old Polish recipe, is a watered-down version of alcohol made elsewhere. The farm where Swanger claimed he bought the potatoes confirmed it never sold to him—and it hasn’t had a potato crop in two years.

Investors say they never got their money back, and Swanger never provided them annual tax forms the IRS requires for business partnerships.

On June 14, a judge ruled in favor of South Carolina Federal Credit Union in one of four outstanding lawsuits against Swanger that stated he owed $26,154.30 on a defaulted loan. Swanger also was ordered to pay the credit union’s legal fees. Court records show that loan was repaid as of June 25.

Other lawsuits claim he still owes $37,000 on his bottling equipment and $113,466 as part of an unpaid loan.

Alicia Swanger holds one of the company’s bottles inside the future location at The Refinery on Meeting Street Road on Dec. 9, 2021, in Charleston.

Sweet Grass Vodka and its Sweetgrass Lounge has been closed since April, when Swanger was booted out of the company’s space, located inside The Refinery at 1640 Meeting Street Road on Charleston’s upper peninsula, for failure to pay rent. Swanger still went on to host parties at the lounge until his mid-April eviction, even though his liquor license was revoked in March.

He also failed to pay state income taxes in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Sweet Grass Vodka hit shelves in 2020 and quickly landed in Total Wine locations, restaurants and six states across the Southeast, including South Carolina. Two years later, Swanger was telling people his company was worth $26 million and would reach $40 million in annual sales by 2023.

In reality, according to a former business partner with copies of the brand’s distribution figures, Sweet Grass in 2023 sold roughly 2,000 cases. Even at retail prices on the company website, that comes to well below $1 million.

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John Ramsey is a reporter on The Post and Courier’s Watchdog and Public Service team.

He has worked as an editor and reporter in Richmond, Va., Fayetteville, N.C. and Rocky Mount, N.C.

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Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us – it’s free.

Sweet Grass Vodka owner Jarrod Swanger toasts with actor Jeremy Renner, then his celebrity brand rep, in September 2023.

The owner of a rapidly unraveling Charleston vodka company sold his million-dollar house and lost a large chunk of the profits in a court order.

Jarrod Swanger bought a 2,300-square-foot house in Mount Pleasant in 2020 months after launching Sweet Grass Vodka, a business investors now say was built on a series of falsehoods. Swanger convinced those investors to give him millions of dollars and lured actor Jeremy Renner to be the face of his brand, even calling him a co-owner.

Renner cut ties with Swanger earlier this year, while people who sunk money into Sweet Grass are suing Swanger for failing to pay back nearly $750,000 in loans. He also stands accused of owing Renner nearly half a million dollars and employees as much as five weeks in back pay.

Swanger officially sold his Snee Farm home for $1.7 million on June 21, when the deal closed. A sales contract was signed in late April, court records show.

More than a quarter million dollars—the bulk of Swanger’s share of the profit from the sale—was handed over to the court as part of an agreement in a lawsuit brought by investor Stephen McCord.

Alicia and Jarrod Swanger pose for a portrait in the future location of Sweet Grass Vodka inside of The Refinery on Meeting Street Road on Dec. 9, 2021, in Charleston.

The agreement allowed Swanger’s wife, Alicia, to keep half of the $680,000 in net proceeds after a previous order by Judge Jennifer McCoy had called for all proceeds from the sale to be seized. An exemption in South Carolina law also allows Jarrod Swanger to keep $73,700 from the sale.

The caveat protecting Swanger’s wife was the main reason he agreed to the June 12 order, said Swanger’s lawyer, Ronald Jones Jr. He said Swanger’s wife has nothing to do with the business or debts of her husband and noted the judge has yet to make an order on who is to receive Swanger’s cut of the profits.

McCord and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Far from the jet-setting lifestyle brushing shoulders with celebrities he enjoyed in recent years, Swanger’s story has devolved into a tale of professional failure mixed with personal tragedy.

With his business shuttered and debts mounting, Swanger’s 16-month-old son fell into the family’s backyard swimming pool on June 11 and nearly drowned.

Swanger and his wife were both at home when the child was found unresponsive in the water, a police incident report states.

The Mount Pleasant house sold this month by Sweet Grass Vodka owner Jarrod Swanger. A judge ordered his share of the profits held by the court until a final decision is made on one of the lawsuits against him.

Story continues below

Police are still investigating and have been tight-lipped with any further details while refusing to release records related to the incident. A spokeswoman for Mount Pleasant police could not be reached for comment.

The infant was taken to East Cooper Medical Center and then the pediatric critical care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina’s Shawn Jenkins Hospital. The child was still there as of midweek. No update was available June 28.

Swanger has been selling off his furniture on the Snee Farm Villa HOA Facebook page, posting this month: “Anyone need an office set up for cheap? Or just the table or just the book shelves?”

Nearly 20 people, among them investors and former employees, told The Post and Courier that Swanger took millions from investors while operating a business built on deception. The craft vodka, billed as made from locally sourced potatoes in a Charleston distillery from his wife’s family old Polish recipe, is a watered-down version of alcohol made elsewhere. The farm where Swanger claimed he bought the potatoes confirmed it never sold to him — and it hasn’t had a potato crop in two years.

Investors say they never got their money back, and Swanger never provided them annual tax forms the IRS requires for business partnerships.

On June 14, a judge ruled in favor of South Carolina Federal Credit Union in one of four outstanding lawsuits against Swanger that stated he owed $26,154.30 on a defaulted loan. Swanger also was ordered to pay the credit union’s legal fees. Court records show that loan was repaid as of June 25.

Other lawsuits claim he still owes $37,000 on his bottling equipment and $113,466 as part of an unpaid loan.

Alicia Swanger holds one of the company’s bottles inside the future location at The Refinery on Meeting Street Road on Dec. 9, 2021, in Charleston.

Sweet Grass Vodka and its Sweetgrass Lounge has been closed since April, when Swanger was booted out of the company’s space, located inside The Refinery at 1640 Meeting Street Road on Charleston’s upper peninsula, for failure to pay rent. Swanger still went on to host parties at the lounge until his mid-April eviction, even though his liquor license was revoked in March.

He also failed to pay state income taxes in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Sweet Grass Vodka hit shelves in 2020 and quickly landed in Total Wine locations, restaurants and six states across the Southeast, including South Carolina. Two years later, Swanger was telling people his company was worth $26 million and would reach $40 million in annual sales by 2023.

In reality, according to a former business partner with copies of the brand’s distribution figures, Sweet Grass in 2023 sold roughly 2,000 cases. Even at retail prices on the company website, that comes to well below $1 million.

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John Ramsey is a reporter on The Post and Courier’s Watchdog and Public Service team.

He has worked as an editor and reporter in Richmond, Va., Fayetteville, N.C. and Rocky Mount, N.C.

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Rum is a wonderfully versatile cocktail ingredient that’s brilliant in anything from a warm-you-from-the-inside winter’s day cocktail like a hot buttered rum to a refreshing, light, summertime mojito. It’s an invaluable ingredient to cook with, too, and the next time you’re looking for an amazing brunch, look no further than a rum-soaked challah French toast. You’ll have to pick up a bottle of rum before you try any of those, and picking out the right type can be more confusing than you might think. There are a surprising number of options, but let’s talk about the two most common.

When it comes to white and dark rum, their differences start right from the beginning. White rum gets its distinctive clarity by having all impurities removed during the distillation process, and that’s done (in most cases) by using a column still. Dark rum, on the other hand, contains all of those impurities — which isn’t a bad thing despite the negative connotations of the word.

Impurities aren’t just important for the color; they also have a major impact on the taste. Because dark rum still contains essentially more traces of the ingredients used in the distillation process, it often has a stronger, richer, deeper flavor. Dark rum is generally described as having tasting notes that tend toward a smoky caramel, while white rum is sweeter and smoother. Does that mean they’re not interchangeable in various cocktails and recipes? Not entirely.

Read more: 26 Popular Vodka Brands, Ranked By Their Versatility

Both white and dark rum are made from the same ingredient: sugar cane. The juice extracted from the cane is fermented and turned into rum, but white and dark rum are made from entirely different processes, including the various stills and filtration levels we mentioned. But that’s just the start. After the rums are distilled, they take a different route into the bottle and onto your liquor shelf. While some white rums are bottled immediately, others might be aged for a relatively short time in stainless steel tanks.

Dark rum, on the other hand, is typically aged for at least three years (although more expensive rums can spend decades aging before they’re bottled and sold), and the barrel it spends time in is important. Barrels can be made from American white oak, European oak, or acacia, and they all impart distinctive flavors to the rum, giving it distinctive hints of vanilla, spices, honey, or caramel. When American white oak barrels are used, there’s a good chance they’ve already been used to age whiskey, which adds to the character that dark rum develops as it ages. Sometimes, caramel coloring and other flavors are added to dark rum, while white rum is valued for purity, clarity, and a light sweetness.

If a cocktail or a recipe specifically calls for white or dark rum and you don’t have exactly what’s recommended, you can swap one for the other. It’ll end up tasting different, but it’s generally not going to taste bad. There are, however, some guidelines to remember if you want to use the correct rum for a particular application, especially when it comes to drinks.

If you’re looking for something to drink straight or on the rocks, go for a dark rum, as it will be much more complex. Dark rum is also best used in cocktails with strong mixers. Those are drinks that can be as simple as a rum and coke, but you’ll also want a dark rum so it stands out in something like a rum punch or rum-based versions of classic cocktails like a Manhattan, a Negroni, or a Mai Tai.

White rum, on the other hand, is perfect for cocktails where you want to focus on flavors other than the rum itself. Any kind of mojito best uses a white rum as it doesn’t overpower the mint and fruit, and the same goes for a daiquiri. If you’re adding rum to lemonade or another juice, or making a light and fizzy spritz, go for the fresh, clear, light flavor of a white rum. That said, experimentation is also perfectly fine!

Read the original article on The Daily Meal.

Smelling like bourbon is usually frowned upon.

Especially when engaged in certain activities, like driving, sitting for a job interview, or attending a kid’s 9am birthday party.

But sometimes that familiar aroma is exactly what you need to tie an outfit together, or to spice things up for a date.

So here’s Oduoak, a bourbon-based fragrance line from a Kentucky whiskey expert.

Pronounced “oh-du-oak” (like eu de parfum), the new company comes from Jackie Zykan. She has degrees in biology and chemistry, and her career has taken her to nearly every corner of the American whiskey world. She once served as Master Taster for Old Forester, and today she’s the Master Blender of Hidden Barn Whiskey. With a finely tuned sensory skill set, she’s now turned her attention to fragrances.

Colognes and perfumes are traditionally based on neutral alcohols and infused with scents. But Zykan has put her own twist on the category by building these fragrances on a foundation of bourbon whiskey. Bourbon receives the bulk of its aromatic qualities from maturing in oak barrels, hence the complex notes of vanilla, spice, fruits, herbs and florals.

The Oduoak collection includes several fragrances available in 15 mL rollers and 30 mL atomizers in names like Feral Gent and Walk of Shame. Each comes with descriptions similar to those you might find on your whiskey bottle.

There’s Love & Whiskey, a comforting fragrance with notes of cedar, vanilla and alpine. The Mint Julep scent is described as clean, masculine, fresh and minty and channels the famous Kentucky cocktail. Walk of Shame is warm, woody, spicy and leathery, and Basecamp is smoky and dark, with notes of the woods and the sea.

If you can’t choose just one, the fragrances are also available in sets of four, so you can mix things up. In that case, Love & Whiskey could lead to Feral Gent and then Walk of Shame.

Yeah, just like in real life.

Brugal 1888 Jungle Negroni

A quality-made rum cocktail is transportive.

Whether or not it’s summer, you’re a snowbird escaping to a Caribbean island in the heart of winter, or you’re simply mixing up your own libation at home — rum cocktails exude the tropics in a glass. Contrary to popular belief, rum drinks are not all about sweet Piña coladas and potent mojitos; there’s a wide variety of rum drinks out there, from tiki classics to twists on celebrated cocktails, that showcase the spirits’ nuances.

From the painkiller, a Piña Colada’s mature cousin, to unique recipes like the Tipsy Toucan, have fun experimenting with these eight rum drinks that are sure to bring a smile to your face no matter the temperature outside.

The ingredients may read similar to a piña colada, but the Painkiller is a trademarked drink by Pusser’s Rum and has its own origin story that dates back to the British Virgin Islands in the 1970s. The standout differences: it’s not blended and is built from a base of Pusser’s dark rum rather than light rum.

Ingredients: 2 oz Pusser’s Rum, 4 oz pineapple juice, 1 oz orange juice, 1 oz cream of coconut, freshly grated nutmeg

Method: Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice; shake vigorously. Pour into a tall glass or goblet filled with ice. Grate fresh nutmeg on top; garnish with an orange slice and Maraschino cherry.

Celebrated as the national cocktail of Martinique and Guadeloupe, Ti’ is an abbreviation for “petite” in the French Caribbean islands’ native tongue. Only three ingredients are required to make this refreshing yet potent petite, or small, punch.

Ingredients: 2 oz rhum agricole, 1 oz lime juice, 0.25 oz simple syrup

Method: Squeeze the lime juice into a low glass; add the simple syrup and stir together. Add the rhum agricole and ice (optional) and garnish with a lime wheel.

Morse code for “V,” which stood for “victory” by its creator Donn Beach, this popular tiki cocktail was invented during WWII. The cocktail is well-balanced, hitting almost every note on the palate with sweet, bitter, and spice.

Ingredients: 1.5 oz Martinique rhum agricole, 0.5 oz blended aged rum, 0.5 oz fresh lime juice, 0.5 oz fresh orange juice, 0.25 oz velvet falernum, 0.25 oz allspice dram, 0.25 oz honey syrup, 1 dash Angostura bitters

Method: Combine all ingredients into a blender with crushed ice to the rim; flash-blend then pour into a pilsner glass. If you don’t have a blender, add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with crushed ice, shake gently then empty the tin into a pilsner glass, ice and all, for a similar effect. Garnish with three Maraschino cherries (3 dots) and a pineapple frond.

Though this tiki drink has become synonymous with Hawaii, it was reputedly created in Oakland, Calif. by Victor Bergeron at his Trader Vic’s bar. In the 1950s, the hotel group behind the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Hotel in Waikiki commissioned Bergeron to create their cocktail list and as tourism boomed from this period on, the Mai Tai he included on the list became the island state’s signature cocktail.

Ingredients: 1.5 oz white rum, 0.75 oz dark rum, 0.5 orange curaçao, 0.5 oz fresh lime juice, 0.5 oz orgeat,

Method: Combine all ingredients except the dark rum into a cocktail shaker with ice; shake gently and strain into a rocks glass over crushed ice. Slowly pour the dark rum in to float on top of the cocktail; garnish with a lime wheel, slice of pineapple and optional cherry.

Homemade Mai Tai

Star & Key’s terroir-driven rum infused with passionfruit adds complex layers to any classic rum drink, but this recipe is a standout – drawing parallel flavors to a piña colada but with unexpected complementary notes from the lemon juice and Champagne.

Ingredients: 2 oz Star & Key Passion Fruit Rum, 0.75 oz lemon juice, 0.75 oz pineapple juice, 1 oz egg white, 0.5 oz demerara sugar syrup, splash of Champagne

Method: Add all ingredients, except for the Champagne, to a shaker; dry shake (without ice) then add ice, shake again and strain into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne and garnish with a skewered cherry.

Another way to impress guests with tropical flavors in a new format comes from Copalli Rum, an organic, single-estate rum out of Belize. The banana liqueur and coconut cream make this sip taste like a vacation in a glass — no matter where you are.

Ingredients: 2 oz Copalli White Rum, 0.75 oz banana liqueur, 0.75 oz coconut cream, 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice, 0.75 oz fresh orange juice, 1 dash Angostura bitters

Method: Add the soda water to a chilled Champagne flute and set aside. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice; shake then strain into the Champagne flute with the soda water at the bottom. Garnish with an orange twist spiral.

Sunshine Punch has become popular for its ready-to-serve citrus, creme and rum cocktail in a bottle that’s designed to be poured over ice or combined with ingredients to create a more elaborate drink. Their Sunburn cocktail emphasizes the key flavors of the base ingredient (which are often likened to an orange creamsicle).

Ingredients: 2 oz Sunshine Punch, 2 oz pineapple juice, 0.5 oz coconut rum, dark rum float.

Method: Combine all ingredients, except for the dark rum, in an ice-filled shaker; shake for 20 seconds. Pour into a rocks glass over fresh ice, float over the dark rum to the rim and garnish with an orange wedge.

A playful riff on the classic Jungle Bird cocktail, Brugal 1888 puts forward their fruity yet sophisticated summer sip that only requires three ingredients.

Ingredients: 1 oz Brugal 1888 rum, 0.3 oz Campari, 0.3 oz pineapple syrup

Method: Add all ingredients into a glass cocktail beaker with ice, stir together then strain into a low-ball glass with a large cube of ice.

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As a whiskey maker, Al Laws is no stranger to waiting.

Laws, president and founder of Laws Whiskey House in Denver, distilled his first batch of liquor on July 4, 2011. But because time is an essential ingredient in whiskey, it wasn’t until October 2014 that he released the first bottles.

That said, it’s been more than six years since he began the journey to renovate the distillery’s taproom. Both he and local drinkers may soon see the project get to the finish line.

Laws Whiskey House anticipates debuting its new taproom at 1420. S. Acoma St. to the thirsty public in late August or early September. When it does, the space will be significantly bigger – about 4,000 square feet compared to the previous 300 square feet, Laws said – and include a bar shaking up cocktails with house spirits and mezzanine seating.

The distillery has long had what it calls a “whiskey church” – an area outfitted with pews where folks go to learn about and pay homage to whiskey, Laws said. The new taproom design leans into that ethos with a new, two-story gothic window that lends an elegant feel to the space, he added.

“It’s a great place, but it’s not gonna be open ’til 2 a.m. It’s a place you come for pre-dinner drinks or you have a date or you have a friend in town or you have a quick business thing,” Laws said.

The bar will serve only house-made spirits, but that doesn’t mean the menu is limited to whiskey. Over the years, Laws Whiskey House has no doubt honed its namesake spirit, using only Colorado-grown grains. But the distillery has also made other liquors like vermouth, rum and agave that it plans to integrate into the bar program.

To that end, there will be certain spirits that drinkers can only find in the taproom alongside longtime staples like Four Grain Bourbon Cask Strength, which was recently named the best small-batch bourbon made outside of Kentucky at the World Whiskies Awards.

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Part of the expansion includes revamping the Laws Whiskey House tour and eventually adding a rooftop deck where drinkers can take in vistas of the mountains and Mile High City.

But first, Laws simply wants to open. As the distillery’s 13th anniversary approaches, he feels cautiously optimistic about the project coming to fruition.

“The fact we’re so close, it’s a weird kind of hum in your head: ‘Like, are we really? What’s going to keep us from opening?’ That’s the way we think about it now,” he said. “You just can’t feel joy about it until it’s done.”

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