North Carolina’s oldest rum distillery is just over the (muddy) river
I’m really a bourbon guy. Rum and Coke tastes like candy to me. I need a little bit more burn.
But I love to support local people doing cool things, so my wife and I got a babysitter and we hurdled over the Catawba River to the oldest rum distillery in North Carolina — Muddy River Distillery, est. 2011.
We did not regret it.
Facts you learn while taking the tour:
(1) Robbie Delaney and his wife Caroline got the idea to start their distillery from an in-flight magazine.
(2) They’ve got two main products: Carolina Rum, a standard silver rum, and Queen Charlotte Reserve. That’s a rum aged in a white oak barrel for at least eight months to smooth out the flavor. Delicious.
(3) Robbie is quite the showman. A go-to trick is setting a shot glass full of methanol on fire as he walks you through the distilling process. This is the stuff that evaporates first and needs to be thrown out. It will make you go blind if you drink it.
(4) The two main stills are named Democracy, left, and Liberty.
(5) Speaking of liberty and democracy, state law says Muddy River can’t sell any of their products in their location. You have to go to the ABC store to get it. They’ll ask you to sign a petition to get this law changed. You do get to at least taste the rum, though.
(6) Muddy River has started handing over some of their old barrels to Birdsong Brewing in Charlotte for a barrel-aged beer. Awesome local collaboration.
A photo posted by Muddy River Distillery (@muddyriverdistillery) on Mar 31, 2015 at 11:33am PDT
(7) Bottles will soon be in new, more modern packaging. Old packaging is shown on the right; new packaging is shown on the left:
Our new #CarolinaRum bottles & labels shoulds be arriving in ABC stores soon! The first person to send us a picture of the new blue bottle in a store will get a T-shirt (or tank top) sent to you! #Rum #drinklocal A photo posted by Muddy River Distillery (@muddyriverdistillery) on Apr 20, 2015 at 2:11pm PDT
(8) A coconut rum is in the works — stay tuned.
(9) The tour generally costs $15 per person, but Muddy River is constantly running deals with LivingSocial and that cuts the price pretty much in half. Robbie says this has been the most efficient form of marketing.
Plus, you get to leave with this sweet shot glass.
Photos by Andrew Dunn
This story was originally published May 21, 2015 at 11:04 PM with the headline "North Carolina’s oldest rum distillery is just over the (muddy) river."