The color is more like a burned orange than a red, and I really expected red. The aroma is pervasive and is unmistakably moonshine with a very heavy kind of old wood and heavy, heavy cinnamon. I mean, they really seemed to have piled the cinnamon on pretty high to get this thing smelling like it is. Maybe that's to mask the gasoline-esque taste of moonshine, and I hope they succeeded at least as well as the butterscotch stuff I've had a few times (which gets better with exposure to it).First sip is alcohol burn right in the nose before the liquid even makes it to the lips. The fumes (this isn't an aroma, these are fumes) feel like they burn the nose hair right out of my sinuses. However, when the beverage actually enters the mouth, it's more relaxed than those fumes. It still is very caustic, and it is definitely an adult beverage. After I swallow (yes, after) I finally get the sensation of cinnamon. It's like I took a handful of those screaming hot cinnamon candies and sucked them down all at once, but without the sweet sugar for balance.
I don't do swigs with moonshine, so I go in for another sip. It feels more structured than other moonshines that I've had in that it has very distinct layers - the alcohol burn, the kind of moonshine lingering, and then the actual flavor only hits when the sip is swallowed. It's an interesting beverage, and it's not entirely off-putting.
Bottom Line: Not the smoothest, but it has a character of its own that I respect.
2.25/5
