This episode takes us to Caribbean Moonshine Distillers, in Orlando, FL, where Steve Nichols and Mike Weber are keeping Florida's moonshine history alive. Back during Prohibition, smugglers ran rum from the Bahamas through Florida's mangroves and canals, turning the state into a bootlegger's paradise. Today, Caribbean Moonshine honors that tradition by mixing island flavors with classic Florida moonshine.
We're talking Cat 5 Coconut, Passion Fruit Prohibition, and their award-winning 1650 Premium Spiced Rum: spirits that celebrate the wild days when rum runners owned these coasts. Find out how they craft these flavors and what it takes to bring Caribbean soul to every bottle.
Episode Transcript
Cal Evans: Hi, my name is Cal Evans and this is Hearts and Tails. Hey, I'm here with Steve Nichols and Mike Weber, and we're in Caribbean moonshine here in Orlando, Florida. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here with us today. Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time y'all have that when I started doing the research on this first thing that struck me.
It's in a mall. I have never done a, a distillery tour in a mall, um, distillery. So I think that's, that's really awesome. Y'all actually distill right here on property.
Mike Weber: So our distillation process is a journey through the state of Florida. Oh. Our craft distillery license resides here. We bottle and package absolutely everything we make here.
Cal Evans: Very cool. And you make all your own stuff.
Mike Weber: So make all our own stuff. We have all of our own registered recipes.
Cal Evans: Okay, now. Y'all are the farthest from Moonshiners than I think I've ever come.
Steve Nichols: It's, it's the shirts, isn't it?
Cal Evans: It really is. You know. No, you know, I talk to a lot of, um, distillery owners and don't do these distillery tours and, you know, they'll go, uh, you know, well, we've been doing this, or Grandpa Pappy grew up doing this, or, I knew I knew Popcorn or something like that.
Y'all are just good, solid businessmen. How did you get into moonshine?
Steve Nichols: Well, I'll, I'll take a swing at this first. So. Uh, I've known Mike now for almost 16, 17 years, if not more than that. Longer than that, yeah. And uh, so Mike had an epiphany while he was up in Pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg, and he come back during the COVID, during the COVID time period, and he says, Steve, I need to talk to you about an idea.
And I said, sure. I mean, we've always talked about doing things together and so forth. And I said, what do you got? He says, you know what? You and I need to go in the moonshine business. And I'm like, moonshine, okay. I said, first off, you know, I know nothing about moonshine. So if it was beer, I'd probably jump a little quicker.
But, uh, yeah, so, uh, we just got thinking, put our heads together and, you know, how do we learn more about the moonshine business and what can we do? A couple things that sparked that thought. During COVID, obviously I was outta work, so had a lot of time to sit around and do nothing but. The state of Florida adopted the same craft distilling laws as Tennessee mm-hmm.
Mike Weber: During COVID 2022. Yeah. And Steve and I, he has business up there. I've been working with him and other attractions up in that market since 2000. Hmm. And they changed their craft distilling laws in 2002 when the first, uh, in that market was old Smokey to come out. Yeah. Um, and then, uh, seeing that. Florida was going in the same direction as Tennessee.
I thought, well, that might be a, an opportunity for us to get on the front end of a trend that might be growing in this state similar to Tennessee.
Cal Evans: Very cool. Yeah, I knew they had, um, they had both states had changed their laws and I was up in, um, Gatlinburg, um, pigeon Forge area and it's like distilleries are more popular than Starbucks up there.
Mike Weber: Yep. You know, thousand. There's one on every corner. There was not one. There were zero, and now I think there's 16. Yeah. They're all over the place. Yeah. And, um, yeah, I, I did a couple of the tours up there too, so, yeah, that, that if you don't do distillery tours, you really need to go find one. They're a blast.
Cal Evans: So, what's been your biggest surprise getting into the spirits industry?
Steve Nichols: Wow. Uh, it's how much time you got? Yeah.
Mike Weber: Biggest surprise. It's a lot harder than it looks really. So, yeah. You know, I don't know if you, you know, as you watch the market. Younger kids these days are more into other things like CBD drinks and other stuff, and they're not as prone to be drinking alcohol as perhaps you and I were when we were growing up in our college years and early years.
So the market as a whole is in a bit of a decline. Yeah. Um, but you know, we're just here to be a, a local niche brand that serves our local community here in Florida. So, um, but when we made the product, there was so much to learn. About crafting your own moonshine. And we probably spent a year between the time we went to visit Danielle and the time we worked with some other, um, distilleries here in the state of Florida that were kind enough to give us some tips and tricks mm-hmm.
Producing the product. And when we finally produced our very first bottle off the line, it was like, oh, we finally did it. And there was this whole sense of elation. And then you quickly come to find out that as much as you love your product. The work has just started. 'cause now you gotta sell it, right?
Cal Evans: Marketing.
Mike Weber: Yes. Yeah. So building a distillery and getting it out in the market and letting people know who you are, what you are, um, why you're different. Delicious has been, you know, the challenge for the last two years.
Cal Evans: Interesting. Now, no business. The business is not all fun. Okay. Um, and you learn the hard part was marketing.
But what was a hard learned lesson? Did you have a, a batch that went wrong? Obviously with your peanut butter and chocolate, you had a batch that went right, but, um, did you have a, a, an experiment that you go, yeah, we won't be doing that again.
Mike Weber: Well, when we were developing our flavors, what was the flavor?
Steve Nichols: Guava.
Mike Weber: Guava, yeah. So, you know, you're working on your product and your flavoring and stuff and, um, the theme and we, you know, and yeah, we we're tied to the original shine. And so we said, well, surely guava would be a great flavor. And oh my God, it was so bad. I gotta tell you. We all were like trying to say, oh yeah, that's really nasty.
You know, like everybody's sitting around trying not to be ugly. But yeah, that was pretty big mistake. Mm-hmm. So you won't see that on our shelves.
Cal Evans: But, but every, every distillery has one, you know? Yeah. Every time I, I talk to a, a master distiller or an owner, everybody's got a batch that just didn't quite work out the way they thought it would.
Um, so Steve, I, I prepped you for this question earlier. Um, and you, you were having a trouble picking one, what's, what would you say your flagship product is?
Steve Nichols: Oh, what's your favorite child? That's it, right? Like, how do you choose. Well now that, uh, Mike had brought up the wonderful guava, this is one of our very popular flagships, our P, B & C Cannonball.
Uh, this is our peanut butter and chocolate. And this, what's really unique about this product is people will try this and they go, oh man, love, love peanut butter. Some people say, I hate peanut butter. I'll, but I'll try it. And some people will say, I taste more chocolate. I taste more peanut butter. But this is a wonderful go-to, whether it be in your coffee, whether it be pour a little bit over ice cream, ooh, whether you, uh, at the end of the day.
Get a nice cup of ice, pour a little cream in there and pour PB and C on top of it. This, this is one of our flagship brand, uh, flavor. Excuse me. Mm-hmm. But there's so many just, you know, behind us. Oh yeah. Our coconut and this won a double gold medal internationally. Our coconut has won gold medal. Our passion fruit right behind us actually just won best of class in 56 countries this past year.
Cal Evans: Get out.
Mike Weber: Yes. And that's probably one of our more unique flavors, right? You don't see a lot of patchy food, alcohol out the marketplace. So. If you like passion fruit, that one goes really well. Yes, this is, uh, this is, this is awesome. And people say, I just gotta try for the color. So it's so unique.
Cal Evans: It's beautiful Color Matter fact, when I showed up and, um, crystal let me in, I immediately, I saw this room and all the beautiful colors with all the bottles and I was like, we gotta shoot in here, man.
This is just, this is too good. Um, okay. You've talked about your, your flagship, and then I can't wait to taste that. Yes, I have waited until after we podcast, before I start tasting. He's completely sober at the moment. At the moment. At the moment. Um, I, you talked about that. I noticed you've done one of my favorite things.
Um, I'm a aged rum aficionado. Okay. I love a good aged rum. And you now have a five year aged rum. Talk to me about that process. Um, what is, how is the, how is it aged? What's it aged in?
Mike Weber: So all of our products are a hundred percent Florida. Okay. Right. So I told you there was a journey. We buy our sugar cane from Okeechobee and Sebring farmers.
Oh, nice. We squeeze the juice in Bartow and we have a gentleman with a column still there named Ryan who will. Distill it to 188 proof, right? Mm-hmm. Can't bring that into the mall for the same reason. You know, you mentioned earlier. So we have a gentleman, Jacob, who has access to the Zephyr Hill Springs in Port Richie, and we'll take the high proof alcohol to Newport Richie and blend it with Zephyr Hill Spring Water.
Oh, the only thing it does is go through a UV sterilizer. So when you look at what we made in Tennessee versus what you see on the shelf. The reason this is crystal clear is 'cause there's not all the solids and added chlorines and other stuff in the water that we use to blend our moonshine with. So it comes out crystal clear and then once we blend the recipe, we'll put it in a tote and its final destination is our distillery behind us here and everything gets bottled and labeled and distributed from here.
Cal Evans: That is so cool. Thank you for that journey because, um, that, that's real. That was one of the missing pieces. Um, I, I love that it's all. Florida a hundred percent off of Florida base. I've been through the sugar fields out there at Okeechobee and Sebring and all that. That's, um, just absolutely a wonderful trip.
Cal Evans: Y'all did a partnership with Bush Gardens. Tell me how that came about and then talk to, talk to us about what made that product special.
Steve Nichols: Well, what was really cool about that is, you know, Halloween is huge around Orlando. Oh yeah. Hall Scream is at, uh, Bush Garden SeaWorld, and then there's. The other guys Universal Studios at, at Halloween Horror Nights, which is awesome.
But, you know, we had the opportunity to do this hall screen. Mm-hmm. At, um, at Disney, or excuse me, Disney SeaWorld. And what was unique about that is when people go in there, there's this huge outdoor bar and they wanted to test us to see in fact, how we would do. So at the end of that very huge bar was Mike and I and a little four foot table.
Um. Handing out samples and people absolutely loved it. Wow. Uh, because we, you know, we're introducing ourself to that market and it went extremely well, and they saw that. Yeah. So the next year, and I'll let Mike take
Mike Weber: No. So the next spring, next spring for the Food and Wine Festival mm-hmm. They have a bunch of different tents and stuff, and they had a very popular American whiskey brand that had a flight and they thought since.
This area was more tropical, it might be more appropriate to put our products in there after what they saw at Halloween. So they put us in there and they did about three times the volume with our products. They did with that very popular American whiskey. So, um, so they were happy about that. And, you know, as you develop relationships mm-hmm.
So they took what was left over from the spring event and they do a, you know, I don't know, you. Pay 20 bucks or something and then you don't know what you're gonna get. But all the leftover bottles from the spring, they just pour stuff. And um, so I said, well, can we do something more for Halloween? And um, the gentleman at Bush Garden said, why, you know, he loved our 1650 spice drum.
And he goes, would you be willing to white label that because we have a Halloween character, uh, that we would, you know, promote and we'll be happy to help you develop the label if you'll white label it. And we did white label it. And we did bring it out, uh, two years ago. Now, if you go back to 2024, that's when the hurricane hit.
Yeah. Unfortunately the parks lost about half of their Halloween season, but um, this year it just blew out the doors.
So, and that is, um, Voodoo Nightshine. Voodoo Nights Shine.
Mike Weber: And I'll share with you the little snippet that we created for that, if you want. Yes. I,
Cal Evans: I'd love to see that. Um, and it is a, a, just a white label of your Spice drop, 1650 spice drum.
Mike Weber: You can get it only for Halloween. Yep. And this year we're gonna release it for Mardi Gras.
Cal Evans: Very cool. You talk a lot about Florida bootlegging. And I've talked to a lot of distillers that say that they were involved in bootlegging and, you know, claim that they have family legacy to bootlegging. What's the bootlegging story with y'all?
Were y'all actually running? Because I know one of you's from New Jersey. Where y'all running Shine?
Steve Nichols: I, I, Buffalo. Buffalo.
Cal Evans: Oh, okay. We do a lot of 'em in Buffalo.
Mike Weber: Listen, Steve and I have never done anything illegal, and if the TTB is watching, we pay all of our taxes. Okay? So no, no. However, I can't say that we haven't had visits from people that do have hoops from time.
They'll bring it in in little pouches and want to sit and talk to you about perhaps making it more commercially. But I'm not gonna say anything about what they're doing today. So I will say there is a very thriving. Bootlegging and moonshining, uh, community here in the state of Florida even today.
Cal Evans: Very interesting.
Mike Weber: So if you want, and you try, you can connect to it,
Cal Evans: but y'all really latch onto the history.
Mike Weber: So we're, you know, people go, why do you call yourself Caribbean moonshine if you're in Florida? In fact, we were told, oh, that should be Florida moonshine, but it's not Florida moonshine. A lot of people think that moonshine originated in the Appalachians.
But actually it didn't. So the first written record of moonshine comes from the slaves that were forced to harvest the sugar cane in Barbados, and in 1650 they figured out that they could ferment it, boil it into an alcohol and drink it. And they called that rum bullion in their African language. When the Brits figured out what they were doing, mm-hmm.
They created a proper distillery. They started producing the product and they shortened the name Rum bullion to. Rum. Rum. There you go. So our product is a tribute to the original shiners and in the same ingredient platform, but just made with poor Florida product, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. So we people have, oh, don't you have an apple pie or whatever.
No, we stay true to what you might have tasted from those original shiners. I I, I love that.
Cal Evans: That is so cool. In your, in your tradition of let's do something different. I, I've seen people open other stores. I've seen people franchise. Y'all now have a licensing opportunity for somebody that wants to get into it.
Tell us about that.
Steve Nichols: So, what's really unique that Mike and I have learned about this business is distribution. Hmm. So, and there's, you know, several big, huge distributors, you know, down the road maybe we'll be a part of and we hope so. But in the meantime, um, a lot of people at these events that we go to.
Are very intrigued with our brand. Hmm. And there's a lot of people saying that, come in here man. I'd love to open one of these distilleries. I, this would be great over here, or this would be great in South Dakota, or this, wherever. So we decided to look into this situation a little further and we went through all the paperwork, all the legalese and stuff like that.
And now we're set up, if you go to the website and click on our more tab at the top, it'll drop you down to license. Wow. And we're creating a licensee opportunity for those who maybe one day want to have a small little distillery of Korean moonshot. That is very cool. And it gives them the rights. You know, it took us years and tens of thousands of dollars to figure out how to get a craft distillers license, and then to build your recipes, your brands and your labels, right?
Mm-hmm. And you know, as, as still as the craft distiller market is, the craft brewery market has taken an even deeper dive, right? And so. There are craft breweries out there that are working with us to maybe add our product to theirs. Oh, okay. Um, there's people that have, uh, space and tourist areas that are considering it, and we're gonna, we're just trying to make it very easy for them to get a license to, to distill and sell our products.
You know, without having to go through all the costs and expense and time that it took us to develop.
Cal Evans: So if I were up in Ocala or Tallahassee or something like that mm-hmm. Um, I could, we would help you set up a license, set up my own shop like this and it would be a Caribbean moonshine.
Mike Weber: Absolutely.
Cal Evans: Awesome. I, it seems to me that that's a natural for Tallahassee. 'cause you got politicians and you know how they drink, so.
Mike Weber: Absolutely.
Cal Evans: Okay, final question. Um, you've got a Grammy story that I just find fascinating and I don't even know how to set it up. So I'm gonna say, tell me the Grammy story.
Steve Nichols: This is for you Sean. Love this. So, so this is this for you, Sean. Um, so one day, uh, and this was told to us through our bartender. So this, uh, lady, it's come here.
She was staying next door at the Hilton Tuscany Resort. Okay. She walked in and she says, I was told that you guys have an amazing room here. And I kind of need to give it a test because I'm from Barbados. We're the first written record of Roman, so we know the story. So she says, I, I would really like to try this.
And she says, absolutely. So she tried it and she looked at the bartender. She said, this is amazing. This is so smooth, and it reminds me of home. Hmm. Um. I gotta call my husband over here and her husband is a rap artist from Brooklyn, get Out, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. Et cetera, is his name. And uh, and he, he always records out in la so he just got done with the kids at Disney and he's trying to relax and Honey, you need to come over here and try this.
That's right. Oh yeah. Listen, I've just been at Disney all day, the last, yeah. I mean, there's a whole side story I can't even get into. But he got up and come over here, and as he came over here, he's, he was really impressed with the, with the brand, the theming and so forth. And he said, this is, this is really, let me try it.
And she says, you're gonna love it. So tried it and he says, wow. And um, from there he was telling the bartender a little bit about what he was gonna get ready to do is cut a new album that was gonna come out, uh, at the beginning of the year. Mm-hmm. And, you know, he's thinking of all these other brands.
He's gonna have this big, uh, Grammy launch and he's gonna have, uh, all these different opportunities to have somebody. He says, you know what, I like this. Not only is my wife from where she's from and Barbados, this might be a great opportunity. So, um, Mike and I had a conversation with him. He says, what are you guys doing in February?
And here it is December. I'm like, well, wow. Probably the same stuff, different day. And he says, I would like you to be our guest. Out at my pre-launch for my album Sagittarius. Wow. So it went awesome. And I'll let Mike chime in here a little bit 'cause it was a great experience. It was filmed, everything was done at Paramount Studios.
Mike Weber: Right. We were in the Paramount Studios where amongst other things, the Jackson five did the recorded A, B, C. I mean, you looked at the wall at all of the premier artists and songs that had been recorded there. Mm-hmm. And we're sitting there with our table pouring moonshine. Right. To the LA audience who loved it actually.
So we white label. Mm-hmm. Uh, our peanut butter and chocolate, which was her favorite as, uh, a Sagittarius brand for the Grammys and participated in his launch event. And it was a blast. And he, he continues to perform and do events. Mm-hmm. And he orders the product and sells it at the bars during his events.
Cal Evans: So, very cool. That's just such an unusual story. Yeah.
Steve Nichols: We weren't expecting that. No, that is cool. So come to the Hilton, Tuscany.
Cal Evans: Gentlemen, this has been fun. Um, and like I told you, uh, before we started, if it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing. That's so, uh, but I have had a ball. I love hearing the stories and, um, hearing the, the owners and the master distillers. Just tell us the stories.
Cal Evans: I wish you all the luck. I look forward to every time I'm back up here in, um, Orlando to coming by. Um, because this is now you got cigars in rum. They're gonna have to pry me outta it. I, I was telling Steve it's a good thing we don't have one of these, um, back home because you know, my wife would have to send the Tesla every afternoon to pick me up.
So. Well, thanks for hosting us Cal. We really appreciate you being here. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Audience, thank you for your time. We do appreciate that. I hope you've enjoyed this and tune in for the next episode of Hearts and Tails.