Sugarlands Distilling Company

Sugarlands Distilling Company, based in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is a craft distillery beloved for its Southern heritage, exciting flavors, and ever-evolving product lines. Even before the opening of Sugarlands in March 2014, Flavorman and Moonshine University built an extremely successful partnership that extends beyond business. This is why we are excited to share the story of Sugarlands and how The Beverage Campus teams were added to the mix!

The Sugarlands story begins with founder and owner Ned Vickers, owner Kent Wood, and head distiller Greg Eidam. Ned and Greg were two college friends with a shared interest in brewing. Years ago, Greg gifted Ned a brewing kit, a hobby that eventually became an exciting new venture. With his wife’s suggestion, Ned pursued his dreams of opening a distillery and tapped Greg to join him as Head Distiller. Sugarlands Distilling Company has grown into a household name and a highly sought-after tourist destination in the heart of Appalachia. At first, their efforts were focused on distilling great Moonshine and creating a memorable Southern experience for their visitors. But the passion grew into a diverse product line, including Roaming Man Whiskey, Sugarlands Sippin’ Cream, and High Rock Vodka. Luckily, our teams blended along the road, which ultimately helped propel their journey.

During the final stages of Sugarlands facility construction, the founding team began researching how to best prepare for the spirits industry. Greg found Moonshine University through a Google search and attended our second 5-Day Distiller Course nearly 13 years ago. His team learned the ins and outs of untapped territories, like navigating distribution and TTB. Most importantly, however, they learned that the spirits industry is a vast community of distillers looking out for one another’s best interests. “Our industry is like a brotherhood,” says Greg Eidam, “There aren’t a lot of other industries that are like that.”

The relationship between Moonshine University and Sugarlands remains strong and ongoing. Their team has attended almost every course we’ve offered and continually sends staff members to be trained to this day. But that’s not where it ends – there was one last flavor to blend.

Despite the founding team's intention to exclusively produce Moonshine, the love and demand from consumers beckoned them into other realms. To focus their operations on new spirits, Greg worked with Flavorman to help streamline the production of Sugarlands Shine. Greg wanted to create an evergreen product that he could produce year-round and scale up. This solution was no challenge for our Beverage Architects and Flavorists, who were thrilled to step in!

Greg and his team sent us the classic Southern comfort flavors to begin developing. These included apple pie, blackberry, lemonade, and sweet tea. After multiple rounds of taste testing and sampling, a shelf-stable formulation to fit each unique flavor profile was the result, cementing a long-lasting partnership. “Flavorman nailed where we wanted to be on those original products,” says Greg, “The process of creating a new flavor has always been seamless.” We’ve built quite the dynamic - Sugarlands reaches out with ideas for a new product, and our Flavor experts immediately begin concocting their envisioned taste.

Cory has worked with Sugarlands since the beginning. We craft every flavor with Sugarlands’ brand at the forefront, infusing their unique personality into each sample. This symbiotic relationship has helped produce their array of Sugarlands Shine jars, the Sugarlands Sippin’ Creams, and many other specialized projects.

“I don’t think any of us envisioned where we’re at today,” says Greg Eidam when reflecting on the growth of Sugarlands Distilling Company. On top of their many product expansions, they have also been cast onto a world stage through partnerships with multiple professional sports teams, the PGA Championship, and Kellogg’s Eggo. Our team at Flavorman has been thrilled to assist along the way, like helping develop their “Eggo-nog” collaboration and many more exciting projects.

Despite Sugarlands' soaring heights, its core values of Southern heritage, love of the craft, and prioritizing relationships have stayed the same and we couldn’t agree more! The Flavorman team is adept at crafting delicious custom flavors, but fostering meaningful relationships is a passion that can’t be measured in a beaker. This mutual objective between our brands is how we’ve helped make Sugarlands so dang sweet!