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in the asphalt, Copper Run’s entrance, consisting of a pyramid of whiskey barrels, appears.
The building doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside the rustic structure are
shelves of distilled spirits, and behind the bar, the friendly, yet assertive, Jenny holds court.
Besides moonshine, Jenny has rum, whiskey, bourbon, and spirit infusions to use in her cock-
tails. She crafts all of the bar’s selections with seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I let her
distract me with a Copper Run bloody mary. Jenny makes the bloody mary mix with red, yellow,
and green peppers; rosemary; red onions; and coarse garlic from her personal garden. She
garnishes the cocktail with a pickle, olive, celery salt, and pepperoncini. The taste is warm and
satisfying, like a spring day in the Ozark hills.
We scoff when Jenny announces all six of the distillery’s products are made on-site in a
140-gallon pot still in the basement. To prove it, she insists on giving us a tour. From behind,
the building has a walkout cellar carved
into the hillside that holds a copper still,
a corner bottling area, and a small bar-
rel room — Copper Run truly boasts
authenticity down to every rustic detail.
Jim Blansit founded Copper Run
Distillery in 2009 after many years of
working in California’s brewing industry.
He returned to Branson to open Taney
County’s first distillery — located on land
his family farmed for generations — since
Prohibition ended in 1933. Blansit’s dad,
also Jim, named the distillery and lives next
door. The tasting room has a dog-friendly
back deck, and live music and food trucks
on weekends.
WHAT IS MOONSHINE?
Moonshine simply is any unaged, clear
grain spirit, commonly perceived as a
high proof, illegal, bootlegged liquor dis-
tilled deep in the Appalachian Mountains.
However, the line of illicit stills that ran
from Virginia through Kentucky during
the Prohibition Era also stretched into the
Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri.
Backcountry distillers would use sugar
cane to sweeten the spirit, and others
would add fruits and spices to give it even
more flavor. Today, a new generation of
legal distillers is changing public opinions
about moonshine by making artisanal,
small-batch, high-quality products with a
mix of traditional and modern techniques.
Moon
s
hine
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COPPER RUN DISTILLERY