Attention anyone who was even vaguely aware of popular music in the 2000s: Nelly is the latest celebrity to lend his personal brand to a liquor with the release of MoShine. No, this is not Just A Dream, though it is perhaps a missed opportunity to not capitalize on Pimp Juice (sorry).
The name MoShine is a reference to Nelly’s home state of Missouri, which has the postal code “MO.” The “Shine” half of the name, obviously, is a reference to moonshine. The reference is fitting in a state so tied to moonshine: The Ozarks were long a hotbed of country distilling, and the last person to have their still confiscated for making moonshine in the Ozarks was decades after Prohibition in 1976.
MoShine isn’t true moonshine, of course. It’d have to be made illegally to fit that definition. But the term has come to generally refer to unaged grain alcohol. In this case, it’s triple distilled, corn-based alcohol made by North Carolina’s Piedmont Distillers and flavored in two ways: peach and passion fruit. I wouldn’t peg these as tasting exactly like the fruit they’re supposed to embody, but they’re close enough to recognize the flavor inspiration.