Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka Celebrates Six Years of Sweet Success

Annually on Tax Day, April 15th, Americans are either celebrating their tax return or drowning their tax day sorrows with a cocktail. This year on April 15, 2014, Firefly Distillery is celebrating for a sweeter reason as Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka turns six years old. This milestone is one that its creators, Jim Irvin and Scott Newitt, are proud of, and invite the public for rare “behind the scenes” VIP distillery tours to fans once an hour from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Firefly Distillery on Wadmalaw Island. These free tours will be given by Firefly co-creator Jim Irvin and production manager Jay Macmurphy.


Created in a small still in 2008, Firefly became the world’s first hand-crafted sweet tea vodka. Firefly is distilled four times, infused with tea grown at the Charleston Tea Plantation, and blended with real Louisiana sugar cane. Firefly is a favorite around the nation and continues to “fly” off store shelves locally, nationally, and internationally.

Nationally, Firefly Distillery offers a variety of flavored Firefly Sweet Tea Vodkas such as Raspberry, Peach, and Firefly Skinny Tea. Also available nationally are: Firefly Handcrafted Straight Vodka, Firefly ready-to-drink cocktails in Sweet Tea Lemonade and Pink Lemonade. Mostly recently, they debuted a Firefly Moonshine line to much fanfare with flavors including White Lightning, Apple Pie, Cherry, Strawberry, Peach, Caramel and Blackberry.

They also had the opportunity to work with Buffalo Trace distillery to create Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon as a distillery speciality. Continuing to add to the brand, they handcrafted Sea Island all-natural rums in three delicious flavors: Gold Rum, Java Rum, and Spice Rum.
To sweeten their line even more, Southern Accents Liqueurs was born out of a love of true Southern desserts with flavors: Coconut Cake, Pecan Pie, Banana Pudding, Peach Cobbler, and Chocolate Pecan Pie. These specialities are only available at the distillery on Wadmalaw Island.

“We’re always on the road looking for new tastes and thinking out of the box to bring tastes back to South Carolina,” says Scott Newitt, aka “The Firefly Guy” and Firefly co-owner, who began his career as a wine distributor and crafted the idea of Sweet Tea Vodka after tasting some home-infused green tea vodkas.

“Since sweet tea is known as the ‘Official drink of the South,’ Sweet Tea Vodka made down home sense. So once I approached Jim with the idea, he sat in his lab for weeks making sure a flavor came out just right and still does that today.”

“It took us a long while to get the recipe for Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka to taste the way it tasted for the final product we bottled. We had to make the recipe perfect.” says Jim Irvin, Firefly co-owner and the chemist behind all Firefly creations. “We poured our heart and soul into Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka. We knew it would be a hit; it was just making sure the recipe tasted like sweet tea, that Southern classic we all drink on our porches. It’s amazing to think that it’s now six years later, and people still enjoy it as much as the first day we introduced it.”

Both Jim and Scott continue to travel on the road selling Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and all of the Firefly Distillery spirits the same way they did six years ago. The hard work of Jim Irvin and Scott Newitt to change the liquor distilling laws in the state of South Carolina paved the way for all the smaller distilleries that have recently popped up in the state.

Since their inception, there have been similar products to hit the market, but nothing with the following and flavor of the Original Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka. Happy Sixth Birthday to this Southern Favorite! Visit www.fireflyvodka.com for more on all Firefly products.
















Firefly Milestones:
 ~ 2008:  Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka is Born
~ August 2009:  Firefly introduces Firefly Raspberry, Firefly Peach, Firefly Mint and Firefly Lemon. It’s the “Original” sweet tea flavored vodka with an extra splash of flavor.
~ Apr 2010: Firefly unveiled the first sweet tea flavored bourbon.
~ May 2010: Firefly Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka unveiled two ready- o-drink cocktails, Sweet Tea Lemonade and Southern Lemonade.
~ December 2010: Firefly introduced Skinny Tea.
 ~ March 2013: Firefly Distillery co-founders Jim Irvin and Scott Newitt announce the launch of Firefly Moonshine.


Celebrate Six Years of Sweet Success! 
What: VIP Distillery Tours for Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka’s Sixth Birthday 
Where: Firefly Distillery, Wadmalaw Island 
When: Tuesday, April 15, 
Top of Each Hour - 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 a.m.

About Firefly Distillery


Firefly Distillery is located on Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina, thirty miles south of Charleston, and is the largest distillery in the state. The distillery currently offers Firefly Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka, Firefly Skinny Tea, two Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka Flavors: Raspberry and Peach, and Firefly Handcrafted Vodka. They also make Firefly Moonshines including White Lightning, Apple Pie, Blackberry, Caramel, Cherry, Peach and Strawberry moonshines; and ready-to-drink cocktails including Firefly Sweet Tea Lemonade and Pink Lemonade. Limited offerings, available only at the distillery or in South Carolina include Sea Island Rums and Southern Accents Cordials. Remember - This ain’t your grandma’s sweet tea! For more information, visit www.fireflyvodka.com.