Bushwacker Spirits
When we learned that Sarasota is headquarters for the extremely popular Bushwacker Spirits, makers of the first and only ready-to-drink Bushwacker Cocktail, we wanted to learn the origin of this cocktail.
As a journalist, I love an origin story that can be pinned down and agreed on by multiple sources, so imagine my pleasure in learning that The Bushwacker has a solid gold origin story to go with its gold star flavor. The original version of the drink was made at the Ship’s Store Pub in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1975 as a tropical riff on a White Russian. The drink was named after a gregarious blond Afghan hound named Bushwack, whose owner was incredibly taken with the dessert-like concoction. Another patron who became enamored of the cocktail was Linda Murphy, the owner of the Sandshaker Bar in Pensacola Beach, Florida. Linda created her own version of the drink, changing the vodka to dark rum and adding a couple of other twists like Amaretto liqueur. The result was a cocktail so popular that in 1980 the overwhelmed bartenders started using a frozen drink machine.
Thanks to Michael Smith and his friend and business partner Carter Eckles, fans of one of the most popular cocktails in Florida and surrounding states now can enjoy the Bushwacker from the comfort of your home, on the deck of your boat, or as the signature cocktail at your wedding—just add ice. The version that Michael and Carter finally settled on includes Caribbean rum, real dairy cream, natural coconut, coffee and chocolate flavors, and caramel coloring; it is 17% alcohol by volume (ABV).
Michael and Carter grew up drinking the cocktail; Michael was in central Alabama, where The Bushwacker is popular. One night in 2019 the friends were on vacation and they decided to mix up a few batches of their favorite drink but they grew frustrated when they realized that they had to go to four different liquor stores and a grocery store to gather the ingredients. Taking note of all the readily available Margarita mixes and Piña Colada mixes, they questioned why nobody had ever created a mix for The Bushwacker. Neither of them had been in the liquor business before—Michael had recently sold his tech company and Carter was an owner in his family’s grocery store business—but they decided to follow what seemed like a great opportunity to do something different.
Michael and Carter spent almost all their life savings getting FDA approval and finally on March 4, 2020, they were ready to launch their company. Then March 14 dawned with the beginning of COVID and a distributor shutdown. The tenacious business partners didn’t give up.
“People were working from home so we found their home numbers and we called them. Nobody else was submitting anything. On May 5, 2020, we had 110 cases and we started shipping bottles to people at their houses; 45 days later we were out of the first 110 cases. By December we had made 2,000 cases and we were running out again.” Bushwacker’s distinctive cream-colored bottle adorned with groovy palm trees is now available in 2,500 liquor stores in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.
A winning combination of luck, timing, and perseverance has established Bushwacker Spirits as a company to reckon with and they’re not planning on slowing down. Michael hopes to add a tasting storefront to the HQ in Sarasota. We hope to be the first ones in line.
