In an innovative collaboration alternative rock group The Smashing Pumpkins has partnered with craft distiller FEW Spirits to unveil a distinctive bourbon whiskey.
Inspired by the band’s iconic discography and iconography, FEW Smashing Pumpkins blends the bold flavors of FEW Spirits bourbon with The Smashing Pumpkins’ avant-garde musical spirit to create a unique limited-edition whiskey expression.
If you’re a fan of celebrity-backed spirits, here are five things you need to know about FEW Smashing Pumpkins Bourbon.
1. The whiskey is a collaboration between Smashing Pumpkins and FEW Spirits
American alternate rock group The Smashing Pumpkins is known for their influential sound showcased in iconic albums including, Gis and Siamese Dream.
The band was formed in Chicago by frontman, vocalist, and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D’arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin in 1988. The band has undergone several line-up changes, a breakup, and a reunion over 36 years, with Billy Corgan the sole constant member since The Smashing Pumpkins’ formation.
With a diverse sound style, The Smashing Pumpkins is best-known for melancholic melodies, such as ‘Try, Try, Try’, ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’, and ‘1979’, and has received accolades including two Grammys and an AMA award.
The band has collaborated with hometown, Chicago-based craft distiller, FEW Spirits, located in a suburb of Evanston, Illinois. A grain-to-glass distillery established in 2011, FEW Sprits has produced a range of award-winning craft whiskies and gin, and was subsequently acquired by Kentucky-based distiller, Heaven Hill.
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Aside from celebrating The Smashing Pumpkins’ unique musical style, the new bourbon release also honors the shared Chicago origin of the band, and FEW Spirits founder and master distiller, Paul Hletko. “Whether you’re making music, painting, blending tea, or distilling spirits, you’re making art,” stated Hletko in the whisky’s launch release, “As a Chicagoan, I felt a personal responsibility to match the raw, primal energy of the Pumpkins”.
2. The bourbon whiskey is cut from cask strength using tea
FEW Smashing Pumpkins Bourbon starts life as the FEW distillery’s core straight bourbon expression, distilled from a mashbill of 70% corn, 20% rye, and 10% two-row malted barley. After an aging period of 4 years, the bourbon was cut from a cask strength of 62% ABV to a bottling strength of 46.5% ABV – but unusually the bourbon was flavor cut using ‘Midnight Rose’ black tea instead of water.
The tea is supplied by Madame ZuZu’s Emporium, a boutique tea shop run by The Smashing Pumpkin’s own, Billy Corgan, and his wife, Chloé Mendel Corgan, located in Highland Park, Illinois. Midnight Rose is a blend of black teas scented with rose petals, which imparts flavors of rose water and sandalwood to the whiskey, combining with characteristic bourbon notes of vanilla and caramel.
While the FEW Smashing Pumpkins uses a bourbon base, the addition of tea legally disqualifies the expression from being labeled as bourbon whiskey. The label states FEW Smashing Pumpkins is a straight bourbon whiskey with tea, indicating the bottling is a blend of both – although according to US spirits definitions the expression would be classified as a ‘distilled spirits specialty’.
3. The bottle’s label design is inspired by The Smashing Pumpkins’ stage backdrops and lyrics
The label for FEW Smashing Pumpkins whiskey was designed by Chicago-based visual artist, Katelan Foisy, who was inspired by the style of vintage tea tins and labels combining them with elements of Art Deco and Victorian design. Foisy has previously created designs for Billy Corgan’s Madame ZuZu’s tea emporium products, the interior album art for Corgan’s solo album Ogilala, and stage tour backdrops for the Smashing Pumpkins.
Etched on the whiskey’s back label is the lyric, “Time is never time at all,” taken from the band’s hit single, ‘Tonight, Tonight’ from the Smashing Pumpkins’ 1996 third album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
The tasting notes for FEW Smashing Pumpkins bourbon are also possibly inspired by the band’s diamond-selling Mellon Collie album, encouraging drinkers to expect “bright aromas” of “ripe honeydew melon”.
4. FEW Spirits has released a series of rock-music-themed expressions
The FEW Smashing Pumpkins bottling is the fourth label from a series of rock-music-themed celebrity collaborations released by FEW Spirits. The first was ‘Brainville’, created in collaboration with rock act The Flaming Lips, a rye whiskey distilled from a mash fermented using French wine yeast.
A second label, ‘All Secrets Known’ was named after a song by legendary grunge band Alice in Chains, and was tequila cask-finished bourbon. The third label, ‘Motor Oil’ is a blend of two cask-finished bourbons and a smoked wheat whiskey created alongside the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and one of Whisky Advocate’s highest-rated whiskies.
FEW Spirits has also previously experimented by proofing whiskey to bottling strength by cutting the spirit with alternatives to water. The craft distillery’s releases include, ‘Cold Cut’, a bourbon cut from cask strength using cold brew coffee, and ‘Immortal Rye’, a rye whiskey that uses cold extracted Eight Immortals oolong tea for proofing.
5. The release coincides with The Smashing Pumpkins’ North American Tour 2024
The FEW Smashing Pumpkins bourbon is a limited-edition release, celebrating the upcoming release of the new thirteenth Smashing Pumpkins album, and will be rolled out to select US retailers throughout Summer 2024.
In June 2024, Billy Corgan stated the new guitar-driven studio album, created over 2 years, would appeal to the Smashing Pumpkins’ old-school fans.
On July 29th, 2024, the band hit the road, alongside Green Day and punk rock band Rancid, for the North American ‘Saviours Tour’ starting at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. The ‘Saviours Tour’ concludes at Petco Park in San Diego on September 28th, 2024.
FEW Smashing Pumpkins bourbon will be available from select retailers along the tour’s route, with a suggested retail price of $50. For those located off the tour route, the bourbon is also available to purchase online from the FEW Spirits Distillery website.