The Untold Truth Of Fireball

Love it or hate it, you can't deny the fiery popularity of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky. The flavored spirit came seemingly out of nowhere to quickly become one of the most talked about — and asked for — alcoholic beverages around. So what's to be said about Fireball that hasn't been said before? Plenty, as it turns out.

Fireball is known, above all else, for its incredibly unique taste. One fan may have described the flavor of Fireball best when they told AL.com it tasted like, "Big Red in liquid form." But behind this sweet and spicy concoction is an incredible origin story that starts north of the border and continues down south to the Louisiana bayou. Along the way, Fireball has seen its sales skyrocket, but also has been the subject of controversy. From its questionable ingredients to its uber-popularity with everyone from college students to country music singers, here is the untold truth of Fireball.

It's easy to think Fireball is a relatively new product. But while its popularity may have skyrocketed in recent years, the spicy substance has actually been around for over 30 years. What we know today as Fireball Cinnamon Whisky was originally developed in the mid-1980s by the Canadian beverage company Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. It was known back then as Doctor McGillicudy's Fireball Whisky, part of a product line of flavored schnapps that still exists today. (Doctor McGillicudy was a completely fictional person, in case you're wondering.)

For many years, the cinnamon liqueur was primarily sold north of the border. In 1989, the American-based Sazerac Company purchased the rights to the entire Doctor McGillicudy line of spirits and attempted to increase sales in the United States. As part of an advertising stunt, Sazerac paid a town in North Dakota agreed to temporarily change its name to McGillicudy City in exchange for $100,000, according to the Associated Press. While the promotion may have helped put the rural community on the map, there's no proof it helped sell any more schnapps. In fact, it would take another decade before the brand's cinnamon whisky became a household name.

Once Fireball got its new name and logo, it was off and running. According to the Motley Fool, sales of Fireball jumped from less than $2 million in 2011 to $131 million in 2014. The latter total made it the seventh most-popular liquor brand in the United States (via CNN). But the $131 million figure only accounted for bottle sales from the shelf, not drink purchases at bars, where Fireball was an even hotter commodity. Bar sales of the cinnamon liqueur that same year accounted for roughly $530 million in additional revenue, for an estimated sum of $863.5 million, double its total from the year before.

While Fireball isn't sneaking up on anyone these days, and it's no longer the shiny new bottle behind the bar, it's still on the rise. The Beverage Information & Insights Group reported that Fireball sales increased by nearly 8 percent from 2018 to 2019. This continued growth has established the flavored whisky as one of the most popular alcoholic beverages not just in America, but around the globe. According to VinePair, Fireball is among the world's 30 most popular spirits and the fourth best-selling liqueur, behind only Bailey's, Jagermeister, and Fernet-Branca.

You know you've reached success when others start trying to copy you — and that's precisely what happened to Fireball. Not long after the spicy liqueur became a mainstay behind every bar did other spirit companies try to get in on the cinnamon whiskey trend. Some have been more successful than others. There was SinFire Cinnamon Whisky from Hood River Distillers and Stout Brewing Company's Fire Flask. Sazerac, Fireball's parent company, sued both for trademark infringement (via The Spirit Business).

Then the big boys entered the picture. In 2014, Jim Beam unveiled Kentucky Fire, a red hot cinnamon liqueur. "We've led the category in flavor innovation in recent years ... but our latest flavor certainly turns up the heat," said Chris Bauder, General Manager of Whiskies at Beam Suntory, in a press release. "We're thrilled with the initial excitement we've seen for Jim Beam Kentucky Fire and are thrilled to continue to bring new and interesting flavor options to our fans and those who are new to whiskey."

A year later, Jack Daniels introduced its Tennessee Fire cinnamon whiskey, a mix of two of the brand's preexisting spirits: Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey and cinnamon liqueur. According to the Los Angeles Times, it was Jack Daniel's first new flavor since 2011. Tennessee Fire didn't go unnoticed by Sazerac. The manufacturer sued Jack Daniels for allegedly using Google advertising to send users looking for Fireball to search result pages for Tennessee Fire (via The Spirit Business).

Fireball was originally developed by the Canadian corporation Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. The company may be best known stateside for its ginger ale but it was once one of the largest producers of distilled spirits in the world — that is, before it started selling off its beverage businesses. In 1989, Seagram sold its line of Dr. McGillicuddy liqueurs, including what was then known as Dr. McGillicuddy's Fireball Whisky, to the Sazerac Company. The purchase also included several other Seagram brands, such as Benchmark bourbon, James Foxe Canadian Whisky, Nikolai vodka, Carstairs Blended Whiskey, and Crown Russe vodka and gin.

Sazerac, based out of New Orleans, has a nearly 400-year history and a portfolio of products nearly as impressive, one that includes Goldschlager and Southern Comfort. But its most notable product was acquired more recently. In 2002, the Sazerac-owned Buffalo Trace Distillery, makers of the eponymous bourbon whiskey, partnered with Old Rip Van Winkle to produce its line of Van Winkle bourbons. Pappy Van Winkle has since become one of the most renowned spirits in the world, known equally for its quality as it is for its scarcity. If you can find one, a single bottle can cost thousands of dollars.

You can't reach the highest level of the popularity stratosphere these days without going viral. Fortunately for Fireball, a number of popular videos featuring the cinnamon liqueur have been widely circulated around the internet in recent years.

In 2014, a wedding invitee had the ingenious idea to strap a GoPro camera onto a bottle of Fireball. The two-minute video, which captured dozens of the ceremony's guests taking swigs from the bottle, has since been viewed on YouTube over 3.8 million times. The very next year, GQ asked actor Chris Pratt to film a video in which he provides acting advice. He chose to do so after taking several shots of Fireball, even taking one while filming. The clip has since garnered more than 2 million views on YouTube. Also in 2015, YouTube channel Observ found four grandmothers who had never tried Fireball and recorded them as they had their first taste of the cinnamon spirit. The taste test experiment has been seen by more than 5.1 million people. And if you're wondering, the grandmas seemed to be Fireball fans.

The most popular Fireball viral video, however, occurred in 2021. A TikTok user posted a video of a fishing trip. In it, one fisherman is filleting a fish and cuts away a slab of meat only to find, much to his surprise, an unopened bottle of Fireball in the animal's stomach. The astonishing clip has since been seen nearly 23 million times.