Tarnished Truth Distilling Co. — Attraction in Virginia Beach

We are new to the east coast and in love with visiting whiskey distilleries, not many from where we moved from. We have purchased a few bottles of tarnished truth and were excited to see that there is a distillery at Virginia Beach, our very first visit to a beach on the east coast. Visiting this distillery store was at the top of our to do list. It actually was our second stop when we got into town. We were hoping to buy some product swag and if we could get out hands on bottles you wouldn’t normally find at the liquor store. Something limited edition is what we had our eyes open for as we have started a small collection. When we got there both of us felt how unwelcomed our presence was. Not sure if it was because one of their tours just concluded. Tried to make eye contact with both the blonde and brunette both looked away. We were invisible. Other people came in and the blonde immediately engaged with them. As we waited with questions. Finally after standing and waiting - brunette stood there doing nothing and continued to avoid my eye contact. The blonde asked what we wanted. Not nice, not a hello or a greeting of any sort. I said I had whiskey questions as I wanted to get something nice and if there was a price list. She said the price list is behind me and that is all she would say. Both of us feeling like such a bother we left. My partner put away her arm full of swag she was wanting to get (hat, flask and a coaster) and went to the abc and purchased some magnus which we are enjoying right now on the beach. And if your are reading this Magnus is incredible. Disappointed by the experience and not sure if we will be purchasing tarnished truth again...

Our tour guide was knowledgeable and entertaining as they took the group through the distillery which is located on the lower level of the Cavalier hotel. It is a small operation that has only been in operation over 4 years. They shared the history and answered all of our questions from how they got setup, how they ended up at the hotel and where they sourced their bourbon as they got started.

I was pleasantly surprised during the tasting as I hadn't had any of their offerings (except the sourced Old Cavalier 11 yo). Our tasting included the Bourbon Mash Moonshine, Tarnished Truth High Rye Bourbon, Discretion (their wheated bourbon), the Bourbon Cream and their gin.

I wasn't a fan of the gin but was happy walking away with a bottle of Discretion which was my favorite during the tasting.

If you are at VAB and need some time away from the sand and sun (or even if you don't) I highly recommend heading over to Tarnished Truth. As the writing on the wall of the distillery says, they handled Capone and Nixon so they can...

We have done this tour a couple times as we find it is a good activity when out of towners come to visit. I guess we haven’t done it in a few years. But this was our least favorite tour/tasting. Our tour guide was Starr.

She told us nothing about the history of The Cavalier, how Tarnished Truth got started. It was very hard to hear her speak in the room with all the equipment.

She made it very clear she had to do two more tours to do and so we couldn’t ask too many questions. That is what she said, verbatim. Very condescending in general.

All 5 of us in our group felt she definitely didn’t want to be there. Maybe she was just having a bad day, I’m aware it was the Friday before a holiday weekend.

But I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it...