For her recently released book, South Carolina Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by the Palmetto State, Charleston-based writer Stephanie Burt spent eight months crisscrossing the state, hunting down winning drinks from the Lowcountry to the Upstate. While the book includes a range of spirits and recipes—a dirty green tomato martini, a pho cocktail, and a historic rum punch—one thing became clear: Bourbon is South Carolina’s spirit of choice.
As she writes in the book’s introduction, which traces the Palmetto State’s cocktail history, “Bourbon has become a foundation for creativity, even as it remains connected to its long, storied traditions.” That applies to distilleries like Charleston’s High Wire, which lets heritage corn shine, and to cocktails that go well beyond the ever-popular old-fashioned.
One such concoction comes from Dalila’s, a cocktail bar in downtown Charleston. “Bourbon often has smoky or spicy or caramel notes, but there is often fruitiness, too,” Burt says. “This drink leans into those fruit notes.” Building on a whiskey sour, it’s called the Rapsody, spelled without the h in a nod to its inclusion of fresh raspberry syrup with Old Grand-Dad bourbon, a little mezcal and vermouth, and fresh citrus. “Sometimes summer cocktails can be a little flimsy,” Burt says. Not this one—the bourbon lends the “underpinning,” while the raspberry, citrus, and a hefty scoop of pebble ice bring the refreshment. “It’s adventurous to have a bourbon cocktail for summer, and this one really surprised me.”
