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Cocktails

A Tour of America’s Beloved Regional Cocktails

January 12, 2024

Story: Punch Staff

photo: Nicole Hansen

Cocktails

A Tour of America’s Beloved Regional Cocktails

January 12, 2024

Story: Punch Staff

photo: Nicole Hansen

A look at the drinks that have become regional obsessions—from the Midwest’s Beertini to West Texas’ Ranch Water.

Only a few states, cities or regions across the country can lay claim to an original cocktail all their own. Washington, D.C. has the Rickey; New Orleans has its very own cottage industry of homegrown classics, from the Ramos Gin Fizz to the Sazerac; and, of course, New York has the Manhattan. But there’s also a canon more esoteric drinks that have grown up over the past several decades to become local obsessions, from Maryland’s Orange Crush to the dive-bar drink known in the Upper Midwest as the “Beertini.”

Here’s a tour of some of our favorites.

Orange Crush

Baltimore
Orange Crush Cocktail Recipe

The Orange Crush cocktail—a mix of OJ, orange vodka, triple sec and lemon-lime soda—may have started on Maryland’s shores, but it’s become a phenomenon throughout the state and beyond. Popular though it may be, the Orange Crush is not hip. It’s not slick. It demands no bottled-in-bond spirits or artisanal bitters; it requires no pre-Prohibition coupes, shoegaze-inspired nicknames or maraca-esque overhead shaking. It’s a drink created in Maryland, by Marylanders, and by all accounts that’s good enough for them.

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Beertini

Upper Midwest
Beertini

At first glance, the “Beertini” is the ultimate dad joke—something that a sitcom father would facetiously claim as his favorite drink after overhearing someone order an Appletini. His flannel-shirt-wearing buddies would all chuckle and eye-roll as they clinked their mugs together, happy with their classic, no-fuss beer selection. In certain pockets of the Midwest, though, the combination of beer and olives known as the Beertini (also called the Minnesota, North Dakota or Wisconsin Martini, depending on where you’re located) is not only very real, but is deeply engrained in barroom culture.

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Flatliner

Telluride, Colorado

Made with vodka, Kahlúa, Baileys Irish Cream and a shot of espresso, Telluride, Colorado’s signature drink bears a resemblance to both the Espresso Martini and the Mudslide. More than the ingredients, it’s the drink’s ski town origin story that has endeared it to those who’ve encountered it: Steve Foster, a Telluride bartender, first shook one up at the request of resort guests who told him that it was a popular drink in the South Pacific. Though the origins of the cocktail in question are murky, Foster’s take caught on with locals and visitors alike. As Telluride bartender Luke LaFemina says of the drink, “The first rule of Flatliners is: Make extra Flatliner.”

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Elmo Cola

Indianapolis
elmo cola indianadpolis

Until recently, Indiana lacked a cocktail it could truly call its own, official or otherwise. But the Elmo Cola, a highball first served at the historic St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis, has taken the state by storm. Comprising two ounces of bourbon infused with vanilla beans, whole cherries and cherry juice, the drink is topped with Coca-Cola and served over ice in a large tumbler with a cherry garnish. It may sound like a modest affair, but the drink was an instantaneous hit when it was introduced at the 118-year-old steakhouse eight years ago.

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Horsefeather

Lawrence, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri
Horsefeather Whiskey Ginger Cocktail Recipe

Essentially a twist on the classic Horse’s Neck, which dates back to the 1800s, the Horsefeather employs a ginger element of some sort, a few dashes of Angostura bitters, lemon juice or peel and, most often, Old Overholt rye whiskey. The name is an old slang term meaning “nonsense,” which is entirely appropriate considering the mythology surrounding the drink and its origins. Both Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, lay claim and you can find it served in multiple iterations in both places.

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Ranch Water

West Texas and Beyond
ranch water texas

Anyone who’s spent time in West Texas between May and September has experienced the relentless desert sun, offset ever-so-briefly by a bone-dry, tumbleweed-stirring breeze. This is not the kind of heat quenched by mere H2O. Though the exact birthplace of the tequila-based refresher is unknown, this unofficial drink of West Texas dive bars and house parties carries some Texas-sized fables.

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Tree Martini

Taos, New Mexico
Taos Tree Martini

New Mexico is held in the popular imagination for its pueblos and green Hatch chiles and scorching deserts, for Georgia O’Keeffe and Breaking Bad. But journey to the Land of Enchantment’s northernmost region and you’ll find the ski world’s most famous cocktail, the Tree Martini.

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Hummer

Michigan
Hummer Cocktail Recipe

The story goes something like this: Fifty years ago, Jerome Adams, originally from Georgia, got a job at Detriot’s Bayview Yacht Club as a dishwasher, quickly graduating to porter before landing a spot behind the nautical mahogany bar overlooking the freighters in the Detroit River. This is where, on a slow afternoon in February, 1968—an undeniably odd time to break out a blender—Adams served the first Hummer, a whirred-up combination of white rum, Kahlua, vanilla ice cream and a couple of ice cubes. It is now, without contest, Michigan’s state drink.

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Brandy Old-Fashioned

Wisconsin
Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned

For generations a ritual has governed a not un-casual night out for diners and drinkers across the state of Wisconsin: head out to the local supper club—described as a “a two- or three-hour dining event,” by one local—put in for a table, order a drink at the bar. That drink will probably be an Old-Fashioned, the base spirit will probably be brandy, and unless something’s gone terribly awry, it’ll taste nothing like an Old-Fashioned served in any other part of the country.

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Boilo

Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
Boilo Recipe

This punch, locals will tell you, can be traced back to Pennsylvania’s immigrant coal mine workers. In the period between the end of the Civil War and the mid-1960s, anthracite mining boomed in Schuylkill and the surrounding counties, luring eager miners from all over Europe, including Ireland, Wales and Italy. The Lithuanians, however, are often credited with introducing proto-boilo to this part of the state; Infused with spices and herbal notes to temper the natural sweetness, krupnikas, the honey-flavored liqueur drunk throughout Eastern Europe, is the logical predecessor to what we know as boilo today.

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Sloshie

Jackson Hole
Sloshies

A sloshie might just sound like a typical boozy frozen drink to somebody who lives in any of the other 49 states—and that’s not incorrect. What’s remarkable is the insane fervor with which Wyoming residents, especially those in Jackson Hole, have embraced it. Originally appearing strictly at liquor stores and food marts, they are now available pretty much everywhere, from rowdy après-ski joints like Mangy Moose to craft distilleries like Wyoming Whiskey and Jackson Hole Still Works to the luxury hotel Caldera House and Dornan’s Chuckwagon grill, an old-fashioned “cowboy” range buffet where you can pair them with your $35 prime rib dinner.

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Alabama Slammer

Alabama
alabama slammer cocktail

For the uninitiated, an Alabama Slammer might sound more like a pro wrestler from Birmingham, or a new dance craze à la The Dougie or The Cupid Shuffle. But no. Typically comprised of Southern Comfort, sloe gin, amaretto and orange juice, the Alabama Slammer is a sunset-colored rallying cry of a cocktail. It is adolescent liquor cabinet raid turned recipe.

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Eggnog Daiquiri

New Orleans

No Christmas in New Orleans is complete without a drive down St. Charles Avenue to take in the decorated mansions and oak trees trimmed with Christmas lights, and no such drive is complete without a Cajun Eggnog Daiquiri. Debuting seasonally, the regional holiday specialty takes the classic eggnog ingredients and throws them into frozen drink machines at the city’s iconic drive-thrus, walk-up counters and, now, craft cocktail bars, which have put their own spin on the template.

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