Road Trip Series: Satisfy Your Thirst SC
Those South Carolinians have always had a thirst for unique beverages. From moonshine and craft beer to sweet tea, hear about Southern drinks from the “curly ladies who talk cocktails daily!”
In this seminar, led by South Carolina’s Cocktail Bandits, guests will taste the history and tradition of the Palmetto State. Join the adventure and discover the craftsmanship and stories behind some of the state’s most iconic drinks.
Link to class below:
http://sched.co/6WhU
Graphic by Taylor Brown
Destination Delicious – Atlanta Food & Wine Festival 2016
We’re building the ultimate road trip with delicious chef creations, fantastic libations, live music and our favorite Southern destinations. Presented by The Local Palate, Destination Delicious will showcase the flavors and traditions of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and more.
Join us during Destination Delicious during Atlanta Food & Wine Festival on June 2nd at 7:30. We are serving this summer cocktail featuring Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, @drinkbittermilk and hand made Palmetto Roses by @fletcherwilliamsiii
Cocktail Photography by Marianne Rogers @basilandbubbly
For the love of wine
Robin and Andrea McBride, of Truvee’ Wines, are truly inspirational ladies who are changing the look and taste of the wine world.
These 
sisters grew up separately, in different wine regions of the world (California and New Zealand) and their father’s last wish was for them “to find” each other before he passed away. His dream was realized when the ladies met for the first time at the ages of 16 and 25.
Years later, after learning and combining each other’s wine background and experience, the McBride Sisters created Truvee’ Wines. The word “Truvee” means “to find”, that name reflects the McBrides’ amazing story, as well as their mission “to find” the best grapes to “craft authentic, yet affordable wine.” Truvee Wines has 3 expressions: Chardonnay, a Red Blend, and Rose’.
Grand Bohemian Social Media Dinner
We convened in the gallery for a reception of cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres. The eclectic art pieces served as conversation pieces as we mingled with other guest catching up and discussing upcoming plans.
The party moved to the rooftop terrace, to a beautiful just before sunset view, and our first course with its accompanying wine. Our palates cleansed, we were educated by the sommelier, Scott Newman as to the region of origin of our featured grapes and formally introduced to the head chef, the man responsible for our delectable meal.
We were seated next to Charleston Foodie Babe, longtime social media friend and Queen of the Foodage. Our playful discussion continued well past dessert which was cloyingly sweet and light.
The Z team gifted us with Eleve custom dry spice rub in use in our own kitchen and complimentary brunch back at the rooftop bar. Grand Bohemian is beginning to feel a lot like home.
Gentry Bourbon Launch Party
Every trip out to Boone Hall Plantation sets the stage for a majestic evening. The scenic drive down the antebellum dirt road is a picture of Southern perfection.
We were greeted by JD Madison, the man of the night’s smiling face for a quick photo session. After which we made a beeline to the bar for the signature cocktail. The newly released Gentry Bourbon is an homage to the JD’s grandfather who fostered his appreciation for the spirit.
JD prefers to drink Gentry Bourbon neat but suggest that new bourbon drinkers add soda or ice to better approach the aged spirit. Sermet’s, Mr. Madison’s King Street restaurant provided a bevy of bites including a bar complete with chocolate dipped pretzels, cookies and bacon!
We suggest sipping your Gentry Bourbon while nibbling on a piece of fine chocolate to pull all the sweet oaky note from the whiskey, in #GentleLadySips
#DrinkLocal Challenge in April for Lowcountry Local First
For the month of April, the Cocktail Bandits were asked by Lowcountry Local First, to do a drink local challenge. The goal of this challenge, was to show people how they can spend their money locally and keep it in the community. We drank local coffee, juice, beer, and cocktails. We are huge advocates for supporting your local food and Bev so this was a challenge we couldn’t refuse! Enjoy our four-part series to drinking local in Charleston!
1. #DrinkLocalCoffee
We don’t drink coffee often, but when we do, we want to do it locally. During this month, we drink coffee from our local coffee shops and enjoyed every sip. We love the ladies from the Orange Spot Coffee House located in Park Circle in North Charleston. They are doing really cool things there, like making delicious savory lattes with seasonal ingredients…. Yummy! We love to cure our coffee fixes at The Orange Spot!
2. #DrinkLocalJuice
Juicing is an important part of the Cocktail Bandit diet. We love juices for our morning boosts and we definitely like to keep them local like the juice spot called Huriyali. All of their juices are seasonal and AMAZING! They have a strawberry juice now that is seriously addictive. It’s such a cute spot right on Huger St.
When we are not purchasing our juices, we are making them ourselves. We love to go to the Farmers Market and get local produce and make our own juices and smoothies. One of our favorite vendors is Joseph Fields from Fields Farm. His produce is amazing. The farmers market is a great way to keep all of your seasonal veggies for juicing.
3. #DrinkLocalBeer
If you know the Bandits, you know that we love a good beer. We are so thankful that Charleston provides us with so many craft breweries so we can always drink a local cold one. We had the pleasure of visiting Holy City Brewery and it was a delicious experience. Their Pluff Mud porter is so amazing that they made a BBQ sauce out of it! (And it’s pretty good too!) Holy City carries over 20 beers in their tap and you can find them in almost every bar in Charleston. They also make this pineapple soda that’s light, and tastes as good as the beer! Holy City Brewery is a gem and people are always there drinking locally.
4. #DrinkLocalCocktails
Of course a drink local challenge would not be complete if we didn’t include cocktails!! We love that the bartenders here incorporate local ingredients in their cocktails. Most places even have seasonal cocktail menus now. We definitely had a great time ordering local and an even better time drinking local.
We went to Obstinate Daughter and they have 2 cocktails on tap and both were local spirits. The cocktail that we chose we called the King’s Honey; made with King Charles Vodka from Charleston Distilling, and Honey Basil soda from Cannon Bourough Beverage Company.
Spectator Hotel is doing some amazing things with local ingredients as well. They have a seasonal cocktail called the Bees Knees that is made with local honey and garnished with seasonal edible flowers. It’s was light, refreshing, and not to mention, beautiful!!
5. #DrinkLocalWine
Last week we had the pleasure of going out to Wadmalaw Island to Deep Water Vinyards; formally Irving House Vinyards, to taste their wine. They make it with muscadine grapes, and although some believe that it’s impossible to make good with these grapes, we were impressed. The Reds and the Whites were smooth but not too sweet. Their best seller, Magnolia, was a dry white that we found quite delicious. It was our first time trying this wine and it did not disappoint.
We are huge supporters of drinking/eating locally and we are so thankful to live in a city that supports it as well. Charleston is such an incredible place where locals support each other. We had a great time doing this challenge!
Satisfy Your Thirst Tour SC
South Carolina: a state rich in history and culture. Follow us on a journey around the state visiting different breweries, distilleries, creameries and juice joints. We’re stopping through Columbia to taste @conquestbrewingand driving to Anderson to sip handcrafted whiskey from@palmettodistilling
Those are just a few stops on the#SatisfyYourThirstTourSC
Download the app to find out how close you are to an SC #liquidasset
Charlie Magazine 50 Most Progressive 2016!!!
Thanks Charlie Magazine and Victoria Boynton for the great piece on us. We feel honored to be listed among real change leaders in the Lowcountry.
http://www.readcharlie.com/50-most-progressive/2016/4/7/professional-collaborators
Makeup by Demi C Washington
The Royal Wild Photography
Charleston Wine and Food: Roasted Goat
The roasted goat had to be our favorite event of this year’s Charleston Wine and Food Festival. It was located at HighWire Distillery’s parking lot and featured different restaurants sampling they’re delicious eats as well as different boozy beverages. We enjoyed tasting all of the different variations of the Star of the Night: roasted goat.
Even though goat was the staple of that event, we wanted to spotlight the fried chicken that we sampled from Urban Grub, located in Nashville TN. We literally stood in line for 20 minutes to taste it, but it was so worth it! We have to visit them when we visit Tennessee! The chicken was delicious.
We enjoyed seeing our “Discover SC” family at the Roasted Goat event as well. They are very supportive of the Bandits and we can’t wait to collaborate with them.
The music, ambiance, cocktails and people were perfect that night and the fact that our glasses were always filled with some type of alcoholic beverage never hurts the cause. We look forward to this event next year.
Charleston Wine and Food Festival: Opening Night
The Charleston Wine and Food Festival was a week full of delicious food, great cocktails, exquisite wine and a damn good time! There were over 200 events that took place during #chswff, but we are going to talk about the events that we enjoyed!
Opening Night
Opening night took place at the newly renovated Gilliard Auditorium. It was gorgeous. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted with our wine glasses and there were food/drink stations everywhere! The music was on point, and everyone was there having a blast! The Charleston Wine and Food cocktail contest winner, Iouli Burroughs of Fish Restaurant was able to show of his winning cocktail at opening night called the Bon Vivant, made with Hendricks Gin.
CHSWFF also partnered with the Art Institute of Charleston and had some of the local designer students showcasing their work as we sampled from different restaurants and bars. It was the absolutely favorite part of the event.
We had the pleasure of meeting our followers from social media! We loved seeing so many people who follow the Cocktail Bandits out at opening night, supporting the local festivities. Overall, opening night was a success. We were excited for MORE!!
