Stirred and served up, the Palmetto drinks like a Manhattan with aged rum where the whiskey would be, equal parts spirit and sweet vermouth folding into a smooth, faintly herbal sip. A couple of dashes of orange bitters and an expressed peel lift a bright citrus edge over the rum's warm, molasses-dark depth.
Garnish: Orange Peel
Stirred · Coupe · Up
add
Combine the aged rum, sweet vermouth, and orange bitters in a mixing glass with ice.
stir
Stir until well chilled and diluted, about 20-30 seconds.
strain
Strain into a chilled coupe.
express
Express an orange twist over the surface.
garnish
Drop the orange twist into the drink.
No one is recorded as the inventor of the Palmetto; by some accounts it reached print around 1908, and it is plainly on the page in Jacques Straub's 1913 Manual of Mixed Drinks, mixed from St. Croix rum, vermouth and bitters. Harry Craddock later set it down in his 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book as equal measures of St. Croix rum and Italian vermouth — documenting a drink already in circulation rather than creating one. Its name points to the palmetto palm, and the various printed versions since have all kept the same Manhattan-like frame.