Say Their Names

September is Bourbon Heritage Month — and I don't toast the month without naming whose month it is. Bourbon was shaped by enslaved and freed Black distillers: the hands that tended the mash and read the char on the barrel while someone else signed the label. That silence is the same one Aminata the heroine of our September Bourbon and Books pick, The Book of Negroes, spends a whole novel refusing. A register of names as the only door to freedom; a woman who survives, in part, because she can write the names down. Remembering, here, isn't sentiment. It's survival.

A hibiscus cask strength bourbon sour — ancestral, tart, and warm.

Say Their Names

2 oz New Dawn Bourbon

¾ oz hibiscus (sorrel) syrup

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

½ oz fresh lemon juice

1 barspoon dark wildflower honey

2 dashes cardamom bitters

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake hard until well chilled, about 12–15 seconds. Strain over one large cube in a rocks glass. Garnish with a wide strip of orange peel expressed over the top and set on the rim like an offering, plus one dried hibiscus flower.

Hibiscus (sorrel) syrup:Bring to boil 1 cup of water, ¼ cup dried hibiscus, 2 slices fresh ginger, 4 cloves, 6 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick, anise pod, and a strip of orange peel. Reduce temp and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain; stir in ¾ cup sugar while warm. Cool. Keeps refrigerated up to 2 weeks.