FINAL_ Sweetpotato Cocktail Guide

Sweet Potatoes in North Carolina Native Americans were growing sweet potatoes when Columbus arrived in the New Land in 1492. By the 16th century, sweet potatoes were being cultivated in the southern states, becoming a staple on the dinner table. North Carolina has been the number one sweet potato producing state since 1971. Our farmers now grow more than 50 percent of the United States’ sweet potato crop each year. State-of-the-art storage means North Carolina sweet potatoes are available all year long and are just as fresh as the day they were harvested. Cocktail culture has followed the farm-to-table movement from the kitchen to the bar. Including fresh produce in cocktails is an ongoing initiative gaining in popularity. Modern mixology cocktails are meant to be a noteworthy event, with each creation offering a different texture, flavor and style. When you take the rules of cocktails away, what can be a seemingly forgettable ingredient can become a memorable experience. True yams are starchy edible tubers imported to the United States, often from Africa and Asia. Yams are rough and scaly with a pinkish white center. They can grow up to six feet long and weigh 100 pounds. Sweet potatoes are fleshy storage roots and not related to yams. So, why are sweet potatoes called yams? Decades ago, when orange flesh sweet potatoes were first introduced to the United States, farmers needed a way to distinguish them from the white flesh sweet potato varieties people were familiar with. They chose to use the English form of the African word “nyami” and labeled the orange flesh sweet potatoes as “yams.” Sweet potatoes are not related to potatoes. Both vegetables grow underground but potatoes are underground stems called tubers. What’s in a Name?

1