“If you didn’t have a spritz every day at 3 p.m., did you even go to Italy?” muses Molly*, a 33-year-old journalist from Philadelphia. On her 12-day honeymoon through six Italian cities, she ordered a steady supply of prosecco-based cocktails, even if she thought they made her basic. When in Rome, right?

Elle, 31, likes to taste local spirits when she travels as a way of feeling more connected to a place. When the content producer visited the Dominican Republic from New York last year, she was intrigued by mamajuana, a rum-wine mix known as an aphrodisiac. She liked hearing locals talk about it with pride. “You remember drinks because they come with a story, a feeling, and a sense of place,” she says.

Drinking based on one’s destination is hardly a new concept. While it’s difficult to pi

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