Chapel Hill drinkers to ABC stores: Got rye?

“Statewide, [liquor] drinking habits follow patterns, sometimes unexpected ones. Rural counties like Bertie, Greene and Hertford have an outsized appetite for gin, while Dare, Currituck, Onslow and other coastal counties imbibe rum at an accelerated rate….

“Tennessee whiskey sells better closer to North Carolina’s western boundary….  Wake, Durham and Orange counties all are significantly ahead of the state average in rye sales, peaking at 463 percent above the norm in Orange County.

“ ‘Rye is a hot new trend right now, for sure. Most of my business is on the south side in Chapel Hill,’ said Barry Roberts, buyer and warehouse manager for Orange County’s ABC board. ‘Rittenhouse Rye is particularly hard to find. I order it 50 cases at a time when I can get it.’ ”

— From “What We Drink in North Carolina,” an entertaining data dive in the Wilmington Star-News (Sept. 6)

Not so beloved: Elvis Presley Coconut Water Vodka

(Hat tip: John L. Robinson)