How to make a sazerac.

The Sazerac Cocktail is one of my favorite whiskey cocktails. The simple yet potent cocktail is one of the, if not the oldest, cocktails in the United States.

Before we get into its history, what is a Sazerac? The Sazerac is a local New Orleans variation of a brandy cocktail. The drink traditionally combines rye whiskey, absinthe, Peychaud's Bitters, and sugar.

So where did this cocktail come from? It is long and unclear who gets the credit. Let’s start with Antoine Amedie Peychaud, an apothecary from Haiti. He prescribed and dispensed his patented herbal bitters as a toddy mixed with water, sugar, and French brandy to relieve the ails of all his clients. In the 1840s, cocktails started appearing in coffee houses, which allowed for the spread of the pharmaceutical brandy cocktail as local coffee houses began recreating the drink for their customers, not always using his bitters.

Then around 1850, Sewell T. Taylor, an international importer, started, The Merchants Exchange Coffee House. He began to import (and was the sole importer) a French brand of brandy named Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils. Meanwhile, Aaron Bird assumed operations of the Merchants Exchange and, a few years later, changed its name to Sazerac Coffee House. Only using Sazerac brandy and Peychaud bitters.

The Sazerac Coffee House changed hands several times until around 1870, Thomas H Handy became its proprietor. Around this time, the primary ingredient changed from brandy to rye whiskey. This is due to the phylloxera epidemic in Europe that devastated the vineyards of France.

During this same time, T.V. Munson worked on a rootstock to save the French wine and grape industry. How Texas saved the French wine and Cognac industry is a story for another time.

Sometime before his death, Handy recorded the recipe for the cocktail. It made its first printed appearance in The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them (1908), according to Wikipedia.

So how can you have an authentic Sazerac when Absinthe is illegal in the United States? Well, it was illegal, and I am sure some still are. The Absinthe prohibition act passed in 1915, but thanks to T.A. Breaux in 2007, the TTB issued its final approval, allowing Lucid Absinthe Superieure to be the first genuine absinthe imported in 95 years.

What is genuine absinthe? You can find the long and detailed on their website; it is an herb-to-bottle product. The recipe is from 100+ years ago and uses only natural French herbs with the appropriate amount of Wormwood.

While there is still much more we could dive into, let's get to the cocktail.

Sazerac Cocktail

Ingredients

2 oz Rye Whiskey

.5 oz Absinthe

.25 oz simple syrup or 1 sugar cube

2 dashes Peychaud's Bitters

How to make

Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice and set it aside. In a separate glass, stir the rye, simple syrup, and bitters over ice. Discard the ice from the prepared glass and rinse with the absinthe. Then strain the other ingredients into the chilled glass. Add the Lemon peel for garnish.