With half of
LUPEC Boston in NOLA for the
Tales of the Cocktail festival this week, it only seemed right to raise a glass to the
Sazerac, the city's official cocktail. It's not just a tag line you know: last month the Louisiana House of Representatives
proclaimed the Sazerac New Orleans' official cocktail in a 62-33 vote. (Did those 33 other legislators vote for the Ramos Gin Fizz?)
But you can't write casually about the
Sazerac. The history of the cocktail is complex and much debated, "so intricate and entangled in myth," writes David
Wondrich in
Imbibe!, "it requires a monograph of its own."
Wondrich reached page sixteen of his
Sazerac treatise before his editor made him stop, and if this historian-come-cocktail authority won't try for encyclopedic in his coverage of
Sazerac, neither will we. However, we can guide you to a few fun sources that sketch the lore of the
Sazerac. Below are a few facets of the
Sazerac myth which may or may not be true, but should absolutely be embellished to provide the most exciting story possible.
The Sazerac is the original cocktail. That's likely false, as
Wondrich argues rather compellingly in
Imbibe!: "There is in fact no written record of [the
Sazerac] before the first decade of the twentieth century, which is perfectly understandable: When all is said and done, the
Sazerac is merely a plain Whiskey (or Brandy)...Cocktail made with
Peychaud's bitters and finished with a dash of absinthe. A generation earlier, you could have ordered the same thing in any bar in America that served mixed drinks."
As
Wondrich's research reveals, written record of that elusive noun, "cocktail" appears as early as 1803 in a tiny little newspaper produced in a tiny little town called Amherst, New Hampshire (which is coincidentally, where I grew up.) The debate goes on and on, but the nomenclature and the execution of such a drink with such a name likely predate
Peychaud's home tippling.
The Sazerac was originally served in an egg cup. On The Gumbo Pages,
Chuck Taggart provides an excellent overview of the history of the
Sazerac. Here we learn that Creole apothecary Antoine
Amadie Peychaud moved to NOLA in the early 1800s, set up shop in the French Quarter, and began selling his signature tincture to "relieve the ails of all his clients." After hours
Peychaud mixed that magic tincture with a little cognac, water, and sugar for his friends. He served the drink in the large end of an egg cup -- a
coquetier en
Francais -- and the improper American pronunciation of this term led to the eventual appellation “cocktail”. In that version of the myth, the
Sazerac is thus the original cocktail,
Peychaud its father, and New Orleans its cradle. It’s as likely as landing a dinner meeting with the Easter bunny, but a good tale nonetheless.
The Sazerac became the Sazerac at the Sazerac Coffee House on Royal Street. Sewell Taylor christened the "
Sazerac Cocktail" as the signature drink of his
Sazerac Coffee House on Exchange alley in 1853 . The drink was to be made only with
Sazerac de Forge
et Fils brandy, a popular brand of cognac of which he was the
sole importer. Or was it
John Schiller who opened the
Sazerac Coffee House in 1859, and christened the
Sazerac Cocktail its signature drink to be made with
Sazerac brand cognac, for which he was the sole importer?
In any case, it was at the
Sazerac Coffee House that an innovative barkeep introduced the step of rinsing a glass with absinthe, and it was here, under new owner Thomas H. Handy (or was it
John Handy, as cited in
The Craft of the Cocktail?) that the principal spirit was changed from cognac to rye whiskey, circa 1870. Reasons for that switch are clear, at least: the
phylloxera epidemic in France made cognac hard to come by...or was it simply that the American palate favored rye? Maybe it was a little of both.
Sazerac de Forge
et Fils perished in the 1880s, but as one brand dies, another is born: a decade later the
Sazerac bar had grown into a
Sazerac company who began to bottle and sell the rye-based version of the drink. That same company sells a six-year-old
Sazerac brand rye today, as well as many other spirits.
Oh, what a tangled web history becomes when its scribes hit the
bottlet! The beauty of these modern times is that all of these ingredients (save the
Sazerac de Forge
et Fils cognac) are available today -- event absinthe! We suggest experimenting with the ingredients, ratios, and recipes you like the best, and matching it to your favorite foggy detailed story while mixing one up to impress your friends. Here are a few variations to get you started.
Exhibit A: Original(ish) Sazerac
from Imbibe!
by David Wondrich
This recipe is the first one in print for the whiskey-based version. Reprinted in David
Wonderich's Imbibe!, it was first published by William
Boothby as the late Tom Handy's recipe in an undated supplement to
THE WORLD'S DRINKS AND HOW TO MIX THEM:
Frappe [chill] an old-fashioned flat bar-glass; then take a mixing glass and muddle half a cube of sugar with a little water; add some ice, a jigger of good whiskey, two dashes of
Peychaud bitters, and a piece of twisted lemon peel; stir well until cold, then throw the ice out of the bar-glass, dash several drops of Absinthe into the same, and rinse well with the Absinthe. Now strain the Cocktail into frozen glass, and serve with ice water on the side.
A free copy of the LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF COCKTAILS goes to the first reader to try this with a good cognac and an egg cup and report back with pictures!
Exhibit B: King Cocktail's Sazerac Cocktail
from The Craft of the Cocktail
by Dale DeGroff
Dale
DeGroff's version calls for a little bit of everything. The plot thickens...
Splash of Ricard or
Herbsaint1 oz. VS cognac
1 oz. rye whiskey
1/2 oz. simple syrup
2 dashes
Peychaud's bitters
2 dashes Angostura bitters
lemon peel for garnish
Chill one rocks glass while preparing the drink in another. Splash the Ricard into another glass and swirl it, then pour it out. Add the cognac, rye, simple syrup, and the two kinds of bitters. Stir with ice cubes to chill. Strain into the chilled rocks glass and garnish with lemon peel.
Exhibit C: NOLA Gals Weigh In
from In the Land of Cocktails by Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally BrennanThis modern recipe calls for both
Peychaud's & Angostura bitters in uneven ratios,
Herbsaint, the local pastis that served as absinthe's understudy during the ban, and shaking, not stirring, the ingredients.
Makes 1 cocktail
1 tablespoon Herbsaint
1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey, preferably Old Overholt or Sazerac rye
1/2 teaspoon simple syrup
4 to 5 dashes Peychaud's bitters
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 lemon twist with the white pith removed, for garnish
Pour the
Herbsaint into a rocks glass and swirl to coat the inside. Discard any excess
Herbsaint. Fill the glass with ice to chill.
Combine the rye, simple syrup and Peychaud's and Angostura bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice. Cover and shake vigorously.
Discard the ice from the glass and strain the shaker mixture into the glass. Rub the rim of the glass with the lemon twist, add to the drink and serve immediately.
Enjoy your
Sazeracs, and Happy Tales to you!
