Sazerac

Taste

Two ounces of rye, one barspoon of simple, four dashes of Peychaud's. The absinthe is a rinse, a thin anise film on the glass. Four dashes of Peychaud's is a lot: cherry and spice, enough to pink the drink. Rocks with no ice. The barspoon of sugar is the softness in it.

History

The Sazerac takes its name from Sazerac de Forge et Fils cognac, imported into New Orleans by Sewell Taylor around 1850 and poured at the Sazerac Coffee House with Antoine Peychaud's bitters. Thomas Handy took the bar around 1870; phylloxera wrecked French stocks, and rye replaced the cognac. Stanley Clisby Arthur's 1937 Famous New Orleans Drinks credits Leon Lamothe with the absinthe around 1870. However, David Wondrich treats the named drink as later, a bottled whiskey cocktail first printed by William T. Boothby in 1908. New Orleans named it the official cocktail of the city in 2008. Two ounces of rye, one barspoon of simple, four dashes of Peychaud's, and an absinthe rinse, in a rocks glass with no ice.

• Difford's Guide, Sazerac (New Orleans style)

Same shape, other bottles

The Old-Fashioned family, with the bottle that changed.

• Improved Coctailwith maraschino liqueur
• Old-Fashionedbourbon and demerara syrup for rye and simple syrup
• Rum Old Fashionedaged rum and demerara syrup for rye and simple syrup
• Scotch Old-Fashionedscotch for rye
• Torontodemerara syrup for simple syrup
• Cornerstonecachaça and grenadine for rye and simple syrup