Bourbon, built
Seelbach
Barline 1,h,7,7,t,ho
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 oz Bourbon
- 1/2 oz Orange liqueur
- 7 dashes Angostura bitters
- 7 dashes Peychaud's bitters
- top with Champagne
Build in the glass with no ice, then top.
Highball or flute, orange twist.
Taste
An ounce of bourbon, half an ounce of orange liqueur, then seven dashes each of Angostura and Peychaud's, which is enough bitters to colour the glass and to run the drink. Champagne on top, an orange twist over that. Spiced orange over whiskey, dry at the finish.
History
Adam Seger created this at the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville in 1995, then invented a history for it: he said he had found it on the hotel's pre-Prohibition menus and dated it to about 1917. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported the rediscovery, Gary and Mardee Regan printed it in New Classic Cocktails in 1997, and Ted Haigh repeated it in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails in 2009, by which point it was taken as fact. Seger confessed to Gary Regan, and Robert Simonson published the debunking in The New York Times in October 2016. The drink is real; only its age was made up. This menu pours an ounce of bourbon, half an ounce of orange liqueur, seven dashes each of Angostura and Peychaud's, and Champagne, with an orange twist.
Same shape, other bottles
The Sparkling family, with the bottle that changed.
- Champagne Cocktailcognac for bourbon
- Death in the Afternoonwith absinthe
- Queen Beevodka and elderflower liqueur for bourbon and orange liqueur
- Negroni Sbagliatowith sweet vermouth and Campari
- Ritzcognac and maraschino liqueur for bourbon and orange liqueur
- Old Cubanaged rum for bourbon
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.