Thirsty? This series will provide delicious drink recipes for you to try at home. So call your friends for a virtual sip session and traverse the globe, even if it's only in your glass.
Today's cocktail hails from New Orleans – Sazerac.
What is it?
Home to jazz greats and Mardi Gras, New Orleans is a heady combination of history and hedonism – and so is the city’s official drink, the bold yet elegant Sazerac.
Origins
The Sazerac is credited to Antoine Amedie Peychaud, a New Orleans apothecary who served up homemade bitters, cognac and absinthe as a treatment for digestive problems in the 1830s. Decades later, absinthe was banned and cognac production dropped due to a grapevine pest devastating crops, but the Sazerac lived on, with whiskey and anise-flavored Herbsaint instead of cognac and absinthe.
You'll need (serves 1)
1tsp (5ml) absinthe or Herbsaint
2fl oz (60ml) cognac, rye whiskey or bourbon
1½fl oz (15ml) sugar syrup
3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
ice
strip of lemon zest, pith removed
Method
Step 1: Swirl the absinthe (or Herbsaint) around the inside of a well-chilled short tumbler to coat. Discard any excess.
Step 2: Add the cognac, rye whiskey or bourbon, sugar syrup and bitters to a separate glass. Fill with ice and stir with a bar spoon until the drink is ice-cold.
Step 3: Strain the drink into the absinthe-coated old-fashioned glass.
Step 4: Twist the lemon zest over the top (this will release the aromatic lemon oil into the drink) and drop it in to the cocktail as a garnish if you wish.
Tasting notes
After a day spent strolling through New Orleans’ atmospheric French Quarter, a Sazerac is just the thing to kick off a big night in the Big Easy. As the sun sets on historic balconied buildings and saxophones wail into the sultry night air, settle in to a dive bar and order this potent cocktail, a well-balanced mix of spicy rye whiskey laced with medicinal aniseed that’s best accompanied by a raucous jazz band and a lively crowd.
Even those who don’t like whiskey will enjoy a Sazerac’s herbaceous scent and caramel undertones, and it’s worth trying one with bourbon or cognac, too. Bourbon adds a fiery burnt-sugar note, while cognac makes a Sazerac smoother than the Nola bartender who convinced you to try all three.
Other recipes:
Dark and Stormy
Bloody Mary
Mai Tai
This article was originally published in April 2020 and updated in October 2020.
