Classic Cocktails: The Sazerac

Classic Cocktails: Sazerac
by Michael Frank 

Whenever I go to one of those speakeasy type bars, I like to order a Sazerac or two. There's something special about how the bitter green herbaceousness matches with the anise flavors of the absinthe while embracing the sweetness and terroir of the Cognac with open arms. Without absinthe or in some instances Herbsaint, the Sazerac would simply be an Old Fashioned with a different base spirit. And while a good Old Fashioned is great, the luxuriousness and deeper complexity of a good Sazerac transports you to a different place in time. Or perhaps it’s just me getting caught up in the moment. Either way, it’s a really good drink. While you can have a Sazerac with a good meal this one stands up on its own as a companion to a long evening of deep discussion and good times-- I suggest you pair it with rich, decadent chocolate desserts. 


Besides the time of its first inception, the history for this cocktail is surprisingly concrete. It all started to come together In the early 1850s. It was a time long ago in New Orleans, Louisiana, when our nation was just getting geared up for the civil war. The newly formed nation was doing a lot of international trade with Europe in exchange for our cotton, furs and many other hard goods that were abundant in the new world. In exchange, we saw a great era of prosperity and, more importantly for this story's sake, fancy European booze flooding the American market. The temperance movement was in its infancy and the wheels of progress were the hot topic of the day. Needless to say, it was a stressful time, an uncertain time and a perfect time for a stiff drink.

In the early 1850s a businessman by the name of Sewell E. Taylor had a thriving business importing goods from France, particularly the Sazerac de Forge et Fils brand of Cognac. He also had a bar to peddle his wares: the Sazerac House Bar. At the time, absinthe was all the rage in France and being a successful merchant he was also importing this inebriating elixir. Now, as I can tell you from personal experience, you do not want to serve customers a lot of absinthe in the traditional method. I won’t go into details but I’ll say this: whatever reason you think it is, yes, that and more.

Sewell being a smart man knew this and to keep his customers drinking, safe and alive he had his team come up with a cocktail. Thus, the Sazerac is born. It’s worth noting that one of his main conspirators in this was the pharmacist Antoine Peychauds, the creator of Peychaud's Bitters that are used in Sazeracs. It may seem funny to us now to have a medical professional collaborating with a booze slinger. For context though, cocaine and opium-laced drinks were the primary medicine at the time.

Over the years this cocktail has evolved and adapted to stay alive and relevant. Most notably, when phylloxera swept across Europe in the mid-19th century, destroying grape vines and vineyards, Cognac became all but a thing of memory and was replaced by rye whiskey. The second is the outlawing of absinthe in the early 1900s. Absinthe was quickly replaced with Herbsaint and the Sazerac tradition moved on. Depending on whether you want to maintain historical accuracy or not, you’ll have a lot of options. For a base spirit you can go the original pre-phylloxera route and use a Cognac. Or, you could go with the more new school route and use a spicy American rye whiskey.

For bar tools

Jigger 666444
Rocks Glass 106639
Barspoon 612123
 

For consumables

Herbsaint 112800
Peychaud's Bitters 120540
Hennessy Privilege VSOP 112720
Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey 166244
Sugar Cubes
Ice 





Step 1
Start by taking your two rocks glasses and putting them side by side. Fill the one on the left with ice and the glass on your right throw in about three dashes of peychaud's bitters.

Step 2
Add half an ounce of Herbsaint to the glass with ice. Give it a quick stir and then let it sit. Don’t worry, we want it to get all melty and weird for something later. Although the original calls for absinthe, I prefer to use the wormwood outlaw substitute. My primary reasoning is that I’m going to be dumping it all out later and Herbsaint is significantly cheaper and as far as your palate is concerned it’s practically the same thing

Step 3
Now take your jigger and measure out one ounce of Cognac and one ounce of rye into the glass on the right that you dressed with Peychaud's Bitters. Normally I would tell you to stir, but in this case don’t worry about it. As I noted up above some people like to build this cocktail with rye and some wirth Cognac. I ,however, am an indecisive kind of guy so I use both. I use Rittenhouse for it’s spicy clean finish and Hennessy VSOP because my research tells me that it’s going to be the closest in style to the smaller Cognac house of the era. Also, I really like Hennessy VSOP.

Step 4
Take the glass on the left, the one with the ice and Herbsaint. Give it one last quick stir and dump it all out. Don’t be scared, just throw it all out. This, is how you create what we like to call a rinse. I know it seems wasteful… and it is. Unfortunately, none of the other methods I’ve tried work the same. If you would like to experiment you could try using a spray bottle, a spritzer or a swab brush.

Step 5
Take the Herbsaint-rinsed glass you just dumped out and throw some more ice in it. Then take that boozy concoction you have sitting aside and slowly pour it over the ice and discard the now empty glass. Take it easy with the transfer to make sure you don’t spill anything.

Step 6
Peel your lime, zest it, rim the glass the place it nicely on the rim to garnish.

Step 7
Enjoy!

 
Some of the fun ways to play around with a Sazerac is by playing with the rinse or the base spirit. Instead of Cognac perhaps a good Spanish brandy or Armagnac? Maybe even a bourbon or Scotch for the base. I did one with an Ardbeg 10 and it was awesome. In place of Herbsaint or absinthe try a green Chartreuse. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and ingenuity.

To see our above cocktail aficionados in action (L to R: Michael, Don, Sean), check out their YouTube channel and find out "What Do Billionaires Drink?"

May your cocktail adventures be glorious!