Sazerac (cocktail)
| IBA Official Cocktail | |
|---|---|
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| A Sazerac at Rye Bar, San Francisco | |
| Type | Cocktail |
| Primary alcohol by volume | |
| Served | Straight up; without ice |
| Standard garnish |
Lemon peel |
| Standard drinkware |
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| IBA specified ingredients* |
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| Preparation | Rinse a chilled old-fashioned glass with the absinthe, add crushed ice, and set it aside.
Stir the remaining ingredients over ice and set it aside. Discard the ice and any excess absinthe from the prepared glass, and strain the drink into the glass. Add the lemon peel for garnish. |
| Notes | Note: The original recipe changed in the latter part of the 19th century. Rye whiskey was substituted when Cognac became difficult to obtain. |
| * Sazerac recipe at International Bartenders Association | |
Lemon peel
Stir the remaining ingredients over ice and set it aside. Discard the ice and any excess absinthe from the prepared glass, and strain the drink into the glass. Add the lemon peel for garnish.
The Sazerac is a local New Orleans variation of a Cognac or whiskey cocktail, named for the Sazerac de Forge et Fils brand of Cognac brandy that served as its original main ingredient. The drink is most traditionally a combination of Cognac or rye, absinthe, Peychaud's Bitters, and sugar, although bourbon whiskey or Herbsaint are sometimes substituted. Some claim it is the oldest known American cocktail, with origins in pre–Civil War New Orleans, although drink historian David Wondrich is among those who dispute this, and American instances of published usage of the word cocktail to describe a mixture of spirits, bitters, and sugar can be traced to the dawn of the 19th century.
The defining feature of the Sazerac is its method of preparation, which commonly involves two chilled old-fashioned glasses. The first glass is swirled with a wash of absinthe for its flavor and strong scent. The second glass is used to combine the remaining ingredients, which are stirred with ice, then strained into the first glass. Various anisettes such as pastis, Pernod, or Herbsaint are common substitutes when absinthe is unavailable. In New Orleans, Herbsaint is most commonly used due to the absence of absinthe in the U.S. market from 1912 until 2007.
Around 1850, Sewell T. Taylor sold his New Orleans bar, The Merchants Exchange Coffee House, to become an importer of spirits, and he began to import a brand of Cognac named Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils. Meanwhile, Aaron Bird assumed proprietorship of the Merchants Exchange and changed its name to Sazerac Coffee House. Legend has it that Bird began serving the "Sazerac Cocktail", made with Sazerac Cognac imported by Taylor, and allegedly with bitters being made by the local apothecary, Antoine Amedie Peychaud. The Sazerac Coffee House subsequently changed hands several times, when around 1870, Thomas Handy became its proprietor. It is around this time that the primary ingredient changed from Cognac to rye whiskey, due to the phylloxera epidemic in Europe that devastated the vineyards of France. At some point before his death in 1889, Handy recorded the recipe for the cocktail, which made its first printed appearance in William T. "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them (1908), although his recipe calls for Selner Bitters, not Peychaud's. After absinthe was banned in the US in 1912, it was replaced by various anise-flavored liqueurs, most notably the locally produced Herbsaint, which first appeared in 1934.
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