The Sazerac

It feels like the best way to start this is to talk about the site’s namesake, and my favorite drink – The Sazerac. So here we go.

Without a doubt, every time someone asks me what my favorite drink is (and I’d say I get asked more often than most), they have to follow up with, “what is that?” I’ve come up with a few snappy responses to throw back at them without drowning the conversation in too many details, but I don’t think I’ve ever done a great job of explaining what the drink is, why I like it, and why someone else might want to try it. So, let’s break it down.

A Sazerac is whiskey, sugar, and bitters in an absinthe-rinsed glass.

Of course I’m oversimplifying it. I could get more specific on the proof of the rye, and the brand of bitters or absinthe, but this tends to be all of what is heard. And at this point, most people will say something like, “oh, like an Old Fashioned!” – they’re not wrong, but its simplicity is deceiving. As was pointed out by Noah Rothbaum and David Wonderich on an episode of the Life Behind Bars Podcast, if you let someone behind a bar to try to rebuild the drink without knowing what’s in it, they’d likely come up with ten or so bottles that needed to be included. Like so many of the most ubiquitous cocktails in the world, its beauty lies in its simplicity.

For as complex as its flavors can be, though, its beginnings are even more muddled. There are a hundred stories of the Sazerac’s origins and, unfortunately, almost all of them are wrong. The most popular story begins in New Orleans with its cognac base instead of today’s more standard rye whiskey. It goes on to say that the Sazerac is simply the byproduct of a young refugee pharmacist serving a tincture of his bitters mixed with brandy to a local bartender who then crafted the drink. The early New Orleans “historian” (and I’m using that term as loosely as possible), Stanley Clisby Arthur, is responsible for the tale, and it has fooled all of us for almost a century. His story even includes the origin of the word “cocktail” itself, thereby making the Sazerac the oldest cocktail, having been created right alongside its nomenclature. Believe me when I say that it was a sad day when I learned the contrary. I may not know much about much, but I knew about Sazeracs. As it turns out, though, everything I knew was wrong.

The truth of the Sazerac’s origin is a much less exciting story. But for as lackluster as it is, it makes far more sense. The Sazerac is, simply, an improved whiskey cocktail. In the late 1800s, cocktails were being “improved” left and right by adding newly available, exotic ingredients, specifically, absinthe and maraschino liqueur. It was common, at the time, to just order an anything-cocktail – brandy cocktail, whiskey cocktail, gin cocktail, whatever. The bartender would then put some of the choice booze in a glass along with a muddled lump of sugar and bitters to help it go down. Adding these new ingredients to cocktails offered something new without really changing the familiar, and therefore “improving” them. And thus, people had been adding absinthe to their whiskey cocktails for years before anyone made a big fuss about the name.

The source of the name itself is tricky, too. There was Sazerac branded brandy gunning for the title in the early years, and the Sazerac House of New Orleans insisting they invented it later on. But who’s got the real claim? It’s tough to say really, but the name is most likely a result of the Sazerac House bottling their improved whiskey cocktail in 1895 – a cocktail who’s recipe included, interestingly enough, a secret ingredient: maraschino liqueur. Even then, though, it would still be a few years before the first mention of a Sazerac Cocktail in publications, and then only really in reference to the Sazerac House’s famous bottled drinks. A recipe wouldn’t find its way to a page until 1908, albeit with the author’s own brand of bitters instead of the traditional Peychaud’s.

It seems to me that the Sazerac, beauty as it is, may just be an orphan, left over from the days of improved cocktails, and borrowed in whole or in part by persons or companies in order to advance their interests or to make a buck. I suppose in that sense, few drinks could be considered more American. It’s a strong, easy drinking, dangerous cocktail. And maybe it doesn’t need the cute story so many of us would like to give it. Maybe it doesn’t even have one. Maybe the Sazerac, just is. Maybe it always was. But for all of the discord surrounding it, this improved whiskey cocktail with a fancy name has lived on; hiding layers of complexity beneath the guise of a simple drink.

Sazerac

• 60 ml Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey
• 5 ml Gum Syrup
• 4 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters
  
  Stir and strain into a chilled rocks glass rinsed with good absinthe.
  Express a lemon peel over the drink and discard.

Oh, one more thing. If you’re in Austin next weekend, I’m having my annual Sazerac Hunt and you’re invited. It’s a fun way to experience the drink if you’ve never had one before, or if you’d just like to revisit a classic. You can find some more information or join HERE. Hope to see you there.