Exactly as happened more than 110 years ago with Ramos Gin Fizz, Sazerac is another iconic drink that was amazingly popular. Hopefully, both of those cocktails are still popular and continue to influence what bartenders put in our glasses. Sazerac is one of those old school drinks that could not be created without a kind of bitters and a glass rinsed with aromatic liquers or a touch of absinthe.
The sazerac cocktail was invented in New Orleans in the early 1800s by pharmacist Antoine Peychaud. That’s why he included his own bitters inside the recipe and this is the reason why we still have to use Peychaud’s bitters every time we want to recreate the Sazerac drink properly. Here is all you need and what you have to do (pictures by Vangelis Patsialos):
- 1 sugar cube
- 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
- 60 ml rye whiskey (rye, not just bourbon)
- 1 tsp absinthe
Pour the absinthe bitters into an old fashioned glass. Swirl it around until the inside of the glass is completely coated. Discard the excess. Place the glass in the freezer to chill. Place sugar in the bottom of a mixing glass and soak it with the bitters. Muddle the sugar and bitters into a colourful paste. Add whiskey and stir until sugar dissolves. Add some ice cubes and stir for another 30 seconds. Strain into the frosted glass and garnish with a lemon twist. As David Wondrich has written inside his book Imbibe: “… if ever there was a drink that cries out for the terminal spray of lemon oil, it’s this …” You shall not add any extra ice into the glass. Enjoy this seductive cocktail and feel its full body with the high alcohol content and the senseful complexity.
