Sazerac, a cocktail that is so closely associated with New Orleans that in 2008 it was declared as the city’s official cocktail.
Until recently, the most popularly believed story of the Sazerac cocktail was one in which it supposedly underwent quite a few changes from when its journey began in New Orleans.
Circa 1840, Sewell T. Taylor established the Merchants Exchange Bar just down the street from Antoine Amédée Peychaud’s (of the Peychaud’s Bitters fame) apothecary. It is said that Antoine Amédée Peychaud used to treat his friends with a concoction of cognac, sugar and his secret blend of bitters. This brandy cocktail became quite popular and was being served in saloons across New Orleans especially at the Merchants Exchange Bar.
In 1850 Sewell T. Taylor sold his bar to Aaron Bird and became the local agent for a cognac brand called Sazerac de Forge et Fils. Aaron Bird started using this cognac to make the popular brandy cocktail using Peychaud’s bitters and served it under the name Sazerac as his signature drink.
Around 1870 Thomas H. Handy, who worked as a clerk for Sewell Taylor, took over the bar and renamed it the Sazerac Coffee House. Around 1873 Antoine Peychaud sold the formula & the rights to Peychaud’s Bitters to Thomas Handy. However Handy faced a predicament at this time, as cognac had become very hard to obtain due to the phylloxera epidemic that had destroyed the European Vineyards. So Handy substituted cognac for the local rye whiskey with a dash of Cognac until such time that the cognac was completely unavailable. He also started adding a splash of Absinthe which was a rage at that time. This drink became so popular that it replaced the cognac completely. However, through the recorded history of the Sazerac Coffee House, there is no mention of it as the inventor of the Sazerac Cocktail.
Interestingly, at that time Sazerac seemed to be a popular name for bars as there were other Sazerac Saloons to be found all across the country, in different cities like San Francisco, Houston etc. Also, the Sazerac Cognac was used for the popular brandy cocktail across the country and was called the Sazerac Cocktail.
In 1890 Thomas H. Handy Co. of New Orleans was also bottling and marketing the Sazerac Cocktail along with the Manhattan, the Martini, the Gin Cocktail, the Vermouth Cocktail, the Brandy Cocktail.
Sometime in 1919, the Sazerac Coffee House as well as the Thomas Handy Company are sold to Christopher O’Reilly, Handy’s former secretary, who renamed it as the Sazerac Company and launched an American whiskey by the same name.
Apparently, a handwritten recipe by Christopher O’Reilly for the bottled Whiskey Cocktail that was served in the Sazerac Bar had Rye Whiskey, Peychaud’s Bitter, Angostura Bitters and a bit of Maraschino. Obviously, one served it in an Absinthe rinsed glass.
The more plausible story is about 2 star bartenders William “Billy” Wilkinson & Vincent Miret who worked at The Sazerac Saloon in New Orleans in the 1880s. They were known to make the best Whiskey Cocktails in New Orleans, especially Miret. However, Miret died in 1899 and Billy Wilkinson who was famous for making the Sazerac Cocktail for business groups was attributed to creating this drink in a news report of 1902. They were probably the guys who put the Absinthe rinse into the Cocktail. Well to be fair, it is very similar to Jerry Thomas’s Improved Whiskey Cocktail! The only difference is that Absinthe is used as a rinse rather than being mixed in the cocktail itself and of course the use of Peychaud’s Bitters! The Sazerac Cocktail was named so, as it came out of the Sazerac Bar!
This beloved cocktail went through another transformation in 1912 when absinthe was banned in the US. It was substituted with another anise-flavored liqueur – Herbsaint.
SAZERAC
INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
