Episode 54: Sazerac

  • 1/4 ounce absinthe, or anise liqueur

  • 1 sugar cube

  • 3 dashes Peychaud's Bitters

  • 2 ounces rye whiskey

  • Lemon twist, for garnish

Add absinthe to a well chilled old-fashioned glass and swirl it around to coat the glass. Discard any excess absinthe that pools in the glass.
In a separate mixing glass, soak the sugar cube with the bitters and muddle to crush the cube.
Add the rye whiskey and plenty of ice and stir for about 30 seconds.
Stain the cocktail into the absinthe-rinsed glass.
Gently squeeze the lemon twist over the drink to release its oils. You can use it to garnish the rim, but traditionalists say it should never be dropped into the actual cocktail.

The Sazerac is New Orleans most famous cocktail, and some people claim it’s one of the oldest American cocktail recipes ever recorded. There are two origin stories, but both of them involve a now defunct brand of cognac, Sazerac de Forge et Fils, and a pharmacist and Creole immigrant named Antoine Amédée Peychaud, who invented Peychaud’s curative bitters.

One story has it that the owner of a New Orleans bar, originally called the Merchants Exchange Coffee House, started importing Sazerac cognac and changed the name of his bar to the Sazerac Coffee House. He created a cocktail by adding absinthe and a locally produced cocktail bitters to his imported French cognac, and the rest is history.

The other story says that Antoine Peychaud invented the cocktail himself as a way to boost sales of his medicinal bitters. Either way, we know the Sazerac was invented in New Orleans sometime between the 1830s and the 1850s, and we know that in the 1870s, when phylloxera almost completely wiped out France's wine and brandy production, the cognac in the Sazerac was replaced with American rye whiskey, which remains the main ingredient in the cocktail today.

Along with Rye whiskey and peychauds bitters, the Sazerac also contains a sugar cube and an absinthe rinse, though other anise flavored liqueurs were used when absinthe was illegal in the US.

This classic wasn’t just popular in the mid-nineteenth century though. In the late 2000s, at the height of the cocktail culture resurgence, many bartenders were moving backward from prohibition era cocktails to even older recipes. Not only were old fashioned cocktails making a comeback, so were old fashioned spirits like Rye whiskey. Before the mid 2000s, the majority of American whiskey drinkers preferred Bourbon, but in their quest for balance and flavor, mixologists discovered that the dry spiciness of rye made for better mixed cocktails than the sweeter bourbon. Between 2007 and 2008, sales of Rye whiskey spiked by 30 percent.

Also, In 2007, the nearly century old ban on Absinthe in the United States was finally overturned, so absinthe suddenly flooded the bar scene in the United States.

Suddenly all the high-end cocktail bars in the country had both absinthe and rye on their menus, and they make up two out of four ingredients in a Sazerac. Ten years earlier the Sazerac was almost completely forgotten outside a few specialty bars in New Orleans, but thanks to cocktail historians like David Wondrich, by 2007 it was on cocktail menus across the nation. In 2008, the Louisiana Legislature voted to make the Sazerac New Orleans’ official cocktail, and by 2009 it was everywhere.

Some bartenders prefer to use an anise flavored liqueur rather than absinthe, and some prefer a mix of peychauds and angostura bitters rather than peychauds alone. But almost all bartenders agree that a Sazerac should always be stirred, never shaken, and should always be served without ice in an oversized rocks or old-fashioned glass.


Episode 23: Ramos Gin Fizz


  • 1 egg white

  • 2 oz. Old Tom gin

  • 2 to 3 tsp powdered sugar (to taste)

  • ½ oz. lemon juice

  • ½ oz. lime juice

  • 3-4 drops orange blossom water (plus more for garnish)

  • 1 oz. heavy cream

  • 3 drops real vanilla extract (optional garnish)

  • Orange twist garnish (optional) 

1.    Place egg white in the bottom of a cocktail shaker tin. Add gin, sugar, lemon & lime juices, & orange blossom water. Shake vigorously for at least two minutes. (This is a DRY shake, do not add ice yet or it will melt and water down the drink.)

2.    Add heavy cream and plenty of ice. Shake for about 15 seconds more, or until the drink feels icy cold in your hands.

3.    Add about 1 ½ oz soda water to the bottom of an 8-10 oz collins glass. Slowly strain the cocktail into the glass. You want the glass to be full, but you don’t want the foam to come over the top of the glass.

4.    Allow the cocktail to sit for at least one minute, then stick a straw through the center of your cocktail and gently push it all the way to the bottom of the glass a few times to make a hole for more soda. Remove the straw and slowly add a thin stream of soda water until the meringue foam rises about an inch or two above the glass.

5.    Garnish with another drop or two of orange blossom water, 3 drops of vanilla extract, and an orange twist.

6.    Add a fresh straw to the center of the drink just before serving.

ramosfizz

The Ramos Gin Fizz was created in 1888 by Henry Charles Ramos at the Imperial Cabinet Saloon in New Orleans. It was an instant hit, and before long the bar was often filled with 20 bartenders and "shaker boys" dedicated to making Ramos Gin Fizzes.

In his Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em, Stanley Clisby Arthur writes, "the corps of busy shaker boys behind the bar was one of the sights of the town during Carnival, and in the 1915 Mardi Gras, 35 shaker boys nearly shook their arms off, but were still unable to keep up with the demand."

It’s no wonder it was so hard to keep up with demand, as the original instructions say that you’re supposed to shake the cocktail for 12 entire minutes to the get the foam right. Thankfully modern bartenders have found a much more efficient way to froth the egg whites in only 2 minutes. The instructions are still a bit complicated and time consuming, but this cocktail is so delicious you’ll be glad you made the effort. The end result is rich and creamy but oddly light at the same time. The flavor is almost like an orange creamsicle all grown up.

Most modern recipes call for simple syrup, but the original used powdered sugar so that’s what we went with. The addition of vanilla extract is a bit controversial. Some say it was Ramos’ secret ingredient, while others insist that he never used it. I think it adds something though, but you’re free to leave it out.

This cocktail also sometimes known as the New Orleans Fizz, and fun fact, Huey P. Long was said to have been a big fan. Some people think of it as a morning drink because the cream and egg white fill and line your stomach while the gin is a bit of the hair of the dog.


Episode 11: The Vieux Carré


  • 1 ounce rye whiskey

  • 1 ounce cognac

  • 1 ounce sweet vermouth

  • 1 teaspoon Bénédictine

  • 2 Dashes of Angostura bitters

  • 2 Dashes of Peychaud’s bitters 

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with ice; stir well for 20 seconds and strain into an ice-filled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with a cherry.

vieuxcarre.jpg

The Vieux Carré dates back to a famous hotel bar in the 1930s. It first appeared in print in 1937, in “Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em”.

This cocktail is a New Orleans classic, and although the name is French, the pronunciation is pure Creole. Forget your French classes and how you think “vieux carré” should be pronounced. In New Orleans, it’s simply callled a “voo car-ray”.  In French the name means ‘Old Square’ or ‘Old Quarter’, which was the original name for the French Quarter in New Orleans.