Sazerac

If you’d like to punch up the spicy notes of this drink, add a dash of Angostura bitters.

This cocktail is served without ice (served up). In order to preserve its temperature as long as possible, serve it on chilled glassware.

Some people like to serve this drink with a small shot of absinthe on the side.

The Sazerac’s history is deeply intertwined with the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is one of the city’s most famous cocktails.

The earliest mention we have of a “Sazerac Cocktail” is from 1899, in a fraternity magazine called the Alpha Tau Omega Palm.

The cocktail was created by Billy Wilkinson and / or Vincent Miret. They were both head bartenders at the Sazerac House in New Orleans.

The Sazerac Whiskey Cocktail, as it used to be named, was bottled and sold to the public around 1895. Eventually it dropped “Whiskey” from its name. 

The Sazerac is most likely a variation on the Improved Whiskey Cocktail, which had already existed for a few decades prior. Both are very similar, with the Sazerac foregoing the use of Maraschino Liqueur.

For years it was believed that this cocktail was made by Antoine Amédée Peychaud, the creator of Peychaud’s bitters. It was believed that he served his bitters along with Cognac as a remedy.

In that same story, Peychaud served this mixture in an egg-cup called a coquetier. We were made to believe that it was history’s first cocktail, and that the word cocktail is derived from a mispronunciation of this French word.

This (in)famous story comes from 1937’s Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘Em by Stanley Clisby Arthur. It’s been debunked by David Wondrich and Philip Greene.

When absinthe was outlawed in the US, bartenders switched to Herbsaint - a liqueur with a similar flavor, but without wyrmwood. Herbsaint was most likely created specifically to replace absinthe.