View source for Sazerac

{{short description|Cognac or whiskey cocktail}}
{{about|the cocktail|the company and its brand of rye whiskey|Sazerac Company}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox cocktail
| iba               = yes
| name              = Sazerac
| sourcelink        = sazerac
| image             = File:SazeracCocktail.jpg
| caption           = A Sazerac cocktail at the Sazerac Bar in New Orleans, July 2024
| type              = cocktail
| flaming           =
| cognac            = yes
| served            = straight
| garnish           = [[lemon zest]]
| drinkware         = old
| ingredients       = *50&nbsp;ml [[cognac]]
* 10&nbsp;ml [[absinthe]]
*One [[sugar cube]]
*Two dashes [[Peychaud's Bitters]]
| prep             = Rinse a chilled old-fashioned glass with absinthe or anisette, and add crushed ice. Stir the other ingredients, with ice in a different glass. Discard ice and excess absinthe from the first glass, and strain the mixture into that glass.
| timing      = After dinner
| notes            =
| footnotes        =
}}
The '''Sazerac''' is a local variation of a [[cognac]] or [[whiskey]] cocktail originally from [[New Orleans]], named for the ''Sazerac de Forge et Fils'' brand of cognac brandy that served as its original main ingredient.<ref name="The Sazerac Company">{{cite web |url=http://www.sazerac.com/cocktail.aspx |title=The Cocktail – How the Sazerac came to be |publisher=The [[Sazerac Company]] |access-date=2012-07-06}}</ref> The drink is most traditionally a combination of
cognac or [[rye whiskey]], [[absinthe]], [[Peychaud's Bitters]], and [[sugar]], although [[bourbon whiskey]] is sometimes substituted for the rye and [[Herbsaint]] is sometimes substituted for the absinthe. Some claim it is the oldest known American [[cocktail]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Majumdar |first=Simon |title=Eat My Globe: One Year to Go Everywhere and Eat Everything |year=2009 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-7602-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/eatmyglobeoneyea0000maju/page/192 192] |url=https://archive.org/details/eatmyglobeoneyea0000maju/page/192 }}</ref> with origins in [[History of Louisiana|antebellum]] [[New Orleans]], although drink historian David Wondrich is among those who dispute this,<ref>{{cite web |title=David Wondrich dispels Sazerac myths |url=http://www.nola.com/drink/index.ssf/2009/08/david_wondrich_dispels_sazerac.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929181937/http://www.nola.com/drink/index.ssf/2009/08/david_wondrich_dispels_sazerac.html |archive-date=2009-09-29 |access-date=24 February 2016 |work=NOLA.com}}</ref> and American instances of published usage of the word ''cocktail'' to describe a mixture of spirits, [[bitters]], and sugar can be traced to the dawn of the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Felten | first=Eric | title=How's Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well | year=2007 | publisher=Surrey Books | isbn=978-1-57284-089-8 | pages=9–10}}</ref>
==Characteristics==
The defining feature of the Sazerac is its method of preparation, which commonly involves two chilled [[old-fashioned glass]]es. The first glass is swirled with a wash of [[absinthe]] for its flavor and strong scent.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Wondrich | first=David | title=Imbibe! | year=2007 | publisher=Perigee | isbn=978-0-399-53287-0 | pages=199–202}}</ref> The second glass is used to combine the remaining ingredients, which are stirred with ice, then strained into the first glass.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Axelrod |first=Alan |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mixing Drinks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AqgJr_vqygC&pg=PA130 |edition=2nd |year=2003 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-02-864468-9 |page=130 |access-date=2012-07-06}}</ref> Various [[anisette]]s such as [[pastis]], [[Pernod Ricard|Pernod]], or [[Herbsaint]] are common substitutes when absinthe is unavailable. In New Orleans, Herbsaint is most commonly used due to the absence of absinthe in the U.S. market from 1912 until 2007.<ref name="Simon">{{Cite book |last=Simon |first=Kate |title=Absinthe Cocktails: 50 Ways to Mix with the Green Fairy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6PR9Bh80zIC&pg=PA33 |year=2010 |publisher=Chronicle Books |isbn=978-1-4521-0030-2 |page=33 |access-date=2012-07-06}}</ref>
==History==
Around 1850, Sewell T. Taylor sold his New Orleans bar, the Merchants Exchange Coffee House, to become an importer of spirits, and he began to import a brand of cognac named ''Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils''. Meanwhile, Aaron Bird assumed proprietorship of the Merchants Exchange and changed its name to Sazerac Coffee House.<ref> Kostas Ignatiadis: [https://www.esquire.de/life/essen-trinken/rezept-der-sazerac-cocktail ''Drink der Woche: der Sazerac Cocktail – das Rezept'']. Esquire, 5. November 2021 (German)</ref><ref name="Roahen">Sarah Roahen: "Sazerac". In: Susan Tucker (ed.): ''New Orleans Cuisine: Fourteen Signature Dishes and Their Histories''. University Press of Mississippi, 2009, ISBN 9781604731279, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=JJ0WsDnnhT8C&pg=PA28 28-37]</ref>
Legend has it that Bird began serving the "Sazerac Cocktail", made with Sazerac cognac imported by Taylor, and allegedly with [[bitters]] being made by the local apothecary, Antoine Amedie Peychaud. The Sazerac Coffee House subsequently changed hands several times, until around 1870 Thomas Handy became its proprietor. It is around this time that the primary ingredient changed from cognac to rye whiskey, due to the [[phylloxera]] epidemic in Europe that devastated the vineyards of France.<ref name="epidemic">{{cite book |last=Arthur |first=Stanley |title=Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em |year=1997 |publisher=Pelican |isbn=978-0-88289-132-3}}</ref>
At some point before his death in 1889, Handy recorded the recipe for the cocktail, which made its first printed appearance in William T. "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's ''The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them'' (1908),<ref>
{{cite book
|last=Boothby
|first=William
|year=1908
|title=The world's drinks and how to mix them: Standard authority
|url=https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1908-The-World-s-Drinks-and-How-to-Mix-Them-by-Hon-Wm-Boothby/29
|page=29
|asin=B00088HN8Q
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
|url=http://www.esquire.com/drinks/sazerac-drink-recipe
|title=The Wondrich Take
|journal =[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]
|access-date=2012-07-06
}}</ref> although his recipe calls for Selner Bitters, not Peychaud's.<ref>
{{cite news
|url=http://www.nola.com/drink/index.ssf/2010/07/bitter_truth_brings_its_creole.html
|title=Bitter Truth brings its Creole Bitters to the U.S.
|date=July 31, 2010
|first=Todd A.
|last=Price
|newspaper=[[The Times-Picayune]]
|access-date=2012-07-06
}}</ref> After absinthe was banned in the United States in 1912, it was replaced by various [[anise]]-flavored liqueurs, most notably the locally produced Herbsaint, which first appeared in 1934.<ref name="Simon" />
By the early 20th century, simple cocktails like the Sazerac had become rare, which eventually rekindled their popularity.<ref name="Wondrich">{{cite book |last=Wondrich |first=David |title=Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar |year=2007 |publisher=Perigee |isbn=978-0-399-53287-0 |pages=199–202}}</ref>
The creation of the Sazerac has also been credited to Antoine Amédée Peychaud, a Creole [[apothecary]] who emigrated to New Orleans from the West Indies and set up shop in the [[French Quarter]] in the early 19th century. He was known to dispense a proprietary mix of aromatic bitters from an old family recipe. According to popular myth, he served his drink in the large end of an egg cup that was called a ''coquetier'' in French, and the Americanized mispronunciation resulted in the name ''cocktail''.<ref name="Difford">{{cite book |last=Difford |first=Simon |title=Diffordsguide Cocktails #7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SV5YryuX3_EC&pg=PA315 |edition=7 |year=2007 |publisher=Diffordsguide |isbn=978-0-9556276-0-6 |page=315 |access-date=2012-07-06}}</ref> This belief was debunked when people discovered that the term "cocktail" as a type of drink first appeared in print at least as far back as 1803—and was defined in print in 1806 as, "a mixture of spirits of any kind, water, sugar and bitters, vulgarly called a bittered sling".<ref>{{cite book |last=Felten |first=Eric |title=How's Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well |year=2007 |publisher=Surrey Books |isbn=978-1-57284-089-8 |pages=9–10}}</ref>
===Official cocktail of New Orleans===
In March 2008, Louisiana state senator [[Edwin R. Murray]] (D-New Orleans) filed Senate Bill 6 designating the Sazerac as Louisiana's official state cocktail. The bill was defeated on April 8, 2008. After further debate, on June 23, 2008, the [[Louisiana Legislature]] agreed to proclaim the Sazerac as New Orleans' official cocktail.<ref name="NPR">
{{cite news
|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91912549
|title=New Orleans Declares Sazerac Its Cocktail of Choice
|publisher=[[NPR|National Public Radio]]
|work=[[All Things Considered]]
|date=June 26, 2008
|access-date=December 6, 2010
}}</ref>
In 2011, as a writer for the [[HBO]] TV series ''[[Treme (TV series)|Treme]]'', [[Anthony Bourdain]] penned a scene in which chef Janette Desautel (played by [[Kim Dickens]]) tosses one in the face of restaurant critic and food writer [[Alan Richman]] (appearing as himself). Richman had angered many New Orleanians in 2006 with an article in the magazine ''[[GQ]]'', in which he criticized New Orleans' food culture post-[[Hurricane Katrina]]. Despite reservations, he agreed to participate in the scene and called Sazerac "a good choice of weaponry, because it symbolizes the city",<ref name="GQ">{{cite journal|url=https://www.gq.com/food-travel/alan-richman/201105/alan-richman-anthony-bourdain-treme|title=Alan Richman Returns To New Orleans|last=Richman|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Richman|journal=[[GQ]]|date=May 16, 2011|access-date=May 16, 2011}}</ref> despite a running feud with Bourdain over, among other things, the review.<ref>{{citation |title= 'Treme' Sharpens Its Focus on Food |author= Kathryn Shattuck |date= June 3, 2011 |work= New York Times |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/arts/television/treme-on-hbo-focuses-on-food.html |access-date= 2020-07-05}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title= Anthony Bourdain's Moveable Feast |date= February 6, 2017 |author= Patrick Radden Keefe |magazine= The New Yorker |url= https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/13/anthony-bourdains-moveable-feast |access-date= 2020-07-05}}</ref>
==Similar cocktails==
A cocktail named the [[Zazarac|Zazarack]] was included in the 1910 version of ''Jack's Manual'', an early bartender's reference written by Jacob "Jack" Grohusko, the head bartender at Baracca's restaurant in New York.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grohusko |first1=Jacob "Jack" |title=Jack's Manual |url=https://archive.org/details/jacksmanualonvin00groh |date=1910 |publisher=McClunn & Co |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/jacksmanualonvin00groh/page/84 84] |edition=second}}</ref> It is essentially the same cocktail as the Sazerac, but called for bourbon (and not rye) instead of cognac.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sazerac and Zazarack Cocktails |url=https://elementalmixology.blog/2012/09/12/the-sazerac-cocktail-and-the-zazerac-cocktail/ |website=elementalmixology.blog |access-date=3 February 2019 |archive-date=February 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204065758/https://elementalmixology.blog/2012/09/12/the-sazerac-cocktail-and-the-zazerac-cocktail/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Later versions of the drink were spelled Zazarac and added rum, and are thought by some to be a variant of the Sazerac,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thevintagedrink.com/drinks/zazarac-cocktail-drink-recipe|title=The Vintage Drink. Zazarac Cocktail Drink Recipe|work=The Vintage Drink|access-date=February 24, 2016}}</ref> although it might have originated completely independently of the more famous drink.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCR7wWhM7IQC&q=Zazarac | title=Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails | first=Ted | last=Haigh | date=February 27, 2014 | access-date=August 24, 2016 | isbn=978-1616734756 | publisher=Quarry Books | pages=219–20}}</ref>
== Brands ==
''Sazerac'' is also a brand of [[rye whiskey]] produced by the [[Sazerac Company]].
==See also==
{{portal|Liquor|Drink}}
* [[List of cocktails]]
*[[Old fashioned (cocktail)|Old Fashioned]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Cocktails|IBA=y}}
[[Category:Cocktails with absinthe]]
[[Category:Cocktails with whisky]]
[[Category:Cocktails with Peychaud's bitters]]
[[Category:Cocktails with brandy]]
[[Category:Ancestral cocktails]]
[[Category:New Orleans cocktails]]