Rye, absinthe rinse, Peychaud’s, sugar cube. Stirred not shaken. The official cocktail of New Orleans and the only one with a city behind it.
Why you are pouring this tonight
The Sazerac is the cocktail of New Orleans, declared so by the Louisiana legislature in 2008, which is one of those facts that sounds invented and is true. The bones of the drink are nearly 200 years old. The proportions have not changed because the proportions are right. Rye, two ounces. A sugar cube muddled with three to five dashes of Peychaud’s bitters. A short rinse of absinthe in a chilled glass, the absinthe poured out, the glass set down with the residue clinging to the sides like a polite suggestion. Stir the rye and bitters with ice. Strain into the rinsed glass. Long lemon twist over the surface, drop in or discard, depending on whether you are a literalist or a romantic.
Two non-negotiable details. First: the bitters are Peychaud’s, not Angostura. Peychaud’s has anise and cherry, Angostura is clove and bark, and they are different drinks. Second: rye, not bourbon. The Sazerac was originally made with cognac, then phylloxera wiped out the European vineyards in the late 1800s and the cocktail switched to rye, and the rye version stuck because the rye version is better. Use Bulleit Rye, Rittenhouse, or Sazerac Rye 6-Year if you can find it (it exists, it is named after the cocktail, it is the most circular thing in spirits). For absinthe, a Saint George Absinthe Verte if you are feeling generous, or a Pernod Absinthe at $80 from any decent bottle shop.
Stir, never shake. Shaking a Sazerac is a war crime in Louisiana.
What to pour it alongside
Anything Cajun, anything Creole, a board of charcuterie with cornichons, gumbo, fried oysters, or just the night by itself. The anise note in the absinthe loves anything with fennel or seafood. Skip with chocolate; the bitters will fight the cocoa.
Bulleit Rye
Bulleit Rye is the bottle that makes a Manhattan taste the way a Manhattan should taste: spicy, dry, slightly bitter, unapologetically American. 95 percent rye in the mash…
Read more →
Angostura Aromatic Bitters
Angostura is the red-capped bottle with the oversized label that has been on every bar top since approximately forever. You use two or three drops per cocktail and…
Read more →
Recipe
New Orleans Creole Gumbo
Gumbo is the long-simmer pot of the American south. Why you should cook this The pot of dark, savoury, Cajun-creole magic that takes forty patient minutes of stirring…
Read the recipe →Notes from the kitchen
The absinthe rinse is the technique people overdo. A teaspoon. No more. Pour the absinthe into a chilled glass, swirl to coat, then pour the absinthe out. The glass keeps a film. That film is the whole role of absinthe in a Sazerac; it perfumes the drink without hijacking it. People who keep the absinthe in the glass have made a different cocktail and not necessarily a worse one, but it is not a Sazerac. Muddle the sugar cube with the bitters until dissolved before adding the rye; the bitters need to break the sugar down or you get sweet liquid with a sand-grain finish. Use a long lemon twist, expressed skin-down over the surface, then either dropped in or discarded. The discarded version is the bartender’s choice; the dropped-in version is the at-home choice and is the right answer.
Two things that go wrong
Drink tastes like medicine
You over-rinsed with absinthe. A teaspoon, swirled, poured out. The glass should taste of absinthe, not contain absinthe.
Drink is sweet on the finish
The sugar cube did not fully dissolve. Muddle the cube against the bottom of the mixing glass for a full 30 seconds with the bitters before adding rye. A few drops of warm water can help if your kitchen is cold.
Variations worth knowing
With cognac
The original. Replace the rye with a VSOP cognac. Softer, fruitier, the version that existed before phylloxera.
Half and half
Equal parts rye and cognac. The drink the historians argue about. Excellent.
Without absinthe
Use Herbsaint, the New Orleans absinthe-style liqueur, slightly sweeter, more accessible. The bartender purists will tell you Herbsaint is the correct rinse anyway. They have a point.
Leftovers and make ahead
Cannot be batched well; the absinthe rinse is a glass-by-glass move and the sugar cube needs muddling fresh. Pre-batch the rye, sugar syrup and Peychaud’s in a bottle for parties (use a 1:1 simple syrup to replace the cube), keep in the fridge for two weeks, and rinse the glass at service. The lemon twist always at service.
The recipe
[fd-wprm-placeholder]