Drink of the Week: Sazerac and Variations

In honor of Tales of the Cocktail, this month's MxMo theme is New Orleans cocktails. Also, just this past week, the Sazerac was named the official cocktail of New Orleans.

Today, most Sazeracs are mixed with rye whiskey, but originally cognac was the base spirit. I thought it would be nice to try the original cognac version. In the spirit of scientific inquiry, we made a rye-based Sazerac for comparison. The Peychaud's bitters is an essential ingredient, Angostura will not do.

As you can see, the drinks don't look too different (the cognac one is on the left), but the difference in flavors was intriguing. I found the cognac version to be drier overall, but the sweetness of the simple syrup came through more distinctly in the first sip and highlighted the floral notes in the cognac. The rye version was simpler, cleaner and easier to drink. This could have been a result of the quality of the alcohol I used. The rye was Old Overholt (cheap) and the cognac was Courvoisier (not cheap).

After I drank half of each glass, I mixed them together to try a half cognac/half rye version. I liked this version best. The headiness of the cognac was tempered by the rye and made for a very delicious drink.

Note: Every Sazerac I have ever been served has been in a rocks glass (with no ice). I used my little cocktail glasses because I was making mini-drinks. Do try it in a rocks glass: the pastis fragrance comes through much better when you have room to smell it.

Sazerac Variations

All the Sazeracs are made the same way:

• Pour a small splash of pastis or absinthe into the rocks glass and swirl it coat the glass with pastis. Pour out the pastis.
  
• In an iced mixing glass, combine your drink ingredients. Stir until well chilled.
• Strain into serving glass. Garnish with a lemon twist (an orange twist is a nice change).
  

Cognac Sazerac

• Splash of pastis or absinthe
  
• 2.5 ounces Cognac
• 1 bar-spoon sugar syrup (or a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a little water)
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Rye Sazerac

• Splash of pastis or absinthe
  
• 2.5 ounces Rye
• 1 bar-spoon sugar syrup (or a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a little water)
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Rye/Cognac Sazerac

• Splash of pastis or absinthe
  
• 1 ounce Cognac
• 2 ounces Rye
  
• 1 bar-spoon sugar syrup (or a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a little water)
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters