Autumn Cocktail

                                 The Sazerac cocktail, like jazz, was birthed in New Orleans

It was a cold autumn night in San Francisco when I first had a Sazerac cocktail.  I was at the marvelous Zuni Café with a group of my closest women friends.   Another woman, who was a solo patron, saw us having so much fun that she sent this cocktail to us in the spirit of the X chromosome.  It was fifteen years ago and I have never forgotten the gesture, or the cocktail.

The Sazerac cocktail was developed over 150 years ago in pre-Civil war New Orleans.  Some say that it is the oldest American cocktail.  Named after its original major ingredient, Sazerac cognac, the drink was first concocted by a liquor importer who mixed cognac with the city’s famous Peychaud Bitters and then added a splash of another French liquor called Absinthe.  When France’s vineyards were by Phylloxera in the late 1800’s the cognac was replaced with American Rye Whiskey.

However, it’s not simply the ingredients that make the Sazerac.  The process in which the drink is made is key.   First, two chilled glasses are used (typically old-fashioned glasses).  Glass number one is swirled with a wash of absinthe…this adds flavor and aroma.  Glass number two is used to combine the remaining ingredients, ice is added, the drink is stirred, and then the contents are strained into the original glass.  Voila!

Below is the recipe for this autumn cocktail.  Serve it on a cool night, with a roaring fire.

1 sugar cube (or one teaspoon)

1.5 ounces of Rye Whiskey

2 teaspoons Absinthe (or an anise flavored liquor)

3 dashes Peychaud Bitters

Lemon peel for garnish