Very few make it to blue - Makro

Antoine Amedee Paychaud was the
son of French plantation owners who
fled what is now Haiti. He grew up
to be an apothecary in New Orleans
with a storefront on Royal Street. He
opened his store in 1834 and quickly
realized that a dose of liquor might
make his tonics easier to ingest.
History says that Peychaud added
small amounts of his own recipe for
bitters and served his tonic-bitters
mixture in eggcups called “coquetiers”
filled with cognac or other French
brandy. The word “coquetiers” was
anglicized to bring “cocktail” into
modern vocabulary. The eggcups were
also thought to mark the introduction
of a shot or the precursor to a jigger,
now used for alcohol measurements
in most drinks.
The Sazerac Company of New
Orleans says that by 1850, the Sazerac
cocktail, made with Sazerac French
brandy and Peychaud’s Bitters was
already popular and quickly becoming
the first “branded” cocktail. In 1873,
the recipe for the Sazerac cocktail was
altered to replace the French brandy
with American Rye whiskey, and a
dash of absinthe was added.
The first printed recipe for
the Sazerac Cocktail was in the
1908 edition of (former California
Assemblyman) William Boothby’s
The World’s Drinks and How to Mix
Them. Shortly after the printed recipe,
in 1912, absinthe was banned in the
United States. Sazerac lovers were not
lost for long. Herbsaint was created
to fill the void. ‘Herb Sainte” is the
New Orleanian term for wormwood,
which was the ingredient in absinthe
that gave it the mystique and negative
reputation. Wormwood was also the ingredient
absent in herbsaint that made the substitution legal.
Even today, with the legalization of absinthe, many
bartenders continue to use herbsaint in the production
of Sazeracs.
Sazeracs are important to New Orleans because
they represent the city in many ways. Bitters are an
acquired taste that make the drink feel exclusive,
absinthe culture in New Orleans has a windy and
proud history which gives the drink some of that
absinthe mystery, and the evolving liquor base (brandy
to whiskey to occasionally bourbon) is a reflection of
changing cultures and history in New Orleans. Sara
Rohen, in Gumbo Tales described her feeling of loss
and disconnect during Hurricane Katrina. Stranded
in New York, she looked for Red Beans and Rice on
Mondays and did not find it, she sought out Sazeracs to
connect her to home, but found that the time and place
factor left her still feeling lost. A perfect Sazerac is such
a part of New Orleans that you have to be there to truly
appreciate and taste it.
Finally, the question of which came first, the Sazerac
or the Old Fashioned is up for dispute. Many sources
begin their Sazerac descriptions heralding it as the
first cocktail. But if Pechaud created the cocktail in the
1830’s, and the oldest printed mention of a “cocktail”
with a recipe was in 1806 (for an Old Fashioned in The
Balance and Columbia Repository in Hudson, New
York), then the Old Fashioned must have come first.
On the other hand, how could anything be listed as
a “cocktail” before the alleged invention of the word
adapted from Pechaud’s eggcup or “coquetier?” The
evidence leans toward the Old Fashioned as the basic
recipe the Sazerac is a mimic with added ingredients.
No matter which came first or what brandy was
used, Sazeracs are part of the New Orleans story.
There are companies that specialize in bitters for
Sazeracs, an entire Sazerac brand that sells all liquors
including vodka and gin, and at least one Sazerac bar
in New Orleans. Regardless of whether a person is a
New Orleans resident or an admirer, the cocktail helps
them connect to the layered history and mystique of
the great city.
November 2011 WHISKY EDITION
63