Good Old Boys Drinking Whiskey & Rye

What are you drinking these days?

A beer is good, especially with the days warming up. In addition to a self-evident argument for homeostasis, cold beer/hot day, possess a near mystical yin-yang balance in its combination. Even if beer = good, I enjoy cocktails - mixing them together relaxes me, drinking them does better and when the weather heats up I look to places that get really hot for inspiration.

Nothing says drunkenness like New Orleans; the city might even have the drop on Vegas for alcohol fuel debauchery. When Las Vegas was still a neon-free crossroads in the desert, New Orleans was establishing itself as the birthplace of the American Cocktail.

Much like Silicon Valley became a ground zero for computer and internet innovations, 19th Century New Orleans was the transforming drinking. Post Reconstruction, Henry Ramos began shaking up a gin fizz that ultimately would bear his name. Before Ramos and his pernicious gin began fizzing, a Haitian apothecary named Antoine Peychaud, mixed a concoction of bitter oranges and herbs that would become the foundation of many whiskey cocktails. In either 1853 Sewell Taylor or more likely in 1859, John Schiller a distributor for French brandies of Sazerac de Forge et Fils, opened a bar at 13 Exchange Alley, right off of Mr. Charles Street - I don’t think Charles had been promoted to sainthood at the juncture, called the Sazerac Coffee House.

The establishment originally promulgated Cognac and Cognac drinks but over time rye and bourbon would replace the brown French liquor. Other substitutions/evolutions would take place, notably absinthe would be replaced by the local, Herbsaint when absinthe became a no-no.

Evolution is forever ongoing - a smart cocktail made with attention the type of thing that New Orleans was noted for - is nothing to the flash of frozen ice cream machines converted to serve ice and rum Hurricanes for tourists in the French Quarter in a hurry to get their party started. Here on the west coast, where it doesn’t even really get all that hot, we import good southern whiskeys and use the internet to get Peychaud’s Bitters delivered to our door, and make a good approximation of a Sazerac –

1 old fashion glass, chilled by packing it with ice

1 tablespoon simple syrup
3 drops Peychaud’s bitters
1-2 oz Rye

1 teaspoon anise flavored liquor – Ricard or Pernod are very good
Lemon Twist

In a cocktail shaker or sturdy bar glass - combine syrup, bitters and rye with two ice cubes. Stir together.

Dump ice out of the old fashioned glass, then much like you would pour vermouth into a martini glass and shake out the excess liquid (leaving a hint of flavor) do likewise with the anise flavored liquor. Strain rye mixture into the now chilled, anise flavored old-fashioned glass, garnish the rim with the lemon twist and enjoy your drink.