3 October 2016
Welcome friends. A few weeks ago, I had a work related event. I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see the Marshall exhibit and have dinner outside on the terrace. The exhibit was beautiful and at times disturbing. The weather was fantastic and the meal was delicious. They have Calder sculptures tucked away in a few locations and I looked up to find this one above the stairs near the washroom.
A few weeks before that, I went to a dining establishment in my neighborhood. I'm not going to mention the name of the place because I'm about to get negative. I ordered food and a drink and then I noticed that they had Sazerac on their cocktail menu. I ordered one because this is a drink that I've become quite fond of. The food was good, but the drink came and it was awful. Did I complain? No, I choked it down. This drink only has a few ingredients, so it is easy to get wrong.
I don't know if this happens to other people, but when I have a disappointing version of something that I have a good recipe for, I end up making it myself.
The Sazerac is an old cocktail with just a few ingredients. Some people say that the word cocktail comes from an item used in making this drink. Other's refute that idea. It was a long time ago and we don't really know what the correct story is. What we do know is that it has its origins in New Orleans around the turn of the century. This recipe features rye whisky and an obscure ingredient called Peychaud's bitters.
What I like about this drink is that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Or maybe what I mean is that the parts compliment each other so well that they become something more.
Sazerac Cocktail
5 min. prep time | 2 min. wait time
Ingredients
makes 1 drink
- ice water
- 1/4 tsp anise flavored liqueur. I prefer Absinthe Verte from St. George
- 1/2 tsp white sugar
- 1 tsp water
- 3 dashes Peychaud's bitters
- 1/4 cup rye whisky. I prefer Rittenhouse Rye Whisky
- 1 twist of lemon peel
Directions
pour the ice water into a cocktail glass.
use a separate glass to combine the sugar, water, and bitters. Stir this vigorously with a spoon. Add the whiskey and give the mixture a few stirs to dissolve the sugar.
pour the ice water out of the cocktail glass and pour the absinthe into it. Swirl the absinthe around to coat the glass. You can pour out the excess absinthe but I like to leave it in the glass.
pour the whisky mixture into the glass and stir to combine. Use a sharp knife to cut a thin strip of lemon peel and add this to the glass. It is important to let the drink rest for a minute or two before you start drinking it. Don't skip this step.