Absinthe

[LESider]

Hi Dale,

I'm curious as to whether you've had a Sazerac made with absinthe and if so what are your thoughts on the flavor. I know that its now made with Pernod but I think there is a diffference in taste between Pernod/Ricard and Absinthe.

Is is true that the Sazerac is the first recorded cocktail?

Thanks

[Kingcocktail]

There are a lot of variables in your question…I work in London about every six weeks and I have been tasting all the new entries in the Absinthe category…there aren’t many good ones. The Le Fee is one of the best …made in France for sale in the UK (still illegal in France to purchase Absinthe but not to produce it for export). I haven’t tasted it yet but the Pernod Company is producing the original formula Absinthe from the 19th century I plan to taste that when I return.

As for how it will effect the flavor of the Sazerac cocktail, true absinthe is bitter not sweet, that is why the original cocktails made with absinthe included sugar cubes or sweet ingredients. The Absinthe substitutes are sweet and don’t need additional sweetening. In the case of the Sazerac since the absinthe or the substitute is just used to season the glass the sweetness is not a factor …just the anise top note in the flavor. I suspect that whether true absinthe or Pernod is used the drinker would have a hard time distinguishing any real flavor difference.

What was the first cocktail is always a great source of argument, but the answer is really quite obvious. It couldn’t be the Sazerac because the cocktail was defined as a category in 1806 and the Sazerac cocktail as we know it today was first served at the Sazerac Coffee House 13 Exchange Alley, New Orleans by John Schiller. Schiller served a brandy Sazerac, remember the town was very French and they liked Brandy but the drink evolved into a whiskey drink over twenty years. Legend has it the at the turn of the century Antoine Peychaud the man who created the formula for Peychauds Bitters used to gather his friends in his Apothecary shop for cognac doused with his bitters. Since the addition of bitters to the alcoholic concoctions of the day defined the emerging category cocktail Peychauds friendly gatherings could be the birth of the cocktail and the cocktail party.

The cocktail was described in print in 8106 as a bittered sling so my guess if those first cocktails were simple concoctions based on brandy whiskey or gin doused with bitters and sweetened with sugar or curacao.

[Kingcocktail]

Sorry I forgot to mention that Schiller's SazeacCoffeehouse opened in 1859 and the second owner Thomas Handy (1870) changed the name to Sazerac House and the cocktail changed from Brandy to whiskey. The late date takes the Sazerac out of contention as the first cocktail.

Dale