The Sazerac cocktail is my favorite whiskey cocktail. I’ve sampled the best and made some of the worst, and it has been quite an adventure. What I have found in said adventure is that the choice of whiskey in your Sazerac cocktail can make a huge difference to the final product. Some will pack a punch, and some will infuse the cocktail with wonderful whiskey flavors.
So, if you would like to make a Sazerac cocktail at home, you’re in luck. Below I’ve listed four American whiskeys (and one surprise) that will give your Sazerac a little more edge to it, as well as a guide on how to make them too!
How To Make A Sazerac Cocktail
Ingredients:
- 2oz of your favorite rye (You can use bourbon if you want, but it would move away from being a true Sazerac cocktail)
- Peychaud’s Bitters (2-4 dashes)
- Absinthe
- Lemon peel
- Ice
- Your favorite glass.
Method:
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- Get some ice in your glass and add a few drops of absinthe into it, roll it around the glass. If you have an atomiser then this will work even better! Then add ice. Set that aside and let it chill. The absinthe will turn cloudy.
- In a mixing jug, add your rye (or bourbon), a few dashes of Peychaud bitters, loads of ice, and proceed to stir it down until chilled effectively.
- Empty the serving glass of the ice and absinthe, pour your cocktail into the nice chilled and absinthe rinsed glass, garnish with a lemon peel, and don’t forget to express those oils out of that peel!
Redwood Empire Emerald Giant Rye
BUY NOW: $30
You’re probably getting quite sick of me recommending this whiskey from Redwood Empire, but if you honestly haven’t tried it then you really should.
Hailing from California and being made up of 95% rye, this whiskey is sweet, bold, a little spicy, and just has the most beautiful balance of flavor across every aspect of its style. The distillery also plants trees for every bottle sold! So there’s an even better reason to buy it.
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In a Sazerac cocktail, Emerald Giant rye blends so well with the anise flavor of absinthe, just adding barrel-aged sweetness to a very herbal, earthy product. But then the rye and lemon peel come after you in just a way that you get all of this forest or field freshness from every sip. Outstanding.
Barrell Seagrass Rye Whiskey
BUY NOW: $75
The folks at Barrell put together some mighty fine blends, ryes, and bourbons – but this also has a ‘giving-back’ quality, whilst being an absolutely bonkers concoction of delicious things. The company helps to replant seagrass in the oceans that are home to so many little wildlife critters.
A blend of American and Canadian rye whiskeys, that are then finished in ex-Madeira casks, ex-Martinique rum casks, and apricot brandy casks. What is this and why does it work so well?
It’s a perfect summer pour on its own, even at the strength. But when added to the Sazerac cocktail formula, it is bold, bright, with incredible depth of flavor. Apricot notes melding with lemon oil, and oaky rye. The Martinique rum notes are subtle, but are found with dilution in the cocktail. They pop out these wonderfully earthy, funky notes that just give this drink a whole new level. Then it all levels out with cinnamon and dates, an utterly splendid experience.
High West Double Rye
BUY NOW: $32
I think this is my first mention of High West Distillery…shame on me. They make some incredible whiskey when it comes to cask finishing, blending, and their own distillates.
This is a blend of two different ryes, one with a 95% rye mashbill, and one with an 80% rye mashbill. Both collude together to give you one of the most ‘garden’ styles of rye whiskey that I’ve ever come across.
It’s one of the greenest, grassiest styles of rye, with some other depths of chocolate and mint. But the overall character is that of sage, tarragon, and basil. Just a wonderful addition to your whisky collection, as well as amplifying those earthier notes in a Sazerac cocktail.
Elijah Craig Rye
BUY NOW: $24
It has finally landed! Elijah Craig from Evan Williams has been teasing us with a rye bottling for years, finally, it is here.
Clocking in at 51% rye, it’s very much a modern style of the spirit, but it has some big notes of honeycomb and black pepper. It pairs remarkably well with green chartreuse, but in the context of the Sazerac cocktail, it provides a lot of weight and bass to what is already a harmonious mix.
Elijah Craig has always had this toasted vanilla, buttery heaviness to it, and it’s still there in the rye. Perfect for any cocktail, in all honesty. Evan Williams also produce Rittenhouse Rye, so if you fancy something a little more traditional and wallet friendly, it’s also a very good product.
Fielden Rye Whisky, 48%
BUY NOW: $69
This is a little unusual recommendation for this list, as the Fielden rye in question is English, pot still distilled, and grown from heritage grains by a rather savvy archaeobotanist called John Letts.
I managed to get this bottle on its launch week a few months ago, and I must say that it is one of the standout products of 2024 for me. This is such a thick, chewy style of rye whisky that is so abundant with blackberry fruits and all of the smells of a wildflower field that you could ever imagine.
I made a Sazerac cocktail with it last night and the fruit notes just boomed out of the glass. The lemon and blackberry notes that this has going on is out of this world. All of the grains used for this are from regenerative farming projects in the UK, and if this doesn’t showcase how important that variation of grain usage can be, I’m not sure what else will do.
The History of The Sazerac Cocktail
As with most cocktails, the origins of the Sazerac cocktail are debated. The most widely accepted theory is that the cocktail was created in the 1850s and the Exchange Coffee House, using cognac from the French company ‘Sazerac-du-Forge et Fils’. Also used in the cocktail were bitters created by Antoine Amedee Peychaud, now known as Peychaud’s Bitters.
In the early 1870s, Thomas H. Handy, the bookkeeper of the Exchange Coffee House bar, took over the business and renamed it the Sazerac Coffee House after its signature cocktail. He also acquired Peychaud’s bitters in 1873. However, business was soon strained by the Phylloxera epidemic.
The Phylloxera epidemic saw bugs devastate the wine-producing regions of France, meaning that cognac was in short supply. As such, Handy needed a new spirit to use in the Sazerac cocktail. This is where the rye whiskey comes in as a substitute for the cognac. A dash of cognac was still used in the cocktail, until supplies dried up. It was also around this time that a dash of absinthe was added to the Sazerac cocktail.
So good was the reception of this new variation that in the 1890s, the Sazerac Company began to make and bottle the cocktail. The ban on absinthe in 1912 in the USA forced the Sazerac company to produce Herbsaint as a substitute. Today, Herbsaint is still used in the majority of American bars.
The Sazerac cocktail has become synonymous with the city of New Orleans, and was even designated the official cocktail of Louisiana in 2008.
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