About the Sazerac cocktail
The Sazerac is a classic New Orleans cocktail made with rye whiskey, sugar, Peychaud’s bitters, and absinthe. It is boozy, dry, spicy, and intensely aromatic, with the rye giving the drink bite, the sugar softening the edges, the bitters adding a bright red aromatic note, and the absinthe contributing its distinctive anise perfume.
The Sazerac is one of America’s oldest cocktails, with versions traced back to the 1800s. Its story is closely tied to Antoine Peychaud, the New Orleans apothecary behind Peychaud’s bitters, and to Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils cognac, which gave the drink its name. While early versions were made with cognac, the modern Sazerac is most often made with rye whiskey, creating one of the most iconic spirit-forward cocktails in the New Orleans canon.
