Barfly: The Perfect Sazerac

Is the Sazerac the greatest cocktail ever? It has history (its lineage extends back to 1838), a sense of place (the booze-soaked burg of New Orleans), and, thanks to the absinthe, a whiff of danger. It’s basically a souped-up Old Fashioned (or an Old Fashioned is a dumbed-down Sazerac depending on which way you look at it) with the addition of Peychaud’s bitters and an absinthe swirl. These modifications transform it into something sexy and vaguely disreputable, sort of like the city from which it sprang.

                               1 sugar cube
                           2 oz. rye whiskey
                      ¼ oz. Taboo Absinthe
                 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
                     lemon peel (to garnish)

Fill one Old Fashioned glass with ice and place the sugar cube in another. Hit the cube with the bitters, crush it with a spoon, and add the rye to the bitters-sugar mixture. Empty the ice from the first glass, swirl the absinthe around and around, then empty it too. Add the contents of the rye glass to the absinthe-washed glass and prepare to have your world rocked.

For videos demonstrating how to make a Sazerac, a Whiskey Sour, a Ramos Gin Fizz, and other classic cocktails, visit Videos.vanmag.com

Want to get the perfect cocktail each time? Try these other recipes:

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