The Big Easy knows how to make cocktails!

This Big Easy Nightcap is a true American classic. Try this original Sazerac recipe that’ll make you feel that New Orleans hospitality.

The history behind this classic American cocktail is rather interesting. Invented by Creole pharmacist and inventor of Peychaud’s bitters, Antoine Peychaud, the original Sazerac was a combination of rye whiskey, Absinthe, rich simple syrup, and Peychaud’s Bitters. This Pre-Prohibition era cocktail wouldn’t let the US ban of Absinthe pull it off the cocktail menu. The Sazerac Company got clever and began to use Herbsaint, an anise-flavored liquor, as a substitute for Absinthe.

The Sazerac recipe often juggles back and forth between Cognac and Rye Whiskey. Every bartender I have ever ordered this cocktail from uses the Cognac version of the recipe. They call it the old New Orleans way to make this cocktail, hence why I decided to call this the New Orleans Style Sazerac. Cognac is an acquired taste. It can overpower pretty much everything else in this cocktail, so, for me, the [cognac] Sazerac is one of those sipping cocktails I could nurse all evening.

A proper sazerac is served neat in a rocks/old fashioned glass. So I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you want to make this sazerac with cognac or rye whiskey. You can’t really go wrong either way.

Now let’s show you how you make a Sazerac!