Sazerac Cocktail 1 out of 28.

I have challenged myself to post 28 Sazeracs in 28 days for the month of February.

I’ll try some different spirits, try some out at bars, and have some friends make them for me. Hopefully, if I can get my act together we’ll have some video.

Sazerac Cocktail.
1 Lump of Sugar. (1 lump demerara sugar)
1 Dash Angostura or Peychana Bitters. (a couple dashes Peychaud’s Bitters)
1 Glass Rye or Canadian Club Whisky. (2 oz Pikesville Rye Whiskey)

(Soak sugar cube with bitters, muddle in mixing glass and…) Stir well and strain into another glass that has been cooled, add l dash Absinthe and squeeze lemon peel on top.

This is the first Sazerac, and I followed the Savoy recipe to the letter.

Interestingly, I was reading somewhere or another about sugar. It always seems semi authentic to muddle a sugar cube, but in point of fact, it’s not very 19th century at all. In Olden Tymes, sugar would have been cut or ground from a loaf, not formed into sugar cubes. Odds are, most bartenders in the 19th century would have been using some version of gomme or simple syrup.  Possibly finely ground sugar.  Sugar cubes would have been the province of tea parties and the upper class, not most bars.

In fact, according to the wikpedia article on Henry Tate, it was not until 1872 that, “he purchased the patent from German Eugen Langen on a method of making sugar cubes, and in the same year built a new refinery in Liverpool.”  Langen may invented his patented method for forming sugar cubes a bit earlier than this, but as far as I know cubes were not widely distributed before Tate’s introduction.  Yes, the same Henry Tate whose name now graces a rather nice art gallery in London.

Pikesville and the muddled cube make for a somewhat average, if not spectacular, Sazerac.  Interestingly, I’ve recently heard rumors that Pikesville and the 80 proof version of Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey are the exact same whiskeys, just packaged in different bottles.  Hmmm.  Perhaps a side by side blind tasting is in order.  Though this Sazerac did actually kill my bottle of Pikesville.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Opal Cocktail
(6 People)

3 Glasses Gin. (1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin)
2 Glasses Orange Juice. (1 oz Blood Orange Juice)
1 Glass of Cointreau. (1/2 oz Cointreau)
A little Sugar. (very little caster sugar)
Add a little Orange-flower water. (drop orange flower water)

Shake and serve.

Of course, re-doing this for one by dividing 2 oz Glasses in half and then dividing in half again. Hey, I can enjoy a drink and a half.

The Opal is not entirely unpleasant, though far more ginny and a bit harsher than would be popular in a modern cocktail. I think part of it might be the heat of the Cointreau.

No idea why it is called the Opal, as even with regular orange juice this would bear no resemblance to those gold-green gems.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Old Fashioned Cocktail.

1 Lump Sugar.
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters.
1 Glass Rye or Canadian Club Whisky.

Crush sugar and bitters together, add lump of ice, decorate with twist of lemon peel and slice of orange using medium size glass, and stir well. This Cocktail can be made with Brandy, Gin, Rum, etc., instead of Rye Whisky.

I’ve covered the Old-Fashioned a number of times before on the blog: Brandy Special, King Cole Cocktail, Wisconsin Old-Fashioneds, and Make it Another Old-Fashioned, Please. Whew!

Is there anything I haven’t said about them?

Well, one thing I have noticed is that graduates of the American Bartending School are often a bit confused about which end of the muddler goes into the cocktail and which end they should be holding.

Let’s be clear, in the photo above, grasp the top rounded end.

The flat end of the muddler goes into the cocktail to crush your sugar, bitters and what have you.

Also, if you buy a varnished muddler, it’s best to sand the varnish off and soak it in mineral oil.  If you don’t, flakes of varnish will eventually end up in the cocktails.  Varnish is never an appropriate garnish.  Now the above muddler is OK for things like Juleps and Old-Fashioned which are built in normal size glassware.  For those drinks which are muddled in pint glasses, and the like, you might want to think of something with a bit more heft.

For example you might talk to Chris Gallagher and get yourself one of his extremely attractive PUG!  Muddlers.  The one above is made from Mexican Rosewood.  Also, the slanted top end of pug muddlers makes them nearly impossible to hold the wrong way.  Or drop a note to David Nepove, aka Mr. Mojito, who also sells quite an assortment of muddlers and other bar equipment.

Which version did I make this time, with all those options, “Brandy, Gin, Rum, etc.”? Well, I’m supporting the home team, of course!

Genevieve Old-Fashioned.

1 lump Demerara Sugar
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 oz Anchor Genevieve Genever Style Gin

In a medium size heavy bottomed glass, with a muddler, crush sugar and bitters together with a splash of water. Add Genevieve and stir to combine. Add ice and stir well.  Decorate with twist of lemon peel, a slice of orange, and serve.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Nicolaski Cocktail

2/3 Brandy. (1 1/2 oz Dudognon Cognac)
1 Slice Lemon with a little castor sugar spread over it.

Drink Brandy through the prepared lemon.

I have to admit the method here has puzzled me for a long time.

But during one of the opening parties for Heaven’s Dog one of the waiters came up and asked me if I knew what a Nicol-something Cocktail was. He described it a bit and told me the customer said it was a traditional cocktail. I said, well yes, as a matter of fact I did know the cocktail, but I’d never made one, so I’d do my best. I dredged a lemon in sugar, put it on the plate with a shot of Armagnac and sent it out.

The server came back, the patron wanted instead, a slice of lemon, a pile of sugar, and a shot of brandy.

So there you go.

I’m still unclear on the exact method of imbibing the Nicolaski.

Do you take a sip of brandy and then suck on the lemon, like old school Vodka Lemon Drops? Put the sugar coated lemon in your mouth and then suck the brandy through it? Dredge the lemon in sugar, float it in the brandy and drink it through the lemon?

I tried all three and the first seemed the most sensible to me.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

New York Cocktail.

1 Lump Sugar. (1 Demerara sugar cube)
The Juice of 1/2 Lime or ¼ Lemon. (1/4 lemon squeezed into tin)
2 Dashes Grenadine. (1 tsp homemade)
1 Piece Orange Peel.
1 Glass Canadian Club Whisky. (2 oz Rittenhouse Bonded)

(Muddle sugar cube in lemon juice and grenadine. Squeeze orange peel over drink and drop in. Add Whiskey and…) Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.  (If you feel inspired, add a cherry.)

Similar method and ingredients to the Mr. Manhattan Cocktail.  Even though sources indicate this cocktail is from Hugo Ensslin, it makes me wonder if they might originally have come from the same source.

A perfectly delightful and “old-fashioned” preparation of a Whiskey sour.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

The Nevada Cocktail

1 Hooker of Bacardi Rum. (1 1/2 oz Montecristo White)
The Juice of 1/2 Grapefruit. (Shoot, should have measured.)
The Juice of 1 Lime. (Juice 1/2 lemon)
Powdered Sugar. (Scant teaspoon caster sugar)
1 Dash Bitters. (1 dash Angostura)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

This is another one from Judge Jr.’s prohibition era tome, “Here’s How!”

Actually probably the best drink of any from that book so far. Really highlights the floral flavors of the rum, grapefruit, and bitters.

About all I’d say is it’s a bit too large. Divided in two, this would be a good appetizer cocktail. Bittersweet and tart. This large and it gets a bit acid-ey on the stomach by the end.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Margato Cocktail (Special)

1/3 Bacardi Rum. (3/4 oz Montecristo White Rum)
1/3 French Vermouth. (3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)
1/3 Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Carpano Antica)
1 Dash Kirsch. (1/3 tsp. Trimbach Kirsch)
The Juice of 1/2 Lemon.
The Juice of 1/3 Lime.
A little sugar (scant teaspoon caster sugar) dissolved in soda-water.

Shake well and serve in cocktail glass.

Uh right. If this recipe makes sense to anyone, feel free to let me know. Who measures “The Juice of 1/3 Lime”?

It’s pretty OK. Tasting mostly like a slightly vermouth-ey glass of tart lemonade. Certainly, the alcohol is well disguised. Maybe that is the point?

There is a Cuban rum cocktail with dry vermouth and lime. Not El Presidente, I can’t think of what it is called. I suppose this is sort of a “perfect” version of that cocktail.

Oh right, to answer my own question, it is the “Presidente Vincent” cocktail.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Sea Fizz

1 1/2 oz Absinthe
Juice 1/2 lemon
1 egg white
1 tsp caster sugar (or 1 tsp 2-1 simple syrup)

Shake ingredients for 10 seconds in a cocktail shaker without ice. Add large ice and shake well. Strain into glass and top up with soda water.

There are few drinks with a lot of Absinthe that I truly like.  This is one of them.

The Sea Fizz is not in the “Savoy Cocktail Book,” but appears without the egg white in later editions of Patrick Duffy’s “Official Mixer’s Manual” as the “Seapea Fizz”.

Apparently, it was created by Frank Meier, at the time of the Gambon bar and later of the Ritz in Paris, for Cole Porter (C.P., thus “Seapea”) some time around 1933.

If you use Pernod, Ricard, or another sweetened anise liqueur, reduce, or eliminate, the sugar.

Basically an Absinthe sour, this is a delicious and dangerously refreshing beverage.

Dixie Whisky Cocktail
(6 People)

To 2 lumps of sugar (Dash Depaz Cane Syrup) add a small teaspoon of Angostura Bitters (Nice Dash of Angostura), another of Lemon Juice (Dash Lemon Juice), 4 glasses of Whisky (2 1/4 oz Weller 12 Year old Bourbon), a small teaspoonful of Curacao (barely a dash of Dash Brizard Orange Curacao) and 2 teaspoonsful of Crème de Menthe (Dash Brizard Crème de Menthe). Add plenty of ice and shake carefully. Serve.

First interesting point of this cocktail is that the portions of the Dixie Whisky are a bit on the larger size. Usually, these 6 person cocktails are a little more than 12 oz of spirits and mixers. This one is over 16 oz.

Ultimately, it is a sort of Whisky Crusta without the sugar rims. Or a “Dinah Cocktail” for those without fresh mint.

Unfortunately, it’s not really very good. To me, the main problem with the Dixie Whisky is a clash between the Angostura and the Crème de Menthe. It would be a much tastier cocktail if you left either one of those out.

I also wonder about the Curacao. In such a small amount, it really doesn’t add much here, especially up against the intense flavors of the Whisky, Crème de Menthe, lemon, and bitters. Was the pre-prohibition Curacao much more intensely flavored?

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, well laziness basically, I am going to recycle this MxMo post from a year and a half ago. Besides, I’m off to my home state, Wisconsin, land of the Brandy Old-Fashioned. Ya so, dat Old-Fashioned ting is perfectly apropos of the “Local Flavor” theme, dere hey.

Cheers to Kevin Kelpe of Save the Drinkers for hosting this round.

—

MAKE IT ANOTHER OLD-FASHIONED, PLEASE
Cole Porter, 1940
[...]
there are moments, sooner or later
When it’s tough, I got to say, love to say … Waiter

Make it another old-fashioned, please
Make it another, double, old-fashioned, please
[...]

There’s an art to the Old-Fashioned cocktail. It’s a simple thing, yet when you order it in two bars, you will seldom receive the same cocktail twice.

By the time Jerry Thomas published his “Bartender’s Guide” in the late 1800s, a whiskey cocktail had come to be a shaken “up” cocktail. Due respect to Mr. Thomas, I stirred, and did not shake with crushed ice.

Whiskey Cocktail

Whiskey Cocktail
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 3 or 4 dashes of gum syrup. (Barspoon Rich Simple Syrup)
2 dashes of bitters (Boker’s). (Angostura)
1 wine-glass of whiskey. (2oz Sazerac 6 Year Rye)

Fill one-third full of fine ice ; shake and strain in a fancy red wine-glass. Put in a piece of twisted lemon peel in the glass and serve.

Some authors posit that the Old-Fashioned Cocktail came by its name as a shortened version of something like, “I’ll have a Whiskey Cocktail made in the Old Fashioned Manner”. That is to say, not shaken and served on the rocks. Presumably, a “Really Old-Fashioned” would be whiskey, water, syrup and bitters. From the Savoy Cocktail Book:

Old-Fashioned Cocktail

Old-Fashioned Cocktail
1 Lump Sugar (Barspoon Rich Simple Syrup)
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Glass Rye or Canadian Club Whisky (2 oz Sazerac 6 Year Rye)

Crush Sugar and bitters together, add lump of ice, decorate with twist of lemon peel and slice of orange using medium size glass, and stir well. This Cocktail can be made with Brandy, Gin, Rum, etc., instead of Rye Whisky.

Some time in the 20th century, Bourbon replaced the Rye as the whiskey of choice in the Old-Fashioned, and even stranger, bartenders began to muddle the garnish in the glass with the bitters and sugar. Also, for better or worse, soda crept into the mix. From Charles Schumann’s, “American Bar”:

Old Fashioned

Old Fashioned
1 Sugar Cube (Barspoon Rich Simple Syrup)
dashes Angostura Bitters
2 oz Bourbon (W.L. Weller 12 Year)
soda (skipped)
stemmed cherry
orange
lemon

Place sugar cube in an old-fashioned glass saturate with Angostura, add orange and lemon wedges, press with a pestle, add Bourbon, stir well, add ice cubes, fill with soda or water, stir again, garnish with cherry.

Even odder, in Wisconsin, the liquor of choice in Old-Fashioneds is not Whiskey at all, but Brandy (preferably Korbel). Wisconsinites, being cold weather folk, also have a tendency to make these rather large, and sometimes give you a choice of “Sweet” or “Sour”. “Sour” includes a spritz of Soda and “Sweet” a spritz of 7-Up.

Brandy Old-Fashion, Sour

Muddled Brandy Old-Fashioned (Sour)

Recipe identical to the Schumann Old-Fashioned recipe; but, with a generous 2 oz pour of Korbel Brandy instead the Bourbon.

Lately, however, I have found a return, in a few local bars, to the Savoy style stirred Rye Old-Fashioneds, with or without the orange and cherry garnish. This makes ordering an Old-Fashioned somewhat less of a crap shoot. Though, the bartenders do tend to ask if you’re sure you want it that way.

MAKE IT ANOTHER OLD-FASHIONED, PLEASE
Cole Porter, 1940
[...]
So, make it another old-fashioned, please

Leave out the cherry,
Leave out the orange,
Leave out the bitters
Just make it Straight Rye.

Sazerac 18 Year Old Rye Whiskey

Sazerac 18 year Old Straight Rye Whiskey

And, of course, it wouldn’t be complete without a drink of real old fashioned rye whiskey.

For further, more erudite reading on the Brandy Old-Fashioned subject, check Robert Simonson’s Off the Presses for this article: Brandy Old-Fashioned

Edit – Fixed song lyrics. Thanks Bryndon!