Sazerac
A Sazerac is 50ml of cognac stirred with a sugar cube and two dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, then strained, with no ice, into a chilled rocks glass rinsed with absinthe, and finished with lemon peel expressed over the top. The IBA lists those ingredients. About 2.1 UK units. New Orleans more often makes it with rye whiskey. The name comes from Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils, a cognac that Sewell Taylor imported to New Orleans from around 1850. Aaron Bird, who took over Taylor’s Merchants Exchange Coffee House, renamed it the Sazerac Coffee House and served a Sazerac Cocktail on that cognac, reportedly with Antoine Amédée Peychaud’s bitters. Under Thomas Handy, from around 1870, rye took the cognac’s place. The absinthe never goes into the mixing glass. It coats the glass and is poured away, leaving anise on the nose of every sip.
Variations
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Lemon peel expressed and discarded
Ingredients
50ml
A VS or VSOP at 40% ABV, as the IBA specifies and as the drink’s name recalls. Cognac gives a rounder, fruitier Sazerac than rye does.
2 dashes
At 35% ABV, the New Orleans bitters: anise, cherry and a floral note, lighter than Angostura. Two dashes is the IBA’s measure, and they turn the drink a pinkish red.
1 cube
One white sugar cube, soaked with the bitters and crushed until it dissolves, about a teaspoon of sugar. A bar spoon of sugar syrup does the same job faster.
10ml
For the rinse only, at 55 to 68% ABV: swirled round the chilled glass and poured away. Herbsaint or pastis can stand in, as they did in New Orleans while absinthe was banned in the United States.
Instructions
Chill a rocks glass in the freezer, or fill it with crushed ice and water.
In a mixing glass, soak the sugar cube with the Peychaud’s bitters and crush it until it dissolves.
Add the cognac, fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Empty the rocks glass, pour in the absinthe, turn the glass to coat the inside and discard the excess.
Strain the drink into the rinsed glass, with no ice.
Express a strip of lemon peel over the surface and discard it.
Source: the IBA (IBA specification; stirred 20 to 30 seconds and the lemon peel discarded). Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Get the cube fully dissolved first. Soak it with the bitters and crush it in the mixing glass until no grains are left. Undissolved sugar sits at the bottom, and the last sip comes out sweeter than the first. Coat the glass, then pour the absinthe away. Tip 10ml into the chilled glass and turn it until the inside is wet to the rim, then discard the rest. What clings to the glass gives the anise. Nothing goes in the finished glass: no ice and no peel. Express the lemon over the surface and discard it. Without ice the drink warms slowly in the hand, and the anise and fruit open as it does.
Behind the Sazerac
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Around 1850 Sewell T. Taylor sold his New Orleans bar, the Merchants Exchange Coffee House, and became an importer of spirits, among them a cognac called Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils. Aaron Bird took over the bar, renamed it the Sazerac Coffee House and served a Sazerac Cocktail made with that cognac.
The bitters are said to have come from Antoine Amédée Peychaud, a Creole apothecary in the French Quarter who sold his own aromatic bitters. A popular story credits him with the drink itself, served in an egg cup, a coquetier, that supposedly gave cocktails their name. The word was in print by 1803, which ends that story.
Thomas Handy ran the Sazerac Coffee House from around 1870, and about then rye whiskey replaced the cognac. The usual reason given is the phylloxera blight in French vineyards; the IBA puts it after the American Civil War. Handy wrote the recipe down before his death in 1889, and it first appeared in print in William Boothby’s The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them in 1908, with Selner bitters rather than Peychaud’s.
The Absinthe Rinse
The rinse is a coat, not a few drops. Pour about 10ml into the chilled glass, tilt and turn it until the inside is wet to the rim, and discard what is left before the drink goes in.
What clings to the glass is a fraction of a millilitre, too little to count in the units and enough to put anise and herbs on the nose of every sip. After absinthe was banned in the United States in 1912, New Orleans used other anise spirits, most often Herbsaint, made locally from 1934. Absinthe returned to the American market in 2007.
Peychaud’s Bitters
Peychaud’s is lighter and more floral than Angostura, with anise and cherry, and it gives the drink its colour. La Louisiane and the Vieux Carré, two other New Orleans drinks, use it too.
The IBA uses Peychaud’s alone. Many rye Sazeracs add one dash of Angostura for a firmer spice note, and our rye version does. Both builds are common.
Three Ways to Build It
The Sazerac, its rye version and the Improved Whiskey Cocktail
Sazerac (IBA)
- Spirit
- 50ml cognac
- Bitters
- Two dashes Peychaud’s
- Sweetener
- One sugar cube
- Absinthe
- 10ml rinse, discarded
- UK units
- About 2.1
Rye Sazerac
- Spirit
- 60ml rye whiskey
- Bitters
- Three dashes Peychaud’s, one Angostura
- Sweetener
- One sugar cube
- Absinthe
- 5ml rinse, discarded
- UK units
- About 2.5
Improved Whiskey Cocktail
- Spirit
- 60ml rye whiskey
- Bitters
- Two dashes Angostura
- Sweetener
- 10ml demerara syrup, 5ml maraschino
- Absinthe
- 2.5ml stirred in
- UK units
- About 2.8
| Drink | Spirit | Bitters | Sweetener | Absinthe | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sazerac (IBA) | 50ml cognac | Two dashes Peychaud’s | One sugar cube | 10ml rinse, discarded | About 2.1 |
| Rye Sazerac | 60ml rye whiskey | Three dashes Peychaud’s, one Angostura | One sugar cube | 5ml rinse, discarded | About 2.5 |
| Improved Whiskey Cocktail | 60ml rye whiskey | Two dashes Angostura | 10ml demerara syrup, 5ml maraschino | 2.5ml stirred in | About 2.8 |
How to Serve It
Short, cold and with no ice, in a rocks glass chilled before you start, with lemon oil on the surface and no peel in the glass. It is a slow drink, and it changes as it warms.
For rye, sweet vermouth and Bénédictine with Peychaud’s, make La Louisiane; for absinthe and maraschino stirred into rye over ice, an Improved Whiskey Cocktail.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Rye)Rye whiskey, in American law, takes at least 51% of its grain from rye and its colour from new charred oak, and goes into bottle at a 40% ABV minimum; our recipes take 40% as the figure. Rye makes a drier, spicier, more peppery spirit than corn, which is why stirred classics such as the Manhattan, Vieux Carré and Brooklyn are written for it. It appears in 23 of our recipes.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Sazerac?
Cognac or rye?
Why did rye replace cognac?
What does the absinthe rinse do?
Is the Sazerac the oldest American cocktail?
Can I add Angostura?
Is the Sazerac the official cocktail of New Orleans?
How strong is a Sazerac?
You Might Also Like
La Louisiane
La Louisiane is 30ml each of rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and Bénédictine, with two dashes of absinthe and three of Peychaud’s bitters, stirred for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick & Nora, with a maraschino cherry on a pick. About 3.1 UK units. Stanley Clisby Arthur printed it in 1937, in Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em, as the special cocktail of Restaurant de la Louisiane, a French Creole restaurant in New Orleans. He named no bartender and gave no date. His recipe pours a third of a jigger of each of the three, with three or four dashes each of absinthe substitute and Peychaud’s; ours keeps the thirds and trims the absinthe to two dashes. It sits on the Manhattan’s frame of rye and sweet vermouth, with Bénédictine poured at the same measure as both. That makes it richer and more herbal than its parent, and the anise of the absinthe and the Peychaud’s places it in New Orleans.
Corpse Reviver No. 2
A Corpse Reviver No. 2 is 30ml each of London Dry gin, Cointreau, Lillet Blanc and fresh lemon juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe rinsed with absinthe, with lemon peel expressed over the top. About 2.9 UK units. The four measures are the IBA’s. The IBA puts a dash of absinthe in the shaker; we rinse the glass with it, which leaves the scent with less of the anise. Lillet Blanc stands in for the Kina Lillet of older recipes; accounts differ on whether that was a more bitter wine. Harry Craddock printed it in the Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, beside a No. 1. Under the No. 2 he added a warning: four taken in swift succession would unrevive the corpse again.
Brandy Crusta
A Brandy Crusta is 52.5ml of cognac, 7.5ml of maraschino, a bar spoon each of orange curaçao and sugar syrup, 15ml of fresh lemon juice and two dashes of Angostura, shaken hard and strained into a chilled coupe with a sugared rim and a long spiral of lemon peel curled inside. About 2.6 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. Jerry Thomas printed it in his bar guide of 1862 and wrote that the crusta was said to have been invented by “Santina, a celebrated Spanish caterer”. Later research identified him as Joseph Santini, an Italian-born bartender in New Orleans who, by most accounts, made it around 1850, at the City Exchange and later at his own bar, the Jewel of the South. The crust of sugar on the rim gives the drink its name. With the peel lining the glass, the first sip meets sugar and lemon oil before the cognac.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026