In an effort to kick off the Citizen’s Assembly blog, I would like to celebrate the fact that two of our own, Dave Delaney and Kevin Ludy, are currently down in New Orleans at the Tales of the Cocktail Festival representing The Citizen and the good ‘ol City of Worcester.  For those of you that aren’t familiar, The Tales of The Cocktail is an international festival held every year in New Orleans that is everything cocktail, from seminars to competitions.   It’s an honor for Dave to have qualified for a trip down by winning two competitions for his cocktail craftsmanship.   If he wins at the Tales of The Cocktail, he could be going on to Paris, to compete.   We wish you well Dave!

Speaking of New Orleans, there are a couple of my favorite cocktails that were born down in NOLA that are worth mentioning – the Sazerac and the Vieux Carre.  These two drinks are classics, and are certainly worthy of being discussed in the Assembly blog.

The Sazerac, like many other great cocktails, has a great story behind it.  A gentleman by the name of Antoine Peychaud operated an apothecary down in New Orleans in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries.  Peychaud was a Freemason, and would serve the drink at the Freemason meetings held at his pharmacy.  Being a pharmacist, Peychaud would serve his own formulation of bitters in the drink.  At the time, cognac was used in the drink (as opposed to Rye whiskey today) made by Sazerac de Forge et Fils, in France. And so the legendary drink was born.    

The Sazerac is an incredibly delicate drink.  In order to make it, one should chill a rocks glass on the side, build the drink in a mixing glass, stirred with ice, and then strain into the empty chilled glass.  In other words, it is served neat, in a chilled rocks glass.  The reason it is served this way, as the drink warms up, the botanicals open up, and the imbiber is introduced to several different layers of flavor.  These days, the drink is served with Rye, simple syrup, Peychaud’s bitters, and an absinthe rinse.   As you bring the glass to your mouth, you get a hint of the anise from the absinthe rinse.  Upon first sip, you taste sweetness from the simple syrup, citrus from the lemon peel, and some body and structure from that rye.  One of my favorites!

A second cocktail of note is the Vieux Carre cocktail.  Loosely translated in Old French, the name of the cocktail means “the old square”.    In New Orleans, the old square is the French Quarter.  While I don’t have as interesting a story for this cocktail, as I did the Sazerac, it is still an interesting drink indeed.   In fact, this drink also uses Rye Whiskey and Peychaud’s bitters, like the Sazerac, but the similarities stop there.  Other ingredients are cognac, sweet vermouth, Benedictine, and Angostura bitters.  While the Sazerac is stirred, this cocktail calls for a good shake, in order to incorporate the ingredients, and get some water into the drink, from the ice cubes. 

The 3 main ingredients of this cocktail (Rye, cognac, sweet vermouth) are made with equal parts, for a well balanced drink.  Add a spoonful of the Benedictine for some spice, and a couple dashes of both kinds of bitters.  Classic recipes call for a lemon peel as a garnish, but I like to add a flamed orange peel for some depth to compliment the dark liqueurs. 

Cheers!

- Chris