Creole apothecary Antoine Peychaud, who moved to New Orleans from the West Indies and set up shop in the French Quarter in the early 1800s, is credited with the earliest version of this drink. He mixed aromatic bitters from an old family recipe with brandy, water, and sugar for his ailing clients. What precisely ailed them is not known, but enough people suffered from the affliction that the concoction became the basis for what some historians claim to be the first true cocktail. While this is open to dispute, few will argue that the Sazerac is New Orleans’s preeminent contribution to mixology. By the 1850s, the drink was served at the Sazerac Coffee House, which took its name from the Sazerac-de-Forget et Fils brandy imported by the establishment’s owner, John B. Schiller. The bar changed hands, and new owner Thomas Handy updated the recipe by substituting American whiskey and adding a splash of absinthe for color—if not color-blindness. When absinthe was banned, Herbsaint, a New Orleans version of the licorice-tasting pastis, was introduced in its stead.

Both Peychaud’s Bitters and Herbsaint are extremely difficult to come by outside Louisiana, sadly putting the cocktail on the endangered species list for the rest of the world. You can substitute ingredients, but that would be like exchanging a pair of high heels for fluffy bedroom slippers.

Sazerac aficionado Chuck Taggart admonishes those who substitute bourbon for rye. He cites legendary New Orleans bartender Stanley Clisby Arthur, who used to mix Sazeracs, as his defense. In Famous New Orleans Drinks & How to Mix ’Em, Arthur insists: “While Bourbon may do for a julep it just won’t do for a real Sazerac.” If by chance you run out of rye—because there is no excuse not to have it except penury—substitute bourbon, but Cognac or brandy is preferable to emulate the original recipe.

This recipe was featured in our Absinthe Obsessive.