The Forgotten Ingredient in New Orleans’ Official Cocktail

When you order a Sazerac in New Orleans, it’s almost always rinsed with Herbsaint. But the very first Sazeracs, the ones that built cocktail history, used Absinthe.

At Absinthia’s Bottled Spirits, we’re launching “Put the Absinthe Back in the Sazerac,” a campaign to revive the Green Fairy’s rightful place in the city’s iconic drink.

A Brief History of the Sazerac

• Early 1800s: Antoine Amédée Peychaud creates the cocktail we now call the Sazerac, rinsing the glass with Absinthe. The ingredients were French cognac, Peychaud’s bitters, sugar, and an absinthe rinse. While I have heard the rinse was to sterilize the glass as the distilled spirit was safer to drink than New Orleans tap water, there is no proof of this. Whatever the reason, the absinthe gives the Sazerac a lovely aroma.
• In the 1860s–1890s, the French wine industry was devastated by the Phylloxera epidemic, a tiny insect that wiped out vineyards across Europe. Cognac became scarce and expensive, forcing New Orleans bartenders to adapt.
• By the 1890s, American rye whiskey became the new standard, creating the bold, spicy Sazerac we know today. Some modern bartenders nod to history by using a Cognac-and-rye split base, honoring both versions of the drink.
• 1912: The U.S. bans Absinthe, forcing bartenders to improvise.
• 1934: Herbsaint debuts as a local substitute and keeps the ritual alive.
• 2007: Absinthe becomes legal again in the U.S.
• 2008: Louisiana declares the Sazerac the official cocktail of New Orleans.