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Tipples → Mixed Drinks → Slings → Cocktails → Plain Cocktails

Zazarack Cocktail

:

• Jack's Manual. New York; Jack Grohusko, 1910
• Beverages De Luxe. Louisville; Washburne & Bronner, 1911
• Fine Beverages. Cleveland; Sasena & Sasena, 1933

The Zazarack Cocktail is the whiskey-based version of the Sazerac Cocktail. The wine blight probably had something to do with the scarcity of Sazerac^™ Cognac brandywine after about 1895. In the case of this drink, it was a stroke of serendipity. The rye whiskey adaptation is better than the brandywine version, according to most drinkers.

Have the folowwing items:

Service-ware

• 4½ fl-oz. glass Cocktail goblet
• 4-inch beverage napkin

Tools

• cuting board
    #1: composite board (no plastic)^*
• paring knife
    #1: culinary school issue^*
• glass mixing pitcher^*
   (Yarai^tm or similar)
• jigger-and-pony measure
   [2 fl-oz. by 1 fl-oz. / ~60 ml. by ~30 ml.]
• 3-to-1 split pony
   [¾ fl-oz. by ¼ fl-oz. / ~22.5 ml. by ~7.5 ml.]
• food grade perfume atomizer
• ice scoop
• stirrer
   (stainless-steel chopstick^* - or long, narrow spoon)
• Hawthorne strainer

Ingredients

• lemon (whole, for zest-cutting)
   (Citrus limon: Eureka or Santa Theresa)
• Peychaud's^™ Bitters
• 50° Brix simple syrup
• Maryland-style rye whiskey
    #1: Leopold Brothers^™ Maryland-style Rye Whiskey;
    #2: Wild Turkey^™ 101° Rye Whiskey
• esprit d’absinthe
   [preferably in an ‘atomizer’]
• method ice (also called 'cracked ice')
   (half the size of service ice)
  

Instructions

1. Chill the cocktail goblet.
2. Cut a ~1” wide and ~3” long strip of lemon zest with minimal pith and reserve it.
3. Set the mixing pitcher in the work area. Into it goes:
• • gentian bitters — 2 dashes
   [1 scruplespoonfull / ¼ tsp. / ~1.25 ml.]
• • simple syrup — ¼ ponyfull
   [¼ fl-oz. / ~7.5 ml.]
• • Maryland-style rye whiskey — 1 jiggerfull
   [2 poniesfull / 2 fl-oz. / ~60 ml.]
4. Set the chilled, empty goblet in the work area. Into it goes:
• • esprit d’absinthe — 2 or 3 ‘atomizer’ sprays
   [or a little bit ‘rinsed’ around the inside and then discarded]
5. Take the mixing pitcher to the ice. Into it is added:
• • method ice — ⅔ fill
6. Set the mixing pitcher back in the work area.
7. Smoothly stir the ingredients for at least thirty seconds to mix and chill-dilute without letting aeration bruise the velvet of the liquor.
8. Fit the Hawthorne strainer into the mixing pitcher and strain the drink through the strainer into the goblet.
9. Garnish the drink with:
• • lemon zest (reserved in step #2) — 1 strip
   (twisted zest-side-down over the drink, rubbed on the rim, and put into the drink).
10. Serve the drink on the napkin.

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