New Orleans Drinks (weekly column):
Sazerac vs. Ramos
New Orleans Times-Picayune
August 28, 2009
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David Wondrich, the drinks correspondent for Esquire magazine and author of "Imbibe," is a leading scholar of the cocktail world. And he is not impressed with our many local boasts about the Sazerac. (In June, the Louisiana House of Representatives, with a 62-33 vote, declared that the Sazerac -- a mix of rye whiskey, bitters and absinthe -- is the New Orleans official cocktail.)
What have you got against the Sazerac?
I love the Sazerac. However, my job is to look at the evidence and write about what is in the evidence.
What are some examples of the myths and nonsense surrounding the Sazerac?
The myth that it's the first cocktail. Failing that, that it was this distinctive, unique to New Orleans thing to put absinthe in a cocktail, which is not true. It's even a myth that there was such a thing as a Sazerac cocktail as we understand it now in the middle of the 19th century.
How old is the Sazerac?
I suspect it's around really the 1880s or 1890s that it came together in the present form. There is no evidence that the Sazerac Bar was famous for its cocktails until later in the century.
Who is to blame for the misinformation?
It's marketing from the Sazerac Company in the early 1900s. They had a very aggressive businessman named Billy McQuoid who owned the company. He marketed bottled cocktails.
Why are we still drinking Sazeracs in New Orleans?
This is the real story. The rest of the world went changing and, you could say, whoring after other gods. And in New Orleans people found the best cocktail and they stuck to it with just grim determination through Prohibition and every fad and trend. You can't get it in every dive bar in New Orleans, but most bars in New Orleans will make you a Sazerac if you ask politely.
Most bartenders, though, will not make you a Ramos gin fizz?
That's true; however, they know that they probably should know how to make it.
Could the Ramos gin fizz ever be popular again?
It could. I hope it can. Henry C. Ramos invented the Ramos fizz, was credited for it and famous for it during his lifetime, was a hell of a guy, a native New Orleanian, and he just gets the also-ran treatment. For me, that's the irony of it.
Isn't the Ramos a drink that doesn't fit modern tastes?
Neither did the Sazerac until five years ago. Who could say? You have a properly made Ramos and it is a delightful drink.
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