Scotch Sazerac

My friend Matt at UC Davis sent me an interesting idea he had tried last week: a Sazerac made with Scotch instead of the usual rye or brandy. So when he came for drinks on Friday, we made one together. It was definitely a success, but the peat smoke from the base spirit made it a very different cocktail.



Scotch Sazerac

• 2 oz Scotch (Highland Park)
• 1 tsp simple syrup
• 1/2 tsp absinthe (St. George)
• 4 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
• 1 drop Angostura Bitters
• Lemon peel

I used Chuck Taggart's method of preparing a Sazerac as a template. In short:

Ice an old-fashioned glass. In another glass, combine spirits, simple syrup, bitters and ice. Stir. Go back to the first glass. Rinse with absinthe. Strain the contents of the second glass into the iced, absinthe-coated glass. Twist the lemon peel to express the oil over the drink. Rub the peel along the lip of the glass. Drop it in or not.

This is clearly a Sazerac relative, though the really odd member of the family. Tasty, but stiffer—a Sazerac for a chillier climate, perhaps. (San Francisco in the evening feels at times like it could be in the Orkney Islands, so it’s no surprise that Matt and I liked this.)

For every other conceivable Sazerac, drop in on Erik at Underhill-Lounge. My fellow San Franciscan seems to have posted them all for the month of February and a few bonuses in March.