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Vieux Carre
Two spirits, two fortified wines, two bitters, held together by Benedictine
The most architecturally interesting drink this city produced, and I mean that plainly, not as a boast. Six ingredients, four of them boozy in their own right, held in balance by a single herbal liqueur, and made to look inevitable by a man working the floor of a hotel bar. Get this one straight: Bergeron built it in 1938, and the Carousel Bar, the one everybody assumes it came off of, didn't open until 1949. Put him at the Monteleone, not on a turning bar he never worked. Every bottle in this drink is doing real work, drop any one of them and the whole thing collapses into something ordinary.
How it's made
1Stir, don't rush it
Four spirits and wines all want the same room in the glass. Under-stir and the rye and cognac stay hot and separate; over-stir and you've smoothed off exactly the texture Bergeron built the drink to have. This is a drink that rewards patience more than most.
- In a mixing glass with ice, combine 1 oz (30 ml) rye, 1 oz (30 ml) cognac, 1 oz (30 ml) sweet vermouth, 1/4 oz (7 ml) Benedictine, 2 dashes Peychaud's, and 2 dashes Angostura.
- Stir 25 to 30 seconds, longer than a standard stirred cocktail, there's more volume here and more sugar from the vermouth and Benedictine to chill through.
2One rock, one peel
A single large cube keeps this cold without racing to dilute it flat the way a glass of small ice would. The peel is the last aromatic note over the top, it should smell like citrus before it tastes like anything else.
- Strain over one large ice cube in a chilled rocks glass.
- Express a lemon peel over the surface and drop it in, this is the one drink on this list where the peel stays in the glass, it's meant to keep contributing as it sits.
Notes
No pineapple, kiwi, tomato, or capsaicin. Full-proof cocktail, same consumption note as the Sazerac card, not mine to weigh in on.
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