Fat Tuesday
Mardi Gras, the yearly festival of limited moral convictions and general debauchery is upon us again. No, we are nowhere near the city of New Orleans, but we imagine that this year is especially crazy due to the fact that the Saints have won the Superbowl during the yearly celebration. Ah, to be a fly on the wall on Bourbon Street.
But Bourbon Street isn’t the only place you can find these pious partiers. Any country that is primarily Catholic in it’s religious affiliation has a celebration, although some hit the sauce harder than others. It’s Carnival in Brazil, which in the city of Salvador is the biggest in the world. Carnevale di Venezia in Venice, Italy has been going on since 1268. It’s Rijeka Carnival in Croatia, Fastelavn in Denmark, and the entire Carribbean parties it up before Ash Wednesday hits. We say, if they can do it there, so can we.
Americans are we, so our cocktails hail from the Mardi Gras in our homeland. These are the recipes that have been tradition for some time in New Orleans, and all but one were created in the city itself. The one that isn’t has been perfected inside it’s limits. Craving a little Fat Tuesday in your living room? We give you: New Orleans.
We start with the one everyone knows: the Hurricane. Legend has it that Pat O’Brien, a bar owner in New Orleans in the 1940′s was trying to come up with a recipe to dispose of the extra rum he had lying around. At the time, whiskey and scotch were the most popular liquors, and the distributors would package the rum along with them to offload it, forcing owners to take the “bad” with the good. So, he came up with a recipe, making it strong with a bright reddish color, served it in a Hurricane glass, and voila. The drink caught on first with the sailors, and gradually became one of the mainstay cocktails of the city itself. Today, you can get one in a plastic cup and wander the street of New Orleans during Mardi Gras, or just any old time you wish.
Next, the Vieux Carre Cocktail was invented in 1938 by Walter Bergeron, the head bartender at the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans, and is named after the French term for what we call “The French Quarter” , or literally translated, “Old Square”. The Monteleone has been a landmark in the French Quarter (since 1886), so it only makes sense that this delicious cocktail should too. If you happen to get to New Orleans, be sure to check out the hotel itself and it’s famous Carousel bar, which slowly turns in a circle. It’s also been in a half a dozen movies and is just a darn pretty hotel. And hey, while you are there, pull up a chair and have the signature cocktail.
Henry C. Ramos created the Ramos Gin Fizz way back in 1888, which makes this cocktail an antique. His bar, Meyer’s Restaurant, is credited with the creation, but the Roosevelt Hotel (now The Fairmont) is the place where the drink gained celebrity. The Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, did all his business in the Roosevelt and drank it religiously. He even went as far as to take the bartender from the hotel with him to New York, so he could teach the bartenders at the New Yorker Hotel in NYC how to make them. And no, it wasn’t to spread the recipe around, it was so he could have one when he was in the Big Apple for business. In 1935 the Roosevelt trademarked the drink, and you can still get one there today.
The Mint Julep is offically the cocktail of the Kentucky Derby, but it has been adopted and perfected by New Orleans. We are told it has its roots in Persia as its name comes from the Arabic word for “rose water”, but has it’s modern roots in the beginning of the 19th century. With it’s traditional metal cup and copious amounts of bourbon, it’s first appearance in print was in 1803 by John Davis. There was no specific recipe, however, and it didn’t become the official drink of the Kentucky Derby until 1935. We do know that Kentucky Senator Henry Clay introduced the drink to Washington D.C. in the first half of the 1800′s, at a place still standing called the Willard Hotel. We are told that these days, you can find some of the finest juleps from experienced barmen (and women) in the City of New Orleans. Even though the drink wasn’t invented there, this simple and delicious drink is one of it’s most popular.
We saved the best for last. The Sazerac. One of our personal favorites, it was named by John Schiller in 1859 upon the opening of his Sazerac Coffee House in New Orleans. The name stemmed from a popular brand of cognac, called Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils, and was originally made with cognac, but in 1870 was replaced with rye whiskey, which is also named Sazerac. It is, to many cocktail historians, the first American cocktail. Clearly, however, the Mint Julep is in the running for that title as well. But we digress!
One last note about the Sazerac: in March 2008, Edwin Murray, a Louisiana state senator filed a bill in an attempt to make the Sazerac Louisiana’s Official State Cocktail. While the state Senate approved of making the cocktail official for New Orleans, they didn’t think it was approporate for the whole state. After rejections of various versions of the bill, they finally agreed, and on June 23, 2008 it was proclaimed that the Sazerac is New Orleans’ official cocktail.
Now, chose your poison, turn up your furnace, and pretend you are at a cafe on Bourbon Street. See, isn’t that nice?
Recipes:
Sazerac
3 oz of rye whiskey
½ oz simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
½ oz absinthe
Coat the glass with absinthe, pour out the excess. Shake first four ingredients in a shaker and strain into glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Hurricane
1 oz light rum
1 oz Pusser’s Navy rum
½ oz Galliano
2 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz passion fruit syrup
¾ oz lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into an ice filled glass. Garnish with a pineapple wedge.
Mint Julep
2 mint sprigs, de-stemmed
3 oz bourbon
1 oz simple syrup
splash of fresh water
Gently muddle mint leaves with simple syrup in a julep cup or old fashioned glass with a bit of water. Pack the cup full of crushed ice, add bourbon and stir with bar spoon. Add more crushed ice if needed before serving. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.
Vieux Carre Cocktail
1 oz rye whiskey
1 oz cognac
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 teaspoon Bénédictine D.O.M.
2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Pour all ingredients into an old fashioned glass, stir gently. Garnish with a orange peel.
Ramos Gin Fizz
2 oz gin
Juice from ½ lemon
Juice from ½ lime
½ oz cream
1 tsp sugar
1 egg white
several dashes of orange flower water
Top with soda
Shake all ingredients except the soda and strain into an ice filled glass. Top it off with soda.
