Together with Vieux Carre, the Sazerac cocktail is the most popular cocktail of New Orleans, USA.

Sazerac cocktail was born at Sazerac Coffee House on Exchange Alley in the French Quarter. In 1850, the owner Sewell Taylor applied Peychaud’s Bitters exclusively to Sazerac de Forge et Fils Cognac.

Later, The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight caused by an aphid (a small sap-sucking insect) known as the grape phylloxera in the 1860s that destroyed many of the vineyards.

Cognac became scarce in the United State and rye whiskey became the spirit of choice in the Sazerac cocktail.

In 1869 Thomas H. Handy purchased the Sazerac Coffee House and in 1873 he acquired the exclusive rights of Peychaud’s Bitters. This would originate the American rye whiskey version that we know today.

Sazerac Cocktail was published in William Boothby’s 1908 The Worlds Drinks and How to Mix Them.