Infinite MonkeysI've been wanting to write more about the Sazerac cocktail (I mentioned it before in my Vegas write-up). But I hadn't been drinking it, because it's so hard to find Peychaud's Bitters, and I really didn't want to pay the shipping. Fortunately, at our recent Monkey Summit, Ben gave me a bottle for my birthday.
I also convinced the guy at Wine Time, an outstanding La Jolla liquor store, to start stocking it. I buy most of my wine there now, and quite a bit of booze (including a Korean liquor made from sweet potatoes and green tea that I'll write about soon). I believe he's also going to stock the Herbsaint, but that's a bit easier to find.
I found an excellent discussion of the Sazerac cocktail, so I'll focus this discussion more on another of the long list of things Ben has taught me: the proper glassware is just as important in cocktails as in wine. And the amount per drink is much more important (in wine, it's mainly relevant in that you want room to be able to swirl your wine in the glass). So what's the right size glass for the Sazerac, martinis, and most other cocktails served straight up?
It's a four ounce glass. This is the old school martini glass size, so when you heard about "three martini lunches" back in the 50's, it was a lot of drinking, but certainly not like it would be with the monster glasses restaurants use today. As we've discussed before (back on Blog*Spot), a bigger glass means you have to drink fast or the cocktail will become warm. Also, I think the smaller glass makes for a better proportion of ice in the shaker, to get the 25% dilution Ben recommends.
Note that the recipe for the Sazerac in the article I linked to above would barely fill one of the new trendy glasses, nor would Ben's recipe for the magical Hpnotiq Martini. Your goal with this glass is to end up with 2.5 - 3.5 ounces of cocktail, which leaves room for an olive or lemon twist.
The smaller glass also allows you to enjoy the ritual of mixing a drink more frequently (if you don't like that ritual, just make a pitcher--trust me, everyone will be happy.
P.S. The glass shown above is from Libby, and while the shape is classic, there's a lot of other good shapes. The key is the 4 ounce size.
P.P.S. I've made the Sazerac with the rye from the Sazerac Company, with Old Overholt, and with Cognac (I just realized all of those bottles were gifts from Ben, at least originally--some have been restocked). All resulted in an excellent cocktail.
Posted by David at April 29, 2004 03:58 PM | TrackBack