The Sazerac, a rye whiskey lover's cocktail

This post was inspired by Debra at She Who Seeks. Her last post was a tongue-in-cheek entry about food blogs. I have occasionally posted about food and drink, so here's one for a the drinkers out there. Zum Wohl!

When I still drank alcohol, I made a lot of 'fancy' drinks for myself at home once I stopped professionally tending bar. (This home 'habit' was also probably why I stopped drinking five years ago, to be honest.) I was a brown liquor fan, and when rye whiskey came back in fashion here in the bar world around 2005, or so, I and a lot of other 'tenders began substituting it in drinks that traditionally called for bourbon to good effect. The modern-day Manhattan recipe makes a great cocktail, but substituting the bourbon for rye whiskey gives one a delightful variation on theme. 

The Sazerac, one of the the earliest cocktails created in the states around 1850, traditionally called for brandy. Today's version uses rye whiskey and here's my take on it:

Ingredients

2 ounces of Rye
Pernod
3-4 dashes of Peychaud's bitters
bar spoon of simple syrup
lemon twist/peel

Directions

Ice a 'bucket' glass (here I used a coupé cuz I'm fancy like that), then add a splash or so of Pernod, swirl it around then dump out contents. This glass is now 'coated' with Pernod.  

In a mix tin (one half of a Boston shaker set) add rye, bitters and simple syrup over ice. Stir with bar spoon until cold. I would usually just slowly shake mine in a Boston shaker set until cold and it is never bruised.  

Strain contents of tin into bucket coated with Pernod and squeeze lemon peel over the cocktail. I liked to also rim the glass with the peel before discarding. For the purposes of taking a 'fun' photo, the cocktail has been garnished with peel.