Hello, everyone and welcome back to The Ombibulous, a show where we discuss a variety of topics regarding alcohol. From specific beer styles, distillation, the brewing process, wine, spirits, and even a history of certain liquor laws, there's a fascinating world to explore. Today we take a trip to the Big Easy, where we explore the origins of the Sazerac. Joining me today is Michael Kashey of Thomas and Moriarty's here in downtown Mandan. I'm your host, Connor Brekke. Let's all raise a glass to.. The Ombibulous.

Connor Brekke 00:48

Alright, everybody, welcome back to another episode. And Mr. Kashey, thank you for joining us again.

Michael Kashey 00:55

Anytime.

Connor Brekke 00:57

And we got another mixed drink, another cocktail, another adventure into the spirit world today. We will be talking about the Sazerac. It's.. a pretty important drink I would say.

Michael Kashey 01:12

I think that the people of New Orleans would probably agree with you.

Connor Brekke 01:15

So to get started, you mind giving us kind of a brief rundown of what the Sazerac is and why it's such a big deal?

Michael Kashey 01:25

Yeah. So with the Sazerac, we're gonna have to, one go down to New Orleans. And then we're going to have to do a little cocktail history. Yeah. So the legend has it that the Sazerac is the first cocktail, created by a guy named Antoine Peychaud out of his pharmacy, and he used to serve it in this... it was a cognac cocktail made from Sazerac cognac, and he served it in this egg cup called a Coquetier. And of course, Americans being American, can't pronounce French words because, you know, while we won the war, and that word became cocktail. And that's basically the legend that we've kind of, I wouldn't say grown up knowing, but drinkers, like kind of amateur cocktail geeks had heard. Unfortunately, every single word of that was total rubbish. Now, the word cocktail actually first appeared in print in 1806. It was described as a sugar spirit bitters and water. We don't know who invented it. But it was it was basically just a format. Any, any drink with sugar, spirit, bitters, and water is considered a cocktail. So you could have... if tequila would have been a thing, you could have had a tequila cocktail, you could add a vodka cocktail. The other problem with that story is Peychaud was actually born in 1803. So if he did invent the cocktail, he was a prodigy. But yeah, so the cocktail as we know it, originated a little bit earlier, a little more obscure, not sure who created it. Actually the Brits were drinking a gin, Old Tom gin, which is sweetened with sugar. They would have this thing called Stoughton's bitters. So there's your bitters, and then they would dilute it with water. So if you trace it long enough, we can go back to the 17th century as being the creation of the cocktail. So the Sazerac wasn't the first cocktail, wasn't the first American coc

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