Thomas H. Handy Sazerac, 6 years, b.2015, 63.45% abv.

According to cocktail historians (yeah they exist), the original Sazerac cocktail was a combination of herbsaint, French brandy, simple syrup, and Peychaud's bitters. After that, the stories are mixed. Most of the stories start around the early-to-mid 1800s and focus on Peychaud's bitters, as it sets up the origin quite well. Antoine Amedie Peychaud, a pharmacist down in New Orleans, made bitters from a family recipe. He added these bitters to a type of French brandy named Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils as well as herbsaint which was supposedly a custom at that time. The ties to Antoine and French brandy are quite speculative and the herbsaint point is well, I really have no idea... wait did I just dream that up?!?! In any case, Antoine tried to spread the concoction due to the times and eventually founded the Sazerac coffee house... or something like that, but it was a coffee house. Thomas H. Handy comes in later, but that story is for perhaps another time.

Nose: tea leaves, potpourri?, floral home air fresheners, burnt rice.

Palate: sweet and extremely spicey, initial palate is a little sweet, white sugar, but the mid palate is heavy brown sugar, toffee, light caramel, back palate is quite spicey. I really don't know what to say other than its strong honey and spice, in stages.

Finish: short to medium, white sugar and spice, pretty intense though.

Wow, this is an intense whiskey! I think this one destroyed my palate. To summarize, its honey and then extreme spice and nothing much. A modern rye.

Grade: B-

Whiskyanalysis.com, 9.12 ± 0.25 on 18 reviews on multiple vintages?
Thewhiskeyjug, Josh Peters, 87-89/100
LA whiskey society, B on 2 reviews
2016 World Whiskies Awards, Best American Rye Whisky

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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