Introduction You're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Jim, I do communications here at Binny's. I'm Roger, I do beer. Lexi, I'm on social. I'm Dan, I do spirits. We are here because Roger had this idea for a cocktail-themed episode. A lot of times people buy, we encourage you to buy a bottle of something that you've never heard of, or we're always trying to get people to get out of their comfort zone and make some cocktails at home. But we can appreciate that sometimes you buy said bottle and then you're like, great, what do I do with this now? I bought it for one cocktail and I'm just staring at it. I feel like over the years, one of the most common examples of that is, I bought a bottle of Absinthe, maybe they just bought it because they're curious, because of the whole backstory, weird mystique, it was illegal for a while, and they just have a I would say too, they probably got excited about a Sazerac, and we're like, I'm going to make a Sazerac, and it's only an Absinthe rinse, which is like 0.25 ounces of- Which I've suggested people just use Malort for. Yeah. Oh. Years and years ago, this was before I even lived in Illinois, hang out with some friends and it was like a Friday night, and they're like, let's watch Moulin Rouge and drink Absinthe. And I'm like, you guys aren't going to like Absinthe, so I'm like, we can get Absinthe, but like, you got to understand in Virginia, they have state-owned liquor stores, so you have to make multiple trips. So I was like, we're going to also, I'm going to get some beer because you guys are going to, you're going to want an alternative to this Absinthe. I was like, no, no, it's going to be great. We're going to make a cocktail. And boy, if they leaned into just sitting there and grimacing through the entire movie. So hopefully today we'll show you some cocktails that will help you move through in a delicious way your bottle of Absinthe. So here we are with our episode, So You Bought a Bottle of Absinthe, aka Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. So Absinthe was illegal for a bit. Absinthe was illegal for a little while. Because people thought it had- Dethusion. Right. And people thought it had, you could hallucinate and most likely that was due to- The DTs and it was basically just alcohol poisoning. Yeah. Possibly having something that was maybe not 100% legit either. Well, back in the day when they were drinking Absinthe and seeing things, they were also drinking Laudanum. So I think that there might have been some cold- A little overlap. Cold morbidity, I think is the right way to say it. No, it must be Absinthe. It was also known as a big thing for artists to drink it. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if they were, yeah, mixing things. I think a lot of people got into, people got into swing dancing after swingers, and they got into playing blackjack after rounders. I think a lot of people got into Absinthe after watching Moulin Rouge. We all know what happened after the movie Sideways, which we still don't talk about in the industry. Yeah. It bears repeating that the proof on Absinthe is substantially high, and especially in the historical ones. I mean, some of these are talking about nearing like 140 proof. So I mean, that is substantially higher than like the minimum for spirits now is 880. Yeah. So if you're drinking several ounces of something that's 140 proof at a time, you're having a great time. I mean, that's a lot. That's where you're hallucinating. 3:38 Absinthe Profile Well, let's start just for those who haven't had Absinthe. What are some basic descriptors or I mean, we can smell it in the room right now. Yeah, in the room smells. It smells like anise. Black licorice. Yeah, licorice. Yeah, I love that. Also herbal though. It's got that wormwood malorty but not malort. Sweet. Sweet. There's a sweetness. It's definitely pretty sweet. Not super viscous but a little bit more towards the viscous sides of spirits. Very bitter too. I mean, not malort bitter but. Lemon balm. Yeah, I mean, to me, it tastes exactly like a black gum drop. Yeah. Or like the salty licorice from like Finland or whatever. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Very reminiscent. That makes your tongue kind of numb. This kind of makes your tongue numb. Yeah. So, 140 proofs. So, you're saying that the hazmat whiskey bros should be going after this stuff? Do they know? Do the hazmat bros know about this stuff? Well, they will know. We're using St. George's out of San Francisco. They're absent today. Yes, I have a tiny bottle of that. I've had it for 10 years. Well, now, not for long. This is 120 proof, so it's right in the wheelhouse of what Roger was saying earlier. I love it. If you ever had a good and plenty, it's exactly what that tastes like. It's just delicious. I love it. It's always compared to black licorice, but as Lexi was saying, there's other things in here and you have to take your time. This is actually a good exercise to sussing out some of the other flavors from different botanicals that are used. Every purveyor is going to use a different. It's like a gin maker, so they're going to experiment with other things. Beyond wormwood. Right. Anise is really the anise. Anise is obviously a big part of it, but I think it does play well with gin too. That's something if you are a gin drinker, it has an affinity for other things with botanicals. So, I think today we wanted to start with some basics, like the basic standard preparation, a real basic early cocktail, and then maybe move into some more modern stuff and see what we can do with it. Is that right? Yeah. And so, the Sazerac is kind of a, that's kind of the main cocktail. They usually use herbicent, do they not? Yeah. Well, they did during the ban. Yeah. Let's start with the absinthe over the cube. Yeah. Let's do the classic preparation. Okay. So, well, the classic preparation in the French style is just dripping without the flame. There's no flame involved. The flame is actually the Czech style. The absinthe house in New Orleans does it like this, because that's what the people want. They want a show. So, you take a glass, put a slotted spoon. Usually, if you buy absinthe that comes with the spoon, I feel like most, a lot of the absinthe we sell has a little slotted spoon that it comes with. And it's a flat, and you know, so it's actually not a spoon. It's just like a flat piece of metal that has slots in it. You can use a fork if you're at home. Yeah, yeah, I probably should have done that instead of this spoon. Put a sugar cube on the spoon, pour the absinthe over it, soak the sugar with absinthe, and then you light that on fire, a little flame, and then you pour ice water over it, and you get the louche. For those of you that don't know what that means, that's when it changes color. So, yeah, you start with a clear spirit that then ends up turning milky white. Which has to do with the anise. Jim's got a fiery spoon of sugar, and he's pouring ice water to douse the flame and dilute the absinthe. And the absinthe has gone from a brownish green to a milky brown that's actually more attractive than I'm describing it. The brown is just because he's using sugar in the raw. Yeah. So normally it wouldn't be that brown. I'm not going to use some basic B sugar cube, Raj. Yeah, fair enough. Okay, cool. Let's taste this. Tastes like sugary watered down absinthe. Yeah. I can see you sipping on this and over the course of 45 minutes or so. This reminds me of like, have you ever had Italian Pizzelle cookies? Or like a lot of the Italian cookies, sometimes they'll, they definitely have like an aniseed flavor to them. And the sweetness then reminds me more of like a confectionary quality. Yum. So I looked into it and they say that the traditional recipe should be like a three to one. And you should, I don't know if you've ever seen the big absinthe, what are those things called? Fountains. Yeah. Absinthe fountain. It should just kind of drip slowly, which is really cool. It's more like ritualistic than just like slamming a couple shots of absinthe. Sure. But I would say, I mean, I like it. That's good. Yeah. It's a sipper. And I think it is like a nice, this is a time to like take your time and like if you have some, I know you've said in the past, like go to your local Goodwill thrift store, buy some nice like old school looking cordial glasses and stuff. Like this is a time to kind of get have some fun with the pageantry element and just slowly sip on this, not just throw it back type thing. Sit in your favorite chair, read a book, drink this for a while. No rush. It's January. It's January. This is the anti-dry January, the 120 proof. The next thing that I think we should try is the Frappe, the Frappe, how I want to call it. 9:12 Frappe and Hemingway This is from the 1870s, and it was made in New Orleans at the old Absinthe House, which you can still go there and drink this. It's, why don't I just make it first? Yeah. So, Dan, like you mentioned, this absinthe we have is made here in the US, and then we have a couple other options. We definitely have some stuff from where? France? Ah, yeah, there's French, there's. We still have Kubler, the Swiss one. I think we do. That's the one that's like brilliant green. Yeah, that's actually, I just saw that today. Probably one of the more common ones is that absinthe, which has like the wonky Van Gogh painting on it. Right. That is French. But there's a number, and there's some available if the one you're looking for isn't on the shelf at your local Binny's. Definitely ask the staff there, they can order in. There's a half dozen, there's probably five to ten options they can bring in. Lucid's a popular one, that's French. Yep. Pernod, it's worth mentioning like during the ban, Pestis, a somewhat similar beverage, but arguably even more anise forward. Pernod is kind of the substitute. Pernod makes an absinthe. So that's an option as well. And the St. George Absinthe, by the way, is $19.99 for a 200 ml bottle and $59.99 for a 750. Yeah. And the little one's nice, especially if you're just doing a rinse or you're- I've had it... . just for 10 years. Yeah. I mean, it's something that will last for a while. What you're going to find the first time you shop for absinthe is you're not going to find like a value option. They tend to be 50 bucks for a 750. But you use a little bit. But you use a little bit. And then the St. George gives you the option to just buy a little bit and then see if you like it, and then move on to the bigger bottle when you do enjoy it. Jim mentioned some brands have an absinthe spoon attached to them. That's one of my favorite absinthe brands, L'Amuse Vert, a reference to the green fairy, which is what some people kind of nicknamed absinthe. That usually comes with that spoon tied to a bottle. Another good choice, really high proof. Again, bottle lasts you forever. One thing I wanted to recommend, like Lexi has a bar spoon here, the big long bar spoons. If you don't have one of those and you're getting interested in mixing cocktails, not only are they, obviously, I think people see them and they think of them as like a- A Pee-wee Herman spoon. A way to stir things, but- It just eats cereal with a giant long spoon. They hold a very small amount of liquid. Yeah. They're a really good tool to utilize for adding absinthe to cocktails, because a lot of absinthe cocktails call for borderline a dash, like an eight of a teaspoon. That's the magic of absinthe is that you can put a tiny amount of it in cocktails. In the past, we've done a lot of podcasts on Tiki drinks. We're big fans of those, Jeff Barry's work. There's some really nice thing that if you make someone a great Tiki drink and there's like this je ne sais quoi to it, like what's that little background flavor? If you measure it correctly, it's that background flavor. But if you add even what looks like a small amount, then people go, oh, there's like licorice in this? Yeah. So like you need this tiny amount. So really, whether you're using a bar spoon or like get your measuring spoons out and use like an eighth of a teaspoon. I bought a little diffuser bottle. I'll say the mister thing. Yeah. Adamizer. Adamizer. Sorry, Adamizer. That's also what you want for like a, what's the cocktail that you spritz on a Isla Scotch on top of a Scotch cocktail? Yeah, that's, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not a penicillin. Yeah, it is a penicillin, yeah. Yeah, they spritz the absinthe at the bar in New Orleans that makes all the Sazerac bar. That's how they did it. You just spritz, spray the glass. All right, so guide us through this frappe. Yeah, so typically this is served over crushed ice. We don't have crushed ice, so you can also throw some ice in a blender for a couple seconds. That's totally fine. Or depending on your counter integrity, your stabilization, there's lots of things, you could just muddle your ice. It's fine. And if you're using ice, just regular ice from your freezer, it'll chop right up. Stonic ice? Pebble ice? Pebble ice is ideal. It's the best one. You can also get yourself a Lewis bag and crush your own ice, old school style, like mint julep. So what's in here other than crushed ice? Oh yeah, so we've got absinthe, simple syrup, two dashes of Anisette, which we tried, oh gosh, was that last summer? The Mileti? Yeah, sometime over the, sometime. And then- I don't remember when that was guys were here. Yeah, sometime. So you mix all of those and just like shake the hell out of it and then put it over the pebble ice and top with soda water and garnish with mint, typically. Very pillowy light. It's like an absinthe highball. Yeah. That's really nice. Yeah. I like that. I can see with like crushed ice, especially in New Orleans when it's like 900 degrees in September. Absolutely. This will be nice and refreshing and get you a little tipsy. Yeah. For sure. Makes the heat go away a little. Really fun if you live walkable to the old absinthe house and it's 87 degrees out and you're walking home from work. And 100 percent humidity. And you just pop in and grab a little to go drink. Perfect for that. So next up, we're going to do the- we're going to try the Death in the Afternoon. This is a 1930s cocktail from a gentleman who goes by the name Hemingway, if you've ever heard of him. Joe. Right? Joe Hemingway? Yep. That guy didn't like to write very long sentences. He did not. He says, pour one jigger of absinthe into a champagne glass, add ice champagne until it attains proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly. Hell, yeah. This would, you know, Hemingway had this propensity to sit around and drink daiquiris all night, and they were quite strong. So he was a big fan of corpse reviving type cocktails. So if you needed to get yourself going the next day after drinking all night the previous day, it was pretty hilarious. Because he, his take on this is that, you know, absinthe was typically served with sugar, but he's a diabetic. So like his daiquiri, he would ask them to omit the sugar and just use like some maraschino liqueur. So with this, his thinking was, well, you take the sparkling wine and that has some sweetness in it. So you can skip putting sugar in it. I didn't know that. I like that. Named after his work, Death in the Afternoon. I think it's a nonfiction. Bullfighting. Yeah. For this one, it's ounce and a half of absinthe. And then you top with four ounces of the St. Hilaire. And you can swap this champagne and the sparkling wine for anything a little bit on the sweeter side. I also think these kind of drinks, like it reminds me, one of my favorite cocktails is the French 75. There's some overlap, I think, like putting a lemon on this is really nice accent. I can see that. So do like just a swath or do you really want to get fancy, do a nice little peel and twirl it around your bar spoon? I think ice is probably critical too with dilution and everything. Yeah. Shout out to Hemingway. Hemingway made some great drinks. If you've never tried a Hemingway daiquiri, highly recommend making one of those. Stronger, not as sweet, has some maraschino liqueur. Fun variant on those. If you want to be a nerd like me and you're making cocktails for people, make one with traditional Persian limes and then make one with key limes. The key lime ones are quite nice. I love key limes. We can also do an upcoming episode. So you bought a bottle of maraschino liqueur. Yeah. I think that's a great idea. Stay tuned. I think elderflower liqueur is another good one. Yeah. Elderflower is huge right now. Spoiler alert. Yeah. Coming up. Yes. Maraschino is a huge fan of Aviation Cocktail. Right. Before you say anything, the nose on this is alluring. 18:00 Necromancer and Reviver You want to know why? It's because there's gin in there. Oh, that's right. You love gin. Is there mint in this? I do love gin. No. No mint? This is really good. So this is a cocktail called the Necromancer. I couldn't find an exact year on it, but sometime in the 90s or early 2000s-ish, somewhere in there. And this was made in New York. If you've ever looked at our bitters section, you've probably seen Bitterman's. Can't find a bitter man. It's not spelled that way though. Nope. This bartender went on to- Sorry. Just start with this bartender and not laughing at my idiocy. I like this. This bartender went on to create Bitterman's Cocktail Bitters, which you've probably seen on a Binny shelf. Yep. There's a ton of really good ones. Definitely check those out. It's got absinthe, elderflower, a dash of London Dry Gin. The same way that we've been talking about an absinthe rinse, it's a little bit more than that for this, but just the London Dry and then lemon juice. Is it the play between the elderflower and the absinthe that's giving that mint? Maybe. It's so mint. But it's like mint like- Like you stepped in mint in the dark. Right. Like the mint. Like fresh mint or like mint? Yeah. Like wild mint. It's just like a minty plant. Smells of the garden. Like the mint, the leaves, the dirt, the stalks, all of it together. It smells so good. The lemon is doing the heavy lifting on this one. The lemon is key. That's what's been missing for me from all of these is that. Wow. That is awesome. It's really good. This is definitely a summertime crushable. Man, fill up my Stanley Cup with 32 ounces of this and send me to a kid's soccer game. It's got an awesome name, Necromancer. That's what's going to have to happen. A nod to that it was inspired by the Corp. Right. That's what I was wondering. This is a newer riff on that, and then we'll go backwards and try that one next. Yeah. I love this. That's excellent. Lil A, I think, is an underappreciated. Some of the mega cocktail nerds are like, well, the Lil A now is not like the Lil A when I wasn't alive. Can't make a Vesper like he used to. Possibly enjoy it. That's the same thing with Malort, right? Everybody says, oh, old Malort was actually bitter and not for them asses. Try it. It's great. Who gives a **** what it tasted like when you weren't alive? It's worth trying. Don't worry about what something tastes like when you weren't alive. That's pretty good. Let's imagine the past. Everything like inherently was better. Really, all they're complaining about is that it's arguably not bitter enough now, which I mean, come on, there's a million things you can add then. Add some bitterness if that's what you think is missing. Yeah. Raj, what does L'Lay remind the listeners and myself, what L'Lay is or Lexi someone? Fortified wine, right? Yeah, aromatized. So like not as, it's again, we always preach that when you open like vermouth, say another aromatized wine, make sure that you keep it refrigerated. So that could also be a reason that people might have tried it in the past and not liked it. Yeah. That it has, it expires. Yeah. So it's a hotly debated how long, but you should at least be able to get a couple of weeks out of it. It is more delicate than something like a vermouth. It's not as bitter. Oh, this looks fancy glass. Yeah. All these cocktails have this. I know that Hemingway talked about the opalescence, but all of these cocktails have this. Yeah. Glow. Glow. This opalescent glow. Okay. Speaking of the day. He was famous for that. You don't need to say too much. You just need to choose your words carefully, and that's the word of the day. We had a real way with words. What do we have here? This is in Corpse Reviver No. 2, not to be confused with the Corpse Reviver No. This is one of the first kind of... Corpse Revivers are more of a category of cocktails, and this is kind of in the first wave of them. The last one that we tried is kind of like a modern take, a little bit more modern. So first wave Scott versus fourth wave Scott. What's fourth wave Scott? What's more we're listening to now? Is it forthcoming? Yeah, I think we're the fourth wave now. There's no Scott now. I can talk about Scott. I don't think there's any Scott right now. Sorry, Dan. This one was said to revive the corpses, which is why we have the name of these drinks, this category. Also from the Prohibition era, it's got an Absinthe Rinse, London Dry Gin Lillet, Lemon Juice and Orange Lacor. And what about proportions? They're usually pretty strong, right? Equal parts. So equal parts straight down, except for the Absinthe Rinse is a true rinse. Don't go crazy with that. Sometimes you have like really good orange soda, the aroma. It's acidic. I mean, you got to be ready for tart. But like I like tart. I love it. Yeah, this is when you are not feeling great, this is to get you going. Yeah, that's really good. You should be able to make your way through it much faster because it's a perfect ingredient for spritzes. Yeah. So again, we're recording this in January, and I know there's a lot of emphasis on dry January, but if you're doing a damp January or you like to just have some low elk cocktails, a lily is a perfect choice for that. So you could put one or two ounces of lily in a glass, maybe a teaspoon of gin, and then top it up with a soda water or some tonic. It was phenomenal drink. It's ultimately extremely low in alcohol. I would maybe add some orange bitters too to that. I feel like that would be really nice, really emphasize the orange. For sure, and some fresh citrus. I mean, never underestimate citrus peel, how much that can add. Cut it off above your serving glass, off of the fruit so that all those oils tumble into the glass. Express. Express yourself. Something that made me laugh was people were talking about absinthe once, and they were asking me what it tastes like. It was right when it came out when they made it legal again. And I said, well, you know, like anise is one of the components, so a lot of people describe it as like black licorice. And somebody kind of made a face and is like, oh, I hate black licorice. And I went, when's the last time you tried black licorice? And they're like, I don't know, like years ago. And they're like, how many? And they're like, I don't know. I go, when you were a kid, they're like, yeah, probably. I'm like, well, you're like 20 years older now, so maybe you should try it again. Like, you might love it now. Like, yeah, like, I'm sure I hated black licorice as a child. I don't remember liking black jelly beans, but I like black licorice now. I did like black licorice when I was a kid, but... Nice. There's a lot of it. Advanced palate. No, it's just that I just don't think I taste things very well. I also loved it as a kid. My dad used to make fun of me when we'd go to the movies, and I'd get to pick a candy from the dollar store before we'd go, and I would always get to Good and Plenty's. Wait, are you saying that you snuck candy into a movie theater? Yes. Breaking the law. Yeah, I've always loved Good and Plenty's. Those are great. Very good. But yeah, black jelly beans, I would always like those. The black Twizzlers. Black Twizzlers, true. Those are great. I'm very intrigued about this cocktail. 25:23 Death by Morning Oh, is this one with coffee in it? Yeah. You know what the initial smell is, is that, did you try the Pathfinder Espresso Tonic? No, I didn't. Coming soon to Binny's near you is an NA pour-over cocktail called Espresso Tonic from Pathfinder. We had the Death in the Afternoon, that's the Hemingway cocktail. This one is a riff off of that, more like an Espresso Martini. It's called Death by Morning. Comes from San Francisco less than 20 years ago. We've got Absinthe, we've got Branca Menta. For Net fans, give this a shot. Coffee liqueur and a whole ounce and a half of Espresso. Is this Absinthe added in or is it a rinse? Three-quarters of an ounce. Okay. You've got three-quarters of an ounce of Absinthe, half an ounce of Branca Menta, half an ounce of Coffee liqueur, one and a half ounces of Espresso, and then here we go with the bar spoon again, a bar spoon of Demerara sugar, a dash of Ango, and Wow. I think that sea salt is the most underrated cocktail ingredient actually. It balances a lot of things out that you don't realize. I think salt is a key in a lot of stuff. Cookies, chocolate chip cookies with a little sea salt in there. I don't eat cookies. Give me another example. No, this is a perfect, because of the bitterness and the fact that it's got the espresso, this is a perfect cocktail for after a big meal. This is a quintessential example of the magic of a well-made cocktail. I have been on record as saying I can't stand Branca Menta. Same. It's like toothpaste from hell. It's all Agri-Fresh. This is so good. It's so perfectly dialed in. This is amazing. It's like almost maybe fluffy. It's almost like plush. That's what Greg always says, plush. It's exactly like plush. That is very good. The aroma is a bit odd, but the taste is great. This one says to garnish with either an orange twist, which I think would be amazing, or a mint sprig, which would help. Yeah, it's kind of earthy and a bit odd, but yeah, like a mint sprig would be great. This is great. You've just eaten your Christmas dinner and are full and want a cocktail, like this is perfect for that. You get the coffee, you get the bitterness, everything you need for a stomach. That little minty finish. Settler, yeah. Very nice. Yay. 28:21 Sazerac Rye Cocktail Dan, why don't you talk to our listeners a little bit about the options for Sazerac rye? Yeah, so, I mean, as with all, if you've been shopping in our stores, you've probably noticed some decent prices on American whiskey. And Sazerac has very, very brilliantly, in the last year, started to release a couple of new expressions. Yeah, it's about time. And the first one we saw was the, which we're using today, is the 100-proof rye. It's in a liter, and I think it's $29.99. That's pretty available. The other one that came out for $30. And then the other one that came out towards the end of last year was the full-proof, 125-proof Sazerac rye, six years old. And I think that one's like $40, like super affordable. Perfect for cocktails. These proofs are great for cocktails. I mean, regular Sazerac is great for sipping. If you have a cocktail with a lot of stuff in it, though, that 90-proof can get a little lost in the cocktail. When you get to that 100-proof, and especially the 125-proof, which the 125-proof is still not a regular item yet. It's still kind of coming a little bit here and there. But I expect that that will be pretty available in the next couple of years. But yeah, those are both great options for cocktails. If you're making bourbon cocktails at home, generally, switching to rye is going to bring complexity and not so much focus on the sweetness that you get from bourbon. So if you're making old-fashions with bourbon at home, pick up a bottle of the Sazerac 100 proof and just sub it in like it's a bourbon. I think you'll be surprised at the... In fact, traditionally, an old-fashioned should be made with a rye. Well, I think real traditionally it's Cognac, right? The other thing too, so I've been trying to beat the drum for rye for years and I get it. It can be a little too spicy. Some ryes, depending on if they're like a Kentucky rye that has a good amount of corn or if they're rye that's the other end of the spectrum, like almost all rye. Some of them can be kind of vegetal but so many of the ryes on our shelves, they have some of that bourbon character because there's a lot of corn in them. Yeah. They just need to be 51 percent rye. If you're still like, rye is not my thing, the other thing you can try is, sometimes this is referred to as a perfect in the cocktail world. Like do a shot of, if a cocktail calls for two ounces of a spirit, do one ounce of bourbon and one ounce of rye. That's a good way to dip your toe into the category. If you're not, you normally drink bourbon, you're not sure about rye, pick up a bottle like Dan said of one of these, like the Saz 100 Proof is so good. Try it as it is, but also try mixing it with a bourbon you like. Well, and I think the other thing to keep in mind is, people see the word rye and they immediately shut down and aren't interested. But keep in mind, 95 percent of the bourbon on the shelf is a good amount of rye. So you're already drinking a lot of rye. It's just there's more corn, so it's called bourbon. So don't be turned off by rye. Try it out. Things like Sazerac rye, Wild Turkey 101 rye, Knob Creek rye. Those are good starting points. Elijah Craig rye. All good starting points if you're a bourbon drinker looking to try some rye. And I highly recommend that you do because they are fantastic. Just look for the green label. Jim's right there a lot of time. Not on the Saz. Well, even Saz did a little nod to that with the... Just the small... The small stripe, but... So we have the classic Sazerac cocktail. Yep. Made by... Did I mess it up? None other. It smells really good. Okay. Tell us about it. Maybe you should tell us about it. Super easy cocktail. It's basically an old fashion, but you rinse the glass with absinthe before you rinse the glass. Pour some in, rinse, pour out. And then, Peychaud's bitters are kind of critical to this, as opposed to the typical Angostura. But other than that, it's essentially an old fashion with an absinthe rinse. You've got sugar bitters and whiskey. Yeah. No orange, but other than that, yeah, for sure. What would you garnish this with if you were going to garnish it? It's usually lemon, but yeah, you could garnish it with an orange. It's not as sweet as, again, you can make old fashions in a lot of different ways, but yeah, the recipe for this is typically one sugar cube, and then you're saturating that with Peychaud. Peychaud is the bitters that originated in New Orleans. It's more botanical driven and floral as opposed to Angostura's herbaceous, more aggressive. More orange heavy, like bitter orange. This is more perfumed and floral. Yeah, it's a simple drink that again, you can tailor to your liking. So you can make it as sweet or as dry as you want. You can leave some absinthe in if you want. You don't have to just, like I said it, sometimes they just spray the glass, like Dan's and he rinsed it. Like you can leave some in too if you like absinthe. A lot of tons of baking spice on the aroma. Yeah. Beyond what the whiskey provides. I think that's the Peychauds and the absinthe playing with each other. Right. But yeah, just like cinnamon and clove, dare I say nutmeg. The other thing you can do too is like a lot of times this is served up, but you can serve it on the rocks too. Kind of like them in the rocks, especially when it's hot out. Yeah. Yeah. If you're down there, I feel like they're nice on the rocks or like if you have those big cubes. Yeah. This is a good cocktail for like the big cube to keep it cold, but not necessarily water it down. This is the official cocktail of New Orleans, not the hurricane. We got Mardi Gras coming up. Yeah. So if you want to spice things up, we highly recommend you try a Sazerac or a Vuqueray. Yeah. There you go. Also a French 75. Yeah. It's from there. Made with Cognac, preferably. A Boulevardier, again. All cocktails that are great if you want to be in bed by 2 PM on Mardi Gras. Yeah. That's why you have the Corp Survivor. That's where, you know, a second wind. Second wind backup. Lexi, thank you so much for making all this cocktail. Yeah, they're great. Thank you. Yeah, great job. These are awesome. And hopefully gives you some ideas on what to do with that dusty bottle absent that's in your liquor cabinet. Use it up. Buy some more. It's a fun, fun category and an interesting set of flavors that brings cocktails, so. Yeah. I'm going to drink that Necromancer this summer. Absolutely. That was great. Yeah, that was my I think that might have been my favorite. Yeah, or the death in the morning was really good, too. Yeah, I like this one. Or death by morning. That was the that was the champagne cocktail. No, that was death in the afternoon. Oh, oh, oh, the coffee, coffee, coffee. Yeah, the coffee was called death by morning. OK, it should be death in the morning, though, since. But yeah. OK. All right, cool. Well, that's another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Tell your friends, tell your mom. Until next week, I'm Jim, I'm Roger, I'm Lexi, and I'm Dan. Keep tasting. Who gives a s*** what it tasted like when you weren't alive?