The social drinker

Every year, a magazine called Drinks International asks more than 100 bars around the world which 10 cocktails are currently finding favour with their customers. The results are rather like those lists of popular baby names regularly published by the Central Statistics Office. The most popular names and drinks don’t change much from year to year, but just outside the top 10, the ground shifts regularly as people flirt with change.

At the top of the most recent list, the equivalent of ‘Jack’ and ‘Emily’, are the Old Fashioned, the Negroni and the Daiquiri. No surprise if you live in the States, but probably not reflective of trends this side of the Atlantic. But other drinks in the top 10 such as the Moscow Mule, the Margarita and Dry Martinis, do reflect Irish tastes pretty well.

Every drink in this year’s top 10 was a familiar friend — except number 10, which is called a Sazerac, and was completely unknown to me until a few days ago. A bit of research revealed that the Sazerac is hardly an obscure drink, but it is not common either. In baby-name terms, it is something like a ‘Brendan’ or a ‘Cormac’ — familiar, but a bit surprising to find inside the top 10.

Intrigued by the popularity of this drink, which has the peculiar distinction of being the official drink of New Orleans, I mixed myself a Sazerac the other day, and liked it very much indeed. If you want to surprise your palate, you will need two whiskey glasses and patience. In the first (chilled) glass, swirl a little absinthe or Pernod around the sides, then discard any excess.

In the second glass, muddle a sugar cube with a few drops of water, then add several small ice cubes and a measure of rye whiskey, Peychaud’s bitters and Angostura bitters. Pour the contents into the first glass, add a twist of lemon peel to garnish, and you have in your hands the world’s 10th most popular cocktail (pictured below).