The Sazerac has four moving parts — spirit, sugar, bitters and the rinse — and every named variation changes one of them, or adds a fifth ingredient and becomes a different drink with the same accent. Swap the spirit and you have the Cognac, bourbon or split-base versions. Add sweet vermouth and Bénédictine and you have left the Sazerac for the De La Louisiane or the Vieux Carré. Dash the absinthe into the glass instead of rinsing it and you are back in 1876 with Jerry Thomas's Improved Whiskey Cocktail.

The cards above go to each recipe. What follows is the map — what changes, what it does to the drink, where each spec comes from, and the vocabulary a New Orleans bar will understand.

The Variation Map

Spirit Swaps

The oldest family of variations, and the one the Sazerac's own history turns on. The traditional account, told by the Sazerac Company and encoded in the IBA's spec, has the drink born on Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils Cognac in the 1850s and moved to rye later in the century (the Sazerac Company says 1885) when phylloxera made Cognac scarce. David Wondrich's research in the Oxford Companion finds no evidence for it: the Sazerac is first named in print in 1899, and the Sazerac House's specialty was already a rye whisky cocktail. We present the Cognac story as legend and the Cognac Sazerac as what it is today — a legitimate, rounder, fruitier version that PUNCH's 2018 judges called delicious while saying rye possessed the ideal flavor.

The split-base Sazerac settles the argument by refusing it. Tom Macy's build at Clover Club — 1½ oz rye, ½ oz Cognac, a teaspoon of rich demerara, four dashes of Peychaud's, one of Angostura, a Pernod rinse — tied for first in PUNCH's 2018 blind tasting, the only Cognac-containing entry to place. Difford's goes further and splits three ways, Cognac, 100-proof rye and bourbon in equal parts. The bourbon Sazerac has the Sazerac Company's own blessing: its published recipe reads "Sazerac Rye Whiskey or Buffalo Trace Bourbon." The full tour, including the sherry version, is Sazerac by Spirit; the rye case is made in why the Sazerac is a rye drink.

The New Orleans Family

Add a sweetened modifier and you leave the Sazerac for its relatives. The De La Louisiane, the house cocktail of the Restaurant de la Louisiane recorded by Stanley Clisby Arthur in 1937, keeps rye, Peychaud's and absinthe but adds sweet vermouth and Bénédictine and serves up with cherries; Arthur's version was equal thirds, and Jim Meehan's PDT spec pushes the rye to 2 oz because the original can taste syrupy. The Vieux Carré — Walter Bergeron, Hotel Monteleone, around 1938 — is more sibling than riff: rye and Cognac together, both bitters, vermouth and Bénédictine, and the one drink here served over ice. How it compares is in Sazerac vs Vieux Carré.

Going the other direction in time, the Improved Whiskey Cocktail from the 1876 edition of Jerry Thomas's Bar-Tender's Guide is what the Oxford Companion calls the Sazerac's precursor — apart from the absinthe rinse, nearly identical. Absinthe and maraschino are dashed in, the bitters are Boker's, and it is shaken with shaved ice and served up. Wondrich's reconstruction of the Sazerac House's own 1890s whisky cocktail, made by Vincent Miret and Billy Wilkinson, keeps a trace of that lineage: 2 dashes Peychaud's, 1 dash Angostura and an optional 3 ml of maraschino, which a later Sazerac House recipe sheet lists for the bar's whisky cocktail.

The Modern Riffs

Three documented drinks stretch the name further, and none of them has its own page here because none needs one. The Zazarac, first printed in Jack Grohusko's Jack's Manual in 1910, is the Sazerac's bourbon cousin: bourbon, a dash of absinthe, a dash of Angostura and a quarter loaf of sugar, stirred and strained into an old-fashioned glass chilled by standing in ice for three minutes. Jacques Straub added orange bitters, anisette and a lemon peel; Harry MacElhone added rum, and the Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 prints that version — rum, anisette, gomme syrup, rye, two bitters and three dashes of absinthe. PUNCH's Al Culliton calls it the Sazerac's close cousin, and Wondrich suggests the name was chosen to dodge the Sazerac trademark.

The Sazeroy is Giovanni Bruno's 2015 creation at the Blue Bar of The Berkeley, London, as adapted by Difford's Guide: 1½ fl oz Cognac, a third of an ounce of Lillet-style rouge, a sixth each of 100-proof rye and blended Scotch, rich syrup and two dashes of Peychaud's in an absinthe-rinsed coupe, finished with a discarded lemon twist and a cherry on a stick. Difford's describes it as a spirituous after-dinner sipper reminiscent of a Sazerac. The Sherry Sazerac, or Jerezerac, from Lustau ambassador Steven Dragun via Difford's, replaces the whiskey with 2 fl oz of chilled Oloroso, keeps the rich syrup, three dashes of Peychaud's and the absinthe rinse, and lands as a nutty, dry, low-alcohol drink that Difford's calls a tasty sherry-based Sazerac; one reader comment there says it lacks a Sazerac's depth and strength. Worth knowing; not worth a page.

Variations Inside the Classic

The quieter variations never change the name. Sugar: a cube crushed with the bitters (Sazerac House, McMillian) or stirred in (IBA) against ½ oz of 1:1 syrup (PUNCH) or ¼ oz of rich 2:1 demerara (Difford's, Cure) — see sugar in a Sazerac. Bitters: Peychaud's alone, or Peychaud's with a dash of Angostura as Arthur's 1937 recipe, Morgenthaler, Macy and the 2024 PUNCH winner all do — see the Peychaud's guide. The rinse: absinthe, Herbsaint or Pernod, swirled or sprayed from an atomizer as Cure does — see absinthe vs Herbsaint. The numbers behind all three are in Sazerac ratios.

How to Choose Your Variation

What the Sazerac Doesn't Do

There are no fruit, syrup or smoked Sazeracs worth recording, and there is no Sazerac on the rocks: every reputable source consulted chills the glass with ice, empties it, rinses it and strains the drink in neat. The two things the drink will not tolerate are dilution after the stir and a garnish heavier than lemon oil. If you want flavor-led riffs, the Old Fashioned variations hub has forty of them, and the same rye works for both. Every recipe in this corner is indexed in the Recipe Room.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main Sazerac variations?

By what changes: the Cognac, bourbon and split-base Sazeracs (spirit); the De La Louisiane and Vieux Carré (vermouth and Bénédictine added); the Improved Whiskey Cocktail (the 1876 ancestor, absinthe dashed in); and the documented riffs — Zazarac, Sazeroy and Sherry Sazerac.

Was the original Sazerac made with Cognac?

That is the traditional story, still told by the Sazerac Company and built into the IBA's Cognac spec. David Wondrich finds no evidence for it: the drink is first named in print in 1899, and the Sazerac House's specialty was a rye whisky cocktail. Treat the Cognac version as a legitimate variation rather than the proven original.

What is a split-base Sazerac?

Rye and Cognac in one glass. Tom Macy's version — 1½ oz rye, ½ oz Cognac, a teaspoon of rich demerara, four dashes Peychaud's, one dash Angostura, absinthe rinse — tied for first in PUNCH's 2018 blind tasting of 14 Sazeracs.

What is the difference between a Sazerac and a De La Louisiane?

The De La Louisiane adds sweet vermouth and Bénédictine to rye, Peychaud's and absinthe, and is served up with brandied cherries. The Sazerac has no vermouth or liqueur and is served neat in a rinsed rocks glass with lemon oil.

What is a Zazarac?

The Sazerac's bourbon cousin, first printed in Jack's Manual in 1910: bourbon, a dash each of absinthe and Angostura and sugar, stirred and strained into a chilled old-fashioned glass. The 1930 Savoy version adds rum, anisette and orange bitters.

Can you make a Sazerac on the rocks?

No reputable source serves one that way. The glass is chilled with ice, emptied and rinsed, and the stirred drink is strained in without ice. If you want the flavors over ice, order a Vieux Carré.

Frequently Asked Questions (Voice Search)

What is a Cognac Sazerac?

The IBA's official Sazerac: 50 ml Cognac, one sugar cube and two dashes of Peychaud's, stirred and strained into a chilled old-fashioned glass rinsed with 10 ml of absinthe, with lemon zest.

What is a Vieux Carré?

A New Orleans cousin of the Sazerac from the Hotel Monteleone: 1 oz each rye, Cognac and sweet vermouth, ¼ oz Bénédictine and two dashes each of Peychaud's and Angostura, stirred and served over ice.

What is a Sherry Sazerac?

A low-alcohol riff in which 2 fl oz of chilled Oloroso sherry replaces the whiskey, with rich syrup, three dashes of Peychaud's and an absinthe rinse.

Which Sazerac variation won PUNCH's blind tastings?

Tom Macy's split-base rye-and-Cognac build tied for first in 2018; in 2024 Alec Bales's all-rye Ticonderoga Club Sazerac won, with Cure's rye Sazerac second.