Lawmaker proposing a toast to Sazerac

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Lawmaker proposing a toast to Sazerac
Bill filed to make it official La. cocktail
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
By Ed Anderson
BATON ROUGE -- With the right mix of lawmakers, the Sazerac may be designated the "official state cocktail" at the regular legislative session that starts March 31.
Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, has filed in advance of the session Senate Bill 6 designating the Sazerac, the first cocktail invented in New Orleans and one of the first in the country, as the official state cocktail.
"We will probably have a little fun with this bill" as a diversion from the heavy issues lawmakers will face at the upcoming session, Murray said. "There will be a very aggressive effort to get it done."

Ann Tuennerman, founder of the annual New Orleans Tales of the Cocktail activities, has written Murray to urge passage of the bill because the Sazerac has "evolved over time and represents history in a glass. . . . When folks come to New Orleans, they want certain things authentic and original to the Crescent City, be it a beignet, a po-boy, a cup of chicory coffee, oysters Rockefeller, bread pudding or bananas Foster.
"The Sazerac deserves a special place among the classic drinks that have their birthplace in Louisiana, and I can think of no drink more deserving of the honor of official state cocktail than the Sazerac."
The drink in its original form was invented in the 1830s in New Orleans by pharmacist Antoine Amedee Peychaud, who fled Haiti and opened an apothecary on Royal Street in the French Quarter. He concocted the drink made with his own blend of bitters added to a French brandy and Louisiana cane sugar.
According to the Sazerac Co. Inc. of Jefferson Parish, the drink became popular and spread to the city's coffee houses -- which served more liquor than coffee -- by the mid-1800s. The drink is most closely associated with the Sazerac Coffee House, which was located in Exchange Alley.
The drink reportedly received its name from the bar and the French brandy that was used in making it -- Sazerac de Forge et Fils.
If passed, Murray's bill also would authorize the state to use the official cocktail on "official documents . . . and with the insignia of the state."
Janna Goodwin, a researcher for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said although Alabama has designated an offcial "state spirit" -- Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey -- it can find no record of any state naming an official state cocktail.