Even if ”The State of the Union” (1948) was neither Capra’s, Tracy’s nor Hepburn’s best work, it does stand out for at least two reasons: an excellent aeroplane chase (with a petrified, despairing Van Johnson and a knitting Kate Hepburn) and, in my humble opinion, one of the best cocktails known to man, even if that might be overstating it a tad – the Sazerac.

This cocktail has a long and winding history and lays claim to:

• the oldest American cocktail,
• the etymology of the word cocktail itself and
• being the “official” cocktail of New Orleans

The first two are a bit disputed, but if it is true that “Antoine Amadie Peychaud, a Creole apothecary who moved to New Orleans from the West Indies and set up shop in the French Quarter in the early part of the 19th Century” [1] created the Sazerac then it should be the oldest; and if he did serve this drink in a coquetier, which was later Americanised to “cocktail”, then both claims are in fact true.

The Sazerac

• Sugar (or simple syrup)
• 2 oz rye whiskey (or cognac, originally)
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• Absinthe rinse

Chill a rocks glass, give it an absinthe rinse using only a small amount of absinthe (or Herbsaint) band then discard the excess liquid. Stir all the ingredients except the absinthe over ice and strain into the absinthe-rinsed glass. Rub a lemon peel around the rim of the glass and discard. The drink does not get a garnish. [2]

[1] http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/sazerac.html
[2] https://frontiermixology.wordpress.com/tag/state-of-the-union/