The original New Orleans bitters, created by Antoine Amédée Peychaud, a Creole apothecary who fled Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and opened his pharmacy on Royal Street in the French Quarter in the 1830s, dispensing his family's secret botanical tonic as a remedy — mixed with water, sugar, and spirits in the apothecary's fashion. His recipe of distilled spirits infused with botanicals is still used today, and the bitters became the defining ingredient of the Sazerac — the cocktail that gave the Sazerac Company its name, and one of only two pre-Prohibition bitters brands to survive into the modern era.
Character: Bright, floral, and gently anise-tinged — gentian bitterness with a lighter, less spicy touch than Angostura.
Use: The essential dash in the Sazerac; also classic in Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, and Whiskey Sours.
ABV: 35% (70 Proof)
