Sazerac Rye

 Back in the day, in 1800s New Orleans, there were these places called "coffee houses:.  Oh, you could get a cup of coffee, but you could also get a drink.  According to the tale:

Sazerac Rye is produced by Sazerac Company, Inc. at Buffalo Trace Distillery. Sazerac is headquartered in New Orleans, and was founded in the 1800’s. According to the company, it started with the cocktail, then the bar, then the company. Antoine Peychaud, a Creole immigrant, would mix brandy, absinthe, and bitters he created at his pharmacy located in the French Quarter. The cocktail became popular at the city’s “coffee houses,” which was the term used for drinking establishments at the time. Peychaud’s concoction became most strongly associated with one coffee house in particular, the Sazerac Coffee House located on Exchange Alley. The coffee house’s owner, Sewell Taylor, institutionalized the drink by using only Sazerac de Forge et Fils brandy, which he imported to the U.S. and sold exclusively. This cocktail earned its name as a result. Thomas H. Handy acquired the Sazerac Coffee House in 1869, and then Peychaud’s bitters in 1873. Thereafter in the 1890s, his company bottled and marketed the Sazerac cocktail, which is now made with rye whiskey as opposed to brandy. C.J. O’Reilly, Handy’s secretary, chartered the Sazerac Company.

The basic Sazerac Rye is currently produced at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky from a rye mas bill.  The non-age-statement rye is supposedly ~6~ years old. 

I picked up a bottle of the younger hooch the other day and ut it in the cabinet in the shop.  Had an opportunity to crack it open, and it's pretty good whiskey.  Spicy, it's a 90 proof and something a little different for the Christmas season.  I'll be smoking a turkey tomorrow and may have an opportunity to sample it a bit more.  Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey I cry.