Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Sazerac Beomes The Official Drink Of New Orleans

It's official! The Louisiana Legislature passed House Bill 6 designating The Sazerac as the official drink of the city of New Orleans!
To celebrate, some images of vintage Sazerac ingredients, shown with The Sazerac Company's excellent Sazerac Rye, and a vintage Hotel Roosevelt Sazerac Bar glass.

The Sazerac Recipe is courtesy of The Sazerac Company, makers of Sazerac Rye, Legendre Herbsaint, and Peychauds Bitters.









Thursday, June 19, 2008

1934: Herbsaint Given a Clean Bill Of Health

With the publishing of the first Legendre Herbsaint recipe booklet, Marion Legendre showed quite a bit of business savvy, by revising the inaugural Legendre Absinthe booklet, following the name change to Legendre Herbsaint. The first Herbsaint booklet was more than more than just a listing of drink recipes, this was not only an introduction to Legendre Herbsaint, but a carefully crafted booklet to educate, and ease the fears of a public unfamiliar with absinthe styled drinks.


Marion Legendre even took the unprecedented step of having Tulane University analyze Herbsaint and have the head of Tulane University’s Chemistry dept. issue a statement that there was no harmful or habit forming substances in Legendre Herbsaint, which was printed in the initial Herbsaint booklet.

Marion Legendre would also turn some of the controversy over the post prohibition absinthe confusion to his advantage, by using a recent New Orleans Item news story, written on May 6th, 1934, as a press release stating: Herbsaint Given Complete Bill of Health and go to state that Legendre Herbsaint is the only correctly labeled absinthe-styled drink made and sold in New Orleans. It complies with the law in every respect, and 
is sold nation wide.