The Sazerac Challenge – starting as we mean to continue.
The Sazerac Challenge aims to challenge bartenders around the world to serve their best take on this most classic of cocktails and to seek out the best Sazeracs, however the bartender chooses to mix it, to bring to your attention. The Liquid Sunshine preference is for a fifty-fifty whiskey and cognac cocktail with a rinse of absinthe and two types of bitters, but we always accept the recommendation of the bartender as to the mixing.
For many years, the Liquid Sunshine favourite Sazerac has been that mixed in the Luggage Room, in the Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, London. So what better place to start?
A classic speakeasy hideaway, the Luggage Room is entered by knocking on a side door and waiting to be admitted. The bar (accommodated in the old luggage room of the hotel) builds on the Twenties theme with dark wood and leather elegance and a great selection of Jazz, Swing and light Blues classics as background. The cocktail selection is excellent, as is the range of wines and beers, and the bar staff prepare and serve the drinks with the perfect balance of sophistication and friendliness.
Although the oldest cocktail on record, individual bartenders have their own preferences as to mixing the drink so even in a single bar, the Sazerac can surprise. In the Luggage Room, on a base of either Woodford Reserve Double Oaked or Sazerac Rye on top of the absinthe rinse, I’ve seen the whiskey complemented with both Hine Bonneuil and Hine Homage cognac and even Martel VS, before being dashed with a perfect balance of Peychauds and Angostura bitters, then beautifully finished with a spray of orange oil around the glass, making for a full sensory experience.
On first sip the overwhelming sensation is the orange oil spritz, the citrus scent refreshing before you even sip the amber nectar, evanescing as you drink. Bittersweet orange swirls beautifully around the glass, toying with the whiskey’s essence.
As the cocktail warms, it opens up with the fruitiness of the cognac skirting around the spiciness of the whiskey to take the lead. Intense flavours, sweet and spicy and fruity and bitter, balance each other perfectly in a complex cocktail, delicate and robust at the same time.
The Luggage Room Sazerac has been the Liquid Sunshine gold standard for some years, and is well worth relaxing into at the start, or close, of any night.
Check it out, see what you think. Tell them Ricky sent you.
😎🥃
