New Orleans in a glass, the Vieux Carré is another classic cocktail from the “Big Easy” otherwise known as “The Paris of the South”. The name translates from French as “old square” referring to the original old town, now better known as the French Quarter. Comprised of Brandy and Benedictine from France, Sweet Vermouth from Italy, and American Rye Whiskey, the Vieux Carré embodies the Cajun/Creole spirit of New Orleans: sweet, smooth, bitter, and boozy. It goes down easy, straight up, or on the rocks. Benedictine, a key ingredient, is a complex French digestif liqueur made from herbs and warm spices with a sweetness contributed by honey. If you can’t find Benedictine, you can substitute Dom B & B which is a 60/40% blend of Benedictine and Brandy. The International Bar Association calls for 30 ml. each of Rye, Brandy, and Sweet Vermouth; a bar spoon of Benedictine, and 2 dashes of Peychaud Bitters, served chilled straight up. As with many traditional recipes chefs and bartenders create their own variations of the original recipe. This recipe is formulated for the home bartender using simple measures and adjusting the recipe to use more easily found and more useful to the home liquor cabinet Dom B & B instead of straight Dom Benedictine. If you are a perfectionist-traditionalist bartender go with the original IBA recipe, otherwise, the recipe here is an easy, excellent addition to your home cocktail repertoire. Santé!

Vieux Carré Cocktail
Serves one

Ingredients:
1 ounce Rye Whiskey
1 ounce Sweet Vermouth
3/4 ounce Brandy or Cognac
½ ounce Dom B & B
2 dashes Peychaud Bitters
1 dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters (optional)

Mix the ingredients with a few ice cubes. Stir to chill and strain into a bar glass or your choice; garnish with a maraschino cherry or a twist of lemon or orange peel and enjoy.

Within cocktail culture, the classic recipes more often than not have a story about the origen of the drink. The classic Sidecar is no exception. Invented some time around World War 1, two bars (a French and an English) claim to have created the drink for a customer who arrived in the sidecar of a motorcycle. Another version refers to serving the drink in a coupe glass with the remains from the shaker served in a shot glass as the “sidecar” (kind of a sophisticated European version of the “Shot and a Beer”). The original recipe for the Sidecar called for equal parts cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice (1:1:1). Today, depending on the recipe you’re looking at, the Sidecar calls for cognac or brandy, orange liqueur, and lemon juice. The proportions have also changed reducing the proportion of orange liqueur and lemon juice (2:1:1/2). I come down on the side of a slightly less acidic version with a more pronounced orange note (2:2:1/2). You should experiment and decide your proportions for your own Sidecar. Tchin! Tchin!

Sidecar Cocktail
1 drink and a “sidecar”

Ingredients:

1 ½ ounces cognac or brandy
1 ½ ounces orange liqueur (Cointreau, Gran Marinier, Triple Sec)
¾ ounce lemon juice.
granulated sugar for the rim of the glass

Combine the first three ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass (eg. coupe or small martini glass) rimmed with sugar. If you opt for a more acidic version of the Sidecar, the sugared rim helps to balance each sip. You decide for yourself.

https://www.liquor.com/recipes/sidecar/
The Art of the Cocktail: Philip Collins, Chroniclebooks LLC; 1944

Vieux Carré Cocktail →

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