Thomas H. Handy's 1893 succession papers include this inventory of the Sazerac Saloon. Most of the ingredients of the famous cocktail--rye whiskey, absinthe, and Angostura Bitters--appear on these pages. Other pages in the document enumerate additional barrels of unbranded bitters, possibly Peychaud's. It is also interesting to note that although rye already had replaced brandy as the drink's main ingredient, a good supply of Sazerac brandy remained in stock at the eponymous bar room.
Schiller's brandy cocktails became the drink of the day and his business flourished,
surviving even the War Between the States. In 1870 Thomas H. Handy, his
bookkeeper, succeeded as proprietor and changed the name to "Sazerac House." An
alteration in the mixture also took place. Peychaud's bitters was still used to add the
right fillip, but American rye whiskey was substituted for the cognac to please the tastes
of Americans who preferred "red likker" to any pale-faced brandy.
Thus brandy vanished from the Sazerac cocktail to be replaced by whiskey ... and the
dash of absinthe was added. ... The absinthe innovation has been credited to Leon
Lamothe who in 1858 was a bartender for Emile Seignouret, Charles Cavorac & Co., a
wine importing firm located in the old Seignouret mansion still standing at 520 Royal
street. More likely it was about 1870, when Lamothe was employed at Pina's restaurant
in Burgundy street that he experimented with absinthe and made the Sazerac what it is
today.
For years one of the favorite brands of cognac imported into New Orleans was a brand
manufactured by the firm of Sazerac-de-Forge et fils, of Limoges, France. The local
agent for this firm was John B. Schiller. In 1859 Schiller opened a liquid dispensary at
18 Exchange Alley, naming it "Sazerac Coffehouse" after the brand of cognac served
exclusively at his bar.