The Best Drinks

This is a town that knows its booze, for sure, and it has contributed a few cocktails to the pantheon. You can drink beer anywhere. Why not try a few indigenous cocktails? That said, there's nothing wrong with a Hurricane every now and again, even for natives. (We'd like to thank Chuck Taggart, who regularly reports on New Orleans and other cocktails at www.gumbopages.com, for this list.)

• Sazerac: The quintessential New Orleans cocktail, one of the first, and perhaps the greatest ever. The combination of rye whiskey (or cognac), Peychaud's Bitters, a touch of sugar, a hint of Herbsaint anise liqueur, and a breath of lemon oil create a symphony of flavor, and it plays new movements as the drink warms up.
• Ramos Gin Fizz: There was a time when there were 35 barback boys shaking gin fizzes behind the bar at Henry C. Ramos' Stag Saloon, and Huey P. Long took his favorite bartender from the Roosevelt Hotel to Washington with him so that he would never be deprived of his beloved gin fizz. What's in it? Gin, egg whites, orange flower water, lemon and lime juice, soda water, and cream. It might be hard to find these days. (The Old Absinthe House still makes it.) Ask for it, and make the local bartenders learn about their own history.
• Vieux Carré Cocktail: Unjustly forgotten except for a growing number of cocktailians and the bartenders at the Hotel Monteleone, this wonderful creation was given to us by Walter Bergeron, head bartender at the hotel in the 1930s. He put together rye whiskey, cognac, sweet vermouth, Benedictine D.O.M., and two kinds of bitters, and we thank him.
• The Brandy Crusta: Created at Santina's Saloon in New Orleans in the 1880s, this drink was the first to combine a base spirit, liqueur, and citrus juice, plus a dash of bitters. This makes it the father of the Sidecar, the margarita, and all of their descendants in a category of drinks that author and cocktailian Gary Regan calls "New Orleans Sours." It's a beautiful drink, with a beautiful garnish -- the rim is frosted with sugar, and a wide piece of lemon peel encircles the mouth of the glass; you sip the drink over the lemon peel.
• Hurricane: Okay, okay, so we dissed the Hurricane before, but really, it's a fruity delight, a deviously stealthy drink (as you can't really taste the alcohol). But Pat O'Brien's is actually a nice, fun bar and worth going to (unless you have to wait in a long line of tourists to get in). What you get these days is a far cry from what Charlie Cantrell first concocted out of rum, passion fruit, and other ingredients back in the 1940s; what we get today is made from a bottled and/or powdered premix. Still, everybody needs to knock back a Hurricane once in a while.