Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Rye Whiskey Cocktails

Saz with a Sting

By
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics, DWS, is a wine, spirits, travel, food and lifestyle writer and wine educator.
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Published 06/23/21
Saz with a Sting cocktail

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

In this mashup of a Stinger and Sazerac, Deke Dunne, a bartender and the manager at Allegory in Washington, D.C., swaps out both cocktails’ usual cognac in favor of the fruitier Armagnac. The drink keeps the Stinger’s creme de menthe, and rather than the Sazerac’s absinthe and bitters, it uses Jamaican rum for depth and intrigue. 

It’s a combination of drinks you might not think ordinarily go together. The connecting factor, of course, is the French brandy. But the other ingredients play surprisingly well together too; Dunne particularly likes the way that rye’s inherent baking spice notes interplay with creme de menthe’s minty herbaceousness. 

It’s the Jamaican rum that’s the wildcard here. But it, too, was a considered choice. “Bring some Jamaican rum to the party for some tropical funk and aromatic complexity, and this riff is a very fun, fresh and funky endeavor,” says Dunne. 

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce Rittenhouse rye whiskey 
  • 1 ounce ODVI Armagnac
  • 1/2 ounce white creme de menthe 
  • 1 barspoon Dr. Birds Jamaican rum
  • Garnish: lemon twist

Steps

  1. Add the rum into a chilled rocks glass and swirl to fully coat the glass. Set aside.

  2. Add the rye, Armagnac and creme de menthe into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled.

  3. Strain into the prepared rocks glass.

  4. Express the oil from the lemon twist over the drink and drop the twist into the drink to garnish.