hi it's anders today i'm going to show you how i make the vieux carre
welcome back we're making the vieux carre today which happens to be one of my all-time favorite
cocktails the vieux carre is french for old square which refers to the french quarter in
new orleans where this cocktail was born if you like a manhattan then you are going to love the
vieux carre i think we should just jump right into it here we go to the bar okay the vieux carre it's
the new orleans manhattan it's gonna be stirred because this is a sipper we've got your cocktail
spoon mixing glass [ __ ] i have a julep strainer and then i also have a channel knife because i'll
be doing a lemon zest on top but you can have a regular knife or vegetable peeler whatever to get
the oils out of the lemon and onto the cocktail also at this time decide whether or not you want
this drink on the rocks or served up i like it up because it's similar to the manhattan and i like
to drink it as such if you're going to drink it up like i am then have a glass chilling for this one
i'm doing a little footed rocks glass that i like very much these are the glasses that we serve it
in at the bar it's cute don't you think this cute i think it's cute but if you want it on the rocks
serve it on the rocks on a big rock is very good this is how i'm doing it okay the booze let me
clean this up because i will break it okay the booze the booze first we're gonna need rye whiskey
cognac sweet vermouth benedictine bitters one and bitters two two kinds of bitters i'll talk about
that in a second this is the first time that we're using benedictine which is another herbal liqueur
this is a very large bottle that i have they do come in smaller bottles it's one of those you
know made from a number of herbs and spices it's a very good liqueur that you really can't replace
in the vieux carre there's so much to say about this cocktail so what i think makes this cocktail
very good the blend of rye whiskey and cognac it's equal parts rye whiskey and cognac in this
cocktail and neither one overshadows the other the cognac adds a fruitiness and the rye as a
spiciness this is a merge of two wonderful worlds as for the bitters that i mentioned you're going
to want both peychaud's and angostura bitters specifically peychaud's because this is a new
orleans bitters like the sazerac it's just not a sazerac without the peychaud's the vieux carre
in my opinion is not quite the same without the peychaud's the rye whisky i'm using is rittenhouse
hundred proof rye the cognac is maison rouge vsop the sweet vermouth is cocchi vermouth di torino
the benedictine liqueur is benedictine and the two bitters are peychaud's bitters and
angostura aromatic bitters there's a lot in this one we got six different booze things booze booze
booze booze booze booze a lot of components but it's well worth it because this is this is such
a good cocktail all right let me get this out of the way this is going to be tricky to make
look pretty it's like a family family portrait oh we're going to new orleans oh okay let's make this
thing i'm going to start with the rye whiskey so i will do three quarters of an ounce of rye whiskey
three quarters of an ounce of cognac three quarters of an ounce of sweet vermouth
right now this is pretty simple equal parts rye cognac and sweet vermouth however half
an ounce of benedictine benedictine is a little sweeter so i don't like to go
all equal parts i like a little less of the benedictine for balancing sake
and then the bitters i'm gonna do two good dashes of peychaud's bitters
and two good dashes of angostura bitters
looked like i did three there but the first one not a whole lot came out so two solid dashes
of each you want a fair amount of bitters in this because with the sweet vermouth and the
benedictine it does tend to be a little richer but the bitters balances that out and i should
have said this earlier but i'm using a hundred proof rye you don't have to but the hundred proof
cuts through the richness a bit so that's why i like to use that so now we can add ice and stir
this is so stupid i should be doing this closer to the freezer
and stir away
until it's chilled if you're new to stirring you can use a chopstick i know that sounds ridiculous
but you don't want to move the ice around too much just spin it all as as one so you're not
adding air and what they call bruising bruising the spirit but what i'm doing is i keep the
back of the spoon against the glass and it takes a little practice to get used to once you do then it
becomes very simple but if you're new to the game then use this chopstick and that's really easy
to keep at the edge of the cocktail i should have had a chopstick here so i could show you the good
news is it's about ready all right yeah that's ready so i'm going to grab my glass there we are
we can strain the cocktail right into the glass
get every bit and then i like to put a little lemon oil on top because it is similar to the
manhattan if you want you could add cherries i have seen people have cherries with their
vieux carre but i do find that the benedictine it just makes it a little bit sweeter so i get
the sweetness from the benedictine as opposed to cherries it doesn't matter whatever you want
wow there it didn't take much i got plenty of oil on the cocktail so i'll do the rest over here
they're just a small little zest at the bar we serve it just like this but for you
i will make it very pretty a little spirally loop-de-doop there there it is the vicar right
okay i'm gonna take a sip
still one of my favorites yeah this if you like a manhattan and you have not had a vieux carre
you have to have a vieux carre it's so good Az would you like to try it
yeah wow it's really good isn't it yeah you know like at first i get like this chocolatiness
little zingy at the end yeah nothing is is too pronounced at the bar on the menus we write
out little tasting descriptions of all of our cocktails and we've had the vieux carre on the
menu for ever and one of the tasting notes we put on there is perfect because it really is a
perfect marriage of all these things this build i think for my taste anyway is very balanced try
it with a little bit more or less of anything do whatever you want it's your cocktail but
do try these ratios i think you'll be very happy the only thing is whether or not you want it on
the rocks i go back and forth this cocktail is from the hotel monteleone and they have a bar
that's called the carousel bar you walk in and it's this giant moving carousel that has bar
patrons sitting at the edge of it and they're just like spinning around the room like this
you have to kind of like scope out and see like is there a seat i don't really know
and then i'll say like oh here comes one hop on and away we go it's a it's a weird experience
it's kind of kind of a silly place in my opinion the last number of times i haven't gone to the
carousel bar because i will say when i went there and i ordered a view career the bartender just
threw together some ingredients into a shaking tin shook it up and dumped it out into a glass but the
thing is they do so much volume there that he's doing exactly what he needed to to get the drinks
out so i don't fault him at all you've got to deal with the volume that's why i say you know get out
of the quarter no i i love new orleans the first time i ever went there was for my 30th birthday
i wanted to go to new orleans because new orleans really is a cocktail mecca i wanted to go have a
sazerac at the sazerac bar i wanted to have a vieux carre at the carousel bar a hurricane at
pat o'brien's which turned out to be this thermos of potent fruit juice i don't need to have another
one of those but i on average get there pretty much once a year i've been there i guess like
10 times now so you do the math it's not all about the french quarter like get out and see
other districts am i getting old and bland i hope not old square old square old square
that's it the vieux carre it's my favorite cocktail from here on out it's just downhill
thank you for watching and let me know if you have any new orleans stories if you like this video
like and subscribe and i will see you next time cheers i could do this on the rocks
i could throw a cube in there right now if i wanted i can do whatever i want