I've been toying around with making Sazeracs lately and am curious for people's input on variations. I've tried a variety of Rye, with baby (6yr) Sazerac, Old Overholt, and Russel's Reserve being my favorites so far, and have been sticking with Peychaud's bitters, and I'm curious for comments about the Absinthe rinse component of the drink.
I've used what I've got in the cabinet, Kubler Swiss Absinthe and Henri Bardouin Pastis. I actually like the Pastis a lot, even a rinse imparts a strong licorice / fennel component I enjoy, but it's a bit outside traditional I think. The Kubler somehow seemed wrong. Not sure what to say about why. It wasn't terrible, just didn't work great for me. I think I need to buy some new bottles for this but I'm curious for people's feedback on what works best. Herbsainte has NOLA tradition going for it, and then there is Absinthe, but which one besides the Kubler? And I'd really like to buy a bottle of Chartreuse for some other drinks, what would that be like here? Green or Yellow? Some recipes say Pernod works fine, what say you?
Also, as a side note, I've been skipping the sugar cube / bitters trick and just using a dash of simple syrup, it seems to work fine, but am I missing something important?
Thanks!
4th of July