11 Iconic New Orleans Cocktails
It's never the wrong time for a French 75.
Chelsea Kyle / Food Styling by Drew Aichele
Few American cities have as rich of a cocktail culture as New Orleans. Home to iconic spots like Carousel Bar, Pat O'Briens, Napoleon House, and Sazerac Bar, it's impossible not to drink well in the Crescent City. Looking for the perfect meal to help pace yourself in between cocktails? You'll find stellar Cajun, Creole, soul food, and Vietnamese options, too.
Maybe you're in the mood for a celebratory Champagne cocktail from Arnaud's French 75 Bar, a cozy, dimly lit French Quarter institution where you can (and should) enjoy a French 75, as well as a Vieux Carré or Daiquiri. Or, maybe you just wish you could drink a perfectly mad Sazerac, which also happens to be the official cocktail of the city of New Orleans.
Either way, we've got you covered with 11 cocktail recipes that call for bottles you probably already have on hand (think whiskey, bitters, and gin) to channel the best of the Big Easy from the comfort of your home bar.
Shortcut Café Brûlot
Café Brûlot is a signature cocktail of New Orleans, where it's prepared tableside at restaurants in an elaborate process that culminates in pouring flaming, citrus- and cinnamon-infused brandy down a clove-studded orange peel into a special silver-lined punch bowl, then dousing the flames with chicory-flavored coffee.
This simplified shortcut from scholar and cookbook author Jessica B. Harris is easy to make at home — no fireworks or special equipment needed.
Sazerac
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Lucy Simon
The Sazerac is so integral to New Orleans' cocktail history that in 2008, the state of Louisiana passed a Senate bill that made it the official cocktail for the city.
While many believe that the drink was invented by Atione Peychaud, creator of Peychaud’s Bitters, a key ingredient in this cocktail, cocktail historians like Neal Bodenheimer believe that the drink was created — or at the very least, made famous — at a saloon (or “coffee house,” as it was known at the time) called the Sazerac House.
Vieux Carré
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Lucy Simon
Stanley Clisby Arthur's 1937 Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em attributes the Vieux Carré cocktail to Walter Bergeron, head bartender at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans.
Bergeron is said to have invented the drink in the mid 1930s, but you can still grab a perfectly made Vieux Carré today at the very bar it was invented, the Carousel Bar & Lounge (which features a circular bar that revolves like a carousel), tucked inside the Hotel Monteleone.
Bourbon Milk Punch
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Oset Babür-Winter
Although the Milk Punch has roots that date back to the 1600s, but iconic French Quarter spots like Brennan’s and Arnaud’s French 75 Bar deserve credit for perfecting the version as it’s known today.
While most milk punches you'll encounter at craft cocktail bars will be clarified, a process through which solid particles are removed from milk to produce a clear, exceptionally drinking experience, we'll admit that we have a special place in our hearts for the unstrained milk punch that gets a boozy kick from bourbon, brandy, or virtually any other spirit you prefer to enjoy at the end of an evening.
French 75
Chelsea Kyle / Food Styling by Drew Aichele
The first known version of the French 75 was inspired by the French-made Canon de 75 modéle 1897, known colloquially as the Soixante-Quinze or Seventy-Five, an an agile rifle that could shoot faster and more accurately than any other.
This timeless and delicious Champagne cocktail is a must-drink for visitors to New Orleans.
Grasshopper
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling Lucy Simon
Born in New Orleans around the Roaring '20s, the Grasshopper drink is one of those pre-prohibition cocktails that has made an exciting modern-day comeback, especially on dessert cocktail lists.
While you certainly don't need to use a crushed peppermint rim, we like to add one to this bright green drink for a little festive flair.
Pimm's Cup
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Lucy Simon
The Pimm’s Cup cocktail is named after its primary ingredient, Pimm’s No. 1, a gin-based liqueur with a warm, herbaceous, bittersweet flavor made from a proprietary blend of botanicals, citrus, and spices. This liqueur was first produced in 1823 by a British bartender named James Pimm, but is often served today as a respite from the unending heat of New Orleans summer days.
Paris Between the Wars
This cocktail isn't a New Orleans classic, but its creators, Lally Brennan and Ti Martin, are the co-proprietors of Commander's Palace, a NOLA institution since 1893.
With rich smokiness from the blended Scotch, rounded bitterness from Campari, and a tart bite from fresh lemon juice, the Paris Between the Wars is well-balanced and refreshing.
Arnaud's French 75
Matt Taylor-Gross
You have to try a classic French 75 at Arnaud's French 75 Bar in New Orleans' French Quarter, but just remember that your drink might be a little different than you're used to. Here, the bartenders use Cognac in place of gin, which makes for a sweet, smooth cocktail.
Can't make it to New Orleans? One of our favorite places to drink an Arnaud's French 75 in New York City is Maison Premiere, a cocktail and oyster bar in Brooklyn that takes inspiration from the bar culture of the so-called Crescent City.
Hurricane
Food & Wine / Photo by Victor Chirkin
This tropical tall drink was created in the early 1940s at the historic New Orleans bar Pat O’Brien’s. During World War II, domestic whiskey was hard to come by but rum, which had a direct route from the Caribbean, up the Mississippi River to the Big Easy, was abundant. This created an opportunity for the bar to establish a signature, locally-inspired cocktail, and to get a surplus of rum, a less popular spirit at the time, off their hands.
Bacchanalian
Think Merlot doesn't belong in your cocktail? The Bacchanalian, a playful cocktail from bar legend Chris Hannah (former bar manager of New Orleans’ famed Arnaud’s French 75) is here to prove you wrong.
Hannah developed this cocktail with Mardi Gras celebrations (the carnival season in New Orleans) in mind, though its combination of Cognac and red wine also makes it perfect for chilly fall evenings.
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