Food - Drink
The Creole Cocktail's Outsider Origins
By AUTUMN SWIERS
When enjoying Cajun food in New Orleans, no accompanying beverage is as fitting as the Creole Cocktail. Given this cocktail's name, and the way it pairs so well with NOLA's cuisine and culture, you'd obviously assume that the drink was born in the Big Easy, but the Creole Cocktail actually has an entirely different place of origin.
The Creole Cocktail was created by German immigrant and mixologist Hugo Ensslin, a resident of New York City. The cocktail includes rye whiskey and sweet vermouth — which you may recognize as ingredients in the New York-themed Manhattan — plus Bénédictine and Amer Picon for a New Orleans-esque flair.
Bénédictine is a spiced, herbal liqueur with notes of citrus and pine, while Amer Picon is a mildly bitter liqueur that's very popular among French mixologists. These liqueurs separate the Creole from the Manhattan, but the Creole is super-similar to the Brooklyn Cocktail with rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, maraschino, and Amer Picon.