Mardi Gras…already? I swear it was just Thanksgiving, which already feels like it’s just around the corner. Such is life in the food-beverage-lifestyle media vortex.

There are a lot of articles today about where to find your beads, gumbo and jambalaya in L.A. — that’s the best we can do being so far from Nola — but when I think about Mardi Gras, I naturally think about booze, and not Hurricanes or beer. I want a Sazerac.

Who doesn’t feel a little genteel and sophisticated sipping a Sazerac…until you put a few away (I don’t recommend). The lusty concoction is typically made with rye whiskey, sugar, bitters and a hint of absinthe and lemon. It’s a simple elixir, a drinker’s drink, but one too many can knock you.

According to this history lesson, those who refer to it as the “oldest known American cocktail,” based on the word’s true definition (spirit, sugar, water, bitters), are probably wrong. The story goes that the Sazerac was created by Antoine Amadie Peychaud in New Orleans around 1830, but it wasn’t the first brandy (how it was originally made) and bitters cocktail ever made. Even if it’s not historically correct, it’s a great tale; and probably the reason it’s now the official cocktail of the Big Easy. I’ll drink to that.