New Orleans cocktails follow the calendar at Loa

We’re all about cocktails here at Weird South, so when Loa, the unique bar of the boutique International House of New Orleans, sent us a calendar featuring their inspiring and original drinks, we took notice.

The International House exists within a Beaux-Arts historic building in the city’s Central Business District, once home to the nation’s first World Trade Center. But everything about this hotel screams originality. Dreamy, exotic Loa is no different, offering flavors that match the city in which it dwells — whimsical, creative, pushing the limits, even bizarre. Jean Lafitte, one of the cocktails they created for the New Orleans Tricentennial, for instance, incorporated Spanish moss gathered at night from City Park.

Here are seven local New Orleans rituals with Loa cocktails by proprietor Sean Cummings and Loa’s creative director Alan Walter, as provided to us by the hotel’s press release.

Carnival [March] - Inspired by a glorious 19th-century watercolor series by Carlotta Bonnecaze, the first woman and Creole to design Carnival costumes and floats for Mardi Gras, Loa offers Five O’Clock Tea cocktails served by a costume-clad Victorian Jackass. Composed of Aperol, Mate Tea, Ojen, Local Citrus Oleo Saccharum, Prosecco, and Sorrento Lemons, the ritual cocktail provides guests with a more sophisticated take on New Orleans’ most famous holiday.

St. Joseph’s Day [March] - Sourced from Loa’s own Bywater lemon grove, Sorrento Lemons infuse Walter’s Limoncello in honor of the festive Sicilian holiday.

Summer Dress [May through October] - Like all well-bred deep-southern households, International House unwraps and cools down in style for the summer season. At Loa, Walter embraces this changing of season with a refreshing take on a NOLA classic: made with seasonal fruit sourced from lead bartender Nick Inman’s home orchard, a Granita is the adult version of the nostalgic snowball which has rescued New Orleanians from the oppressing heat since the 1930s.

St. John’s Eve [June] - In Vodou, devotees don’t merely pray to the hundreds of vodou spirits, or “Loa,” they literally serve them. So for the holiest day in the Vodou calendar, Walter partners with Sallie Ann Glassman, New Orleans’ most famous Vodou Priestess, to create his annual John’s Way Elixir, in which seven waters maximize the healing properties of ingredients grown by Walter and his select purveyors.

Winter Dress [November through April] - As shadows lengthen and the days become shorter, International House restores its decor from Summer Dress, while Loa honors the changing of season with a fall-focused cocktail, the Chien et Loup, an ode to that time of the day when a dog becomes indistinguishable from a wolf.

All Saints’ All Souls’ Day [November] - In heavily Catholic New Orleans, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day have been observed for centuries through rituals celebrating life over death. At Loa, Walter crafts an ode to the beautiful tradition, pairing Spiced Pecan Milk and Edible Flowers to mimic the whitewashed tombs, yellow chrysanthemums and red coxcombs adorning graveyards across the city, with Mezcal, an ode to the tradition’s Mexican roots. You can read our Weird South post on this here.

Magdalena [December] - To honor the female mysticism and explore the life and legacy of Mary Magdalene, Walter offers a soulful complement to a beautiful art exhibition, serving The Magdalene, a Green Chartreuse-based libation paired with Palestinian and Israeli Almonds, Turmeric, and Dark Chocolate.


Weird, Wild and Wacky South is written by food and travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen, a native of New Orleans who loves an unusual cocktail.

The South's official cocktails — and a mint julep recipe for this week's Kentucky Derby

Give it to the South to come up with official cocktails for their towns.

First, the Louisiana Legislature named the Sazerac the official New Orleans cocktail, a drink that hails back to 1838 and apothecary owner Antoine Peychaud, named for his favorite French brandy, Sazerac-de-Forge et fils. The brandy toddy included Peychaud bitters and was mixed using a jigger then known as a coquetier, pronounced ko-k-tay. Many people believe this is where the word cocktail comes from and New Orleans, of course, claims the city as the cocktail's birthplace.

You can find the delicious drink with a peel of lemon all over the city but especially at the Sazerac Bar of the Roosevelt Hotel, my personal favorite with its Depression-era murals and Huey Long history. You can read more about the hotel and bar in a previous blog post by clicking here.

Louisville got in the official spirits act in 2015 and chose the Old Fashioned for its official drink of choice. According to the Louisville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, legend contends that Louisville’s Pendennis Club created or reinvented the Old Fashioned in 1881. “Though other historic reference point to bourbon cocktails being made in the ‘the old fashioned way,’” the Bureau insists, “the Pendennis recipe was the first to name the drink and has been on the menu ever since.” 



And not to be outdone by either town, Lafayette, Louisiana, where I reside, created its own official cocktail, this one from scratch. Called the “Rouler” — as in “Laissez les bons temps rouler” or “Let the good times roll” — the drink is comprised of Sweet Crude Rum produced by Lafayette’s own Rank Wildcat Distillery. Add sweet and sour, simple syrup, bitters and club soda, then serve over ice, and you’ll want to roll with the good times too.

Want to know what your home state calls its signature drink? According to Buzzfeed.com, here are the spirits of the South:

Alabama - The Alabama Slammer (amaretto, Southern Comfort, Sloe Gin, and orange juice), also known as the signature drink of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. We LSU fans would call that a sissy drink.

Arkansas - The Arkansas Razorback (rum, vodka, amaretto almond liqueur, Kahlua coffee liqueur), another nod to the SEC, this time the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.

Florida - The Rum Runner (Captain Morgan, blackberry liqueur, creme de bananes and orange juice), originating at the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar in Islamorada, Fla., when the bartender was dared to make a cocktail out of the liquor surplus.

Georgia - The Scarlet O’Hara (typically Southern Comfort, cranberry juice, and a lime wheel), that will make you forget everything until tomorrow.

Kentucky - The Mint Julep (bourbon, sugar, water and mint), best made with Woodford Reserve, the official drink of Churchill Downs. See recipe below.

Mississippi - Mississippi Punch (dark rum, bourbon, brandy/cognac, fresh lemon juice and sugar), first noted in Jerry Thomas’ “The Bon Vivant’s Companion,” attributing its location in Mississippi, according to BuzzFeed.com.

North Carolina - Dirty Beetz (vodka, local beet syrup, lime juice and orange juice)
originating from Raleigh’s The Fiction Kitchen, but we have to ask why?

Jaleberry Strawpeno

South Carolina - The Hemingway Mojito (Bacardi, sunset-red Italian Campari, muddled mint and grapefruit, soda water and grapefruit juice), a colorful drink that looks like a Key West sunset, born from Charleston’s Amen StreetFish and Raw Bar. Shouldn’t that be a Florida drink?

Tennessee - Lynchburg Lemonade (Jack Daniel’s whiskey, Triple sec, sweet & sour, and Sprite), because JackDaniel’s is made in Lynchburg, Tennessee. I’d say that anything with Jack would be a proper Tennessee drink.

Texas - The Mexican Martini (tequila, Cointreau orange liqueur, sweet and sour mix, lime juice, orange juice and Sprite), served straight up in a cocktail glass. On a recent visit to Austin, I had a jaleberry strawpeno made with strawberry jalapeno tequila, lime and agave at Searsucker and I vote for that drink as the official Texas cocktail!

Just in time for the Kentucky Derby, here’s the Woodford Reserve recipe for a traditional mint julep. I got to watch a demonstration of the making of a mint julep at Churchill Downs. The key here is to use fresh mint and muddle the leaves in the bottom of the glass to release that delicious taste.

MINT JULEP

2 ounces Woodford Reserve
1/2 ounce simple syrup
3 fresh mint leaves
Crushed ice

Directions: Express the essential oils in the mint and rub them inside the glass. To the same glass, add simple syrup, bourbon, and crushed ice. Stir. Garnish with more ice and fresh mint.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is the author of several Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. She is also the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.