Hochstadter's Slow & Low Rock & Rye

Its humble beginnings can be traced back to the saloons of the burgeoning nation‚ where stern-faced barkeeps would pour a shot of rye and let the customers add their own rock candy‚ thereby creating a drink similar to the granddaddy of all cocktails: the Old Fashioned. The effects of the new concoction were so immediate and so powerful that by the mid 19th Century the Rock and Rye cocktail migrated from the bar to the pharmacy.

As a pharmaceutical drink‚ it was used to snuff coughs‚ colds‚ sore throats‚ bronchitis‚ asthma‚ pneumonia‚ consumption‚ sniffles‚ grippes and chills‚ diseases of the throat‚ chest and lungs. No ailment great or small was immune to rock and rye's therapeutic might. Later‚ as men reacquired a taste for it and began drinking it for pleasure again‚ it became an American standard‚ prepared and bottled by distillers and bootleggers alike as it migrated back from the pharmacy to the bar. By then the legend had taken firm root in the national psyche. Celebrated in popular culture‚ rock and rye was mentioned by none other than Sheriff Pat Garrett as the libation of choice for his pals as they chased Billy The Kid across the rugged Western landscape.