Peychaud's Bitters was created around 1830 by Antoine Amédée Peychaud, a Creole apothecary from the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) who settled in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1795. He arrived in New Orleans as a refugee in 1795 after his father was forced to flee the island of San Domingo, where his family owned a coffee plantation, after the slaves rebelled.
Antoine grew up to become a pharmacist and bought his own Drug and Apothecary Store at what was then No. 123 Royal Street in 1834. Here he created an 'American Aromatic Bitter Cordial' and marketed it as a medicinal tonic.
It was in the Sazerac Coffee House, in 1858, that a bartender called Leon Lamothe is thought to have created the Sazerac, probably using Peychaud's aromatic bitters, Sazerac cognac and sugar.
A decade or so later Peychaud fell upon hard times and sold his pharmacy store, along with the formula and brand name of his bitters.
