DOTD For Tuesday, December 30, 2025
A Drink To Wise Expansion - & Good Government
Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Roffignac Cocktail inspired by the Louisiana Purchase. which on December 30, 1803, the United States officially took formal possession of.
The Louisiana Territory was large, some 828,000 square miles on the western side of the Mississippi River. Back when seafaring European powers like England, France and Spain were running rampant across the Americas and the Caribbean, France controlled this area starting around 1682.
England, France, & Spain actually squabbled about control over over much of North America for roughly 150 years, while ignoring the sovereignty of the thousands of Native American nations that were already here.
In 1762, France ceded the area that was included in the Louisiana Territory to Spain. But in 1800, Napoleon regained the Louisiana Territory in exchange for Tuscany, as France was pining for a North American presence. Those plans for a North American empire, however, didn’t go so well for Mr. Bonaparte. He was unable to suppress the Haitian Revolution, an insurrection by the self-liberated slaves there, many of whom descended from the natives who’d been there before the Europeans arrived. Simultaneously, Napoleon was worried about renewed warfare with the United Kingdom. That prompted him to think about selling Louisiana to the U.S.
Meanwhile, the fledgling United States at that time extended only as far as the eastern banks of the Mississippi River. The river itself was an important conduit for agriculture east of the Alleghenies as it was easier to float goods than carry them over the mountains.
Then-president Thomas Jefferson was particularly keen to gain control of the crucial port of New Orleans. He tasked James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston with purchasing New Orleans and they negotiated with French Treasury Minister Francois Barbe-Marbois. Monroe and Livingston were very happy to agree to purchase the entire territory of Louisiana when it was offered. After the usual political wrangling the U.S. paid $15 million for the land, or about $18 per square mile, a mere pittance to effectively double the land area of the nation.
While France no longer controlled the area, that nation left its mark on the region - especially on the city that for millions was the entry point to the region, New Orleans.
Today’s Drink Of The Day, the Roffignac Cocktail, is named after Count Louis Philippe Joseph de Roffignac, a minor French royal whose godfather and godmother were the reigning Duke and Duchess of Orleans, France. Indeed, Count Roffignac’s family was the namesake for the city of New Orleans, where he came around 1800, drawn by the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to France. He stayed after the Louisiana Purchase was finalized, and made key contributions to the city & the United States.
Roffignac wasn’t just minor French royalty. He was also a wealthy merchant, banker, and member of the state legislature, before serving as the last French-born Mayor of New Orleans from 1820 to 1828. During his time as mayor, he is credited with modernizing the city’s infrastructure, especially within the legendary French Quarter. Because of Roffignac, New Orleans introduced and installed street lighting, laid cobblestones throughout the French Quarter, and organized the city’s first fire department and public school system - all innovations in government that were copied in many other cities in the United States.
So, to the wisdom of Jefferson, Monroe, & Roffignac, we raise a glass with today’s Drink Of The Day, the Roffignac Cocktail.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink:
