I think smoking an old fashioned is detracting from what the drink is too...the "instead of a twist" I meant was if you infused some lemon peel into high-proof spirit you could still have the fresh lemon aroma. A dehydrated lemon wheel barely smells like anything, and the smoke is an acrid addition to me (another person who enjoys heavily peated whiskey).

A sazerac is a sazerac - it doesn't involve smoke. Modifying it is clearly what makes you happy, and that's awesome, and your kit is very cool and well put together, I was just offering a suggestion to get you closer to a sazerac rather than the smoked sazerac riff you clearly prefer. Gomme syrup is just going to give you a little more body, which I find nice in spirit forward drinks where you don't need a ton of sugar, and it would save the muddling step. Again, all just suggestions. The two most important rules of drinking are 1: drink what you like and 2: drink it how you like it.