Classic Mixed Drinks: The Manhattan

It seems to me there are too many fluffy pink uber-sweetened mixed drinks being guzzled by Americans these days. Its sad that people cannot drink like adults, if you are drinking an alcoholic drink, it should TASTE LIKE IT HAS ALCOHOL IN IT. Amazing I know. What people need to realize is that this is not a bad thing. There are several Classic Cocktails that dont duck the alcohol in the drink, and still taste fantastic. My Favorite, the Manhattan:

The Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. Commonly used whiskeys include American Rye, Canadian, Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. Proportions of whiskey to vermouth vary, from a very sweet 1:1 ratio to a much less sweet 4:1 ratio, but the classic mixture is 2:1. The cocktail is often stirred with ice and strained into a cocktail glass, where it is garnished with a Maraschino cherry with a stem. A Manhattan is also frequently served on the rocks in an old-fashioned glass (lowball glass).

The Manhattan is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

The Manhattan has been called a drinking man's cocktail — strong, urbane, and simple — but it has not achieved the recognition of the more widely known martini.

A popular history suggests that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s, where it was invented for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston's mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet made the drink fashionable, later prompting several people to request the drink by referring the name of the club where it originated — "the Manhattan cocktail."

However, experts in mixology history have found prior references to various similar cocktail recipes called "Manhattan" and served in the Manhattan area. Some of these references date decades prior to the above-mentioned banquet. Nevertheless, the consensus among experts is that the Jerome/Tilden event is what made the recipe of "American Whiskey, Italian Vermouth and Angostura bitters" famous as the Manhattan cocktail.


There are several variations on the theme but I tend to like the classic 2:1 ratio of bourbon to vermouth:

3 oz Old Granddad Bottled In Bond
1 1/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
2-3 dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Marachino Cherry

Shake vigourously, strain, serve with cherry.



Serve & Enjoy!

TomC