Cocktail · Spirit-forward
Manhattan
Rye, sweet vermouth, bitters — a drink in a tailored suit.
How to order it: Stirred, coupe, brandied cherry. Skip the neon ones.
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The recipe
- 2 oz rye whiskey
- 1 oz sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- Stir; strain into a coupe
- Brandied cherry
The story
The pretty story — invented at New York's Manhattan Club for a banquet hosted by Winston Churchill's mother — collapses under scrutiny, since Lady Randolph was in England, pregnant with Winston, at the time. The honest version is murkier and better: sometime in the 1870s or '80s, a New York bartender mixed American whiskey with the newly fashionable Italian vermouth, and the result spread so fast that by the 1890s it was simply assumed. It is arguably the first great vermouth cocktail, the Martini's older, darker sibling. The Manhattan endures because it flatters whiskey instead of fighting it — rye sharpened by bitters, softened by vermouth, and finished like a verdict.
Adjacent pours