Manhattan
Rye and sweet vermouth, stirred and strained up, with a cherry.
Rye and dry vermouth, stirred and strained up, with a lemon twist.
Rye with equal parts sweet and dry vermouth, stirred and strained up.
Serving
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.
Vermouth is wine-based, and wine may be clarified with isinglass, made from fish, or with gelatine. Neither is a declarable allergen and neither has to appear on a label, so whether a particular bottle is vegan is a question about that producer rather than about vermouth.
The producer's own product page states the bitters are 100% vegan and gluten-free.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
60 ml rye whiskey
30 ml sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml)Proprietary
1 cherry a maraschino cherry (6 g)
- 60 ml rye whiskey
- 30 ml sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml)Proprietary
- 1 cherry a maraschino cherry (6 g)
- ~40 ml water
Glass
Vessel
132 ml of liquid, served without ice, inside the 180 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.
Vermouth is wine-based, and wine may be clarified with isinglass, made from fish, or with gelatine. Neither is a declarable allergen and neither has to appear on a label, so whether a particular bottle is vegan is a question about that producer rather than about vermouth.
The producer's own product page states the bitters are 100% vegan and gluten-free.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
- 60 ml rye whiskey
30 ml dry vermouth- 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml)Proprietary
1 lemon (58 g)
- 60 ml rye whiskey
- 30 ml dry vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml)Proprietary
- 1 lemon (58 g)
- ~40 ml water
Glass
Vessel
132 ml of liquid, served without ice, inside the 180 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.
Vermouth is wine-based, and wine may be clarified with isinglass, made from fish, or with gelatine. Neither is a declarable allergen and neither has to appear on a label, so whether a particular bottle is vegan is a question about that producer rather than about vermouth.
Vermouth is wine-based, and wine may be clarified with isinglass, made from fish, or with gelatine. Neither is a declarable allergen and neither has to appear on a label, so whether a particular bottle is vegan is a question about that producer rather than about vermouth.
The producer's own product page states the bitters are 100% vegan and gluten-free.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
- 60 ml rye whiskey
- 15 ml sweet vermouth
- 15 ml dry vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml)Proprietary
- 1 cherry a maraschino cherry (6 g)
- 60 ml rye whiskey
- 15 ml sweet vermouth
- 15 ml dry vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml)Proprietary
- 1 cherry a maraschino cherry (6 g)
- ~40 ml water
Glass
Vessel
132 ml of liquid, served without ice, inside the 180 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Method
4 steps · 1m 25sChill a coupe.
Combine the 60 ml rye whiskey, the 30 ml sweet vermouth and the 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml) in a mixing glass filled with cubed ice.
Stir for 25s, until the outside of the glass is frosted, and strain into the chilled coupe.
The vermouth here is doing the sweetening as well as the bittering, which is what lets this drink skip the separate sugar its own ancestor needs. Everything in the glass is clear and spirituous, so it is stirred rather than shaken.
Drop the 1 cherry a maraschino cherry (6 g) into the glass to finish.
Common pitfallSweet vermouth is wine, and an opened bottle left warm on a shelf oxidises within weeks. A flat, dulled Manhattan is usually blamed on the rye when the vermouth is what has gone stale.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
Method
4 steps · 1m 35sChill a coupe.
Combine the 60 ml rye whiskey, the 30 ml dry vermouth and the 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml) in a mixing glass filled with cubed ice.
Stir for 25s, until the outside of the glass is frosted, and strain into the chilled coupe.
Swapping the vermouth for its pale, barely sweetened counterpart removes the sweetness the classic version leans on, so the twist's oil is what rounds the drink off instead of a cherry's sugar.
Cut a 4 cm swathe of lemon peel, hold it skin-outwards over the surface and squeeze so the oil lands on the drink. Rub it around the rim and drop it in.
Common pitfallDry vermouth oxidises faster than the sweet style once opened, because it carries less sugar to buffer it. A bottle kept for months on a warm shelf turns papery and sour rather than merely flat, and the drink reads thin rather than dry.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
Method
4 steps · 1m 25sChill a coupe.
Combine the 60 ml rye whiskey, the 15 ml sweet vermouth, the 15 ml dry vermouth and the 2 dashes Angostura Aromatic Bitters (1.8 ml) in a mixing glass filled with cubed ice.
"Perfect" names the vermouth split rather than a judgement on the drink: equal parts of the sweet and dry styles land the whole thing between its two siblings instead of committing to either one.
Stir for 25s, until the outside of the glass is frosted, and strain into the chilled coupe.
Drop the 1 cherry a maraschino cherry (6 g) into the glass to finish.
Common pitfallThe two vermouths keep differently once opened (the dry style fades faster than the sweet, having less sugar to buffer it), so a bottle of each bought together will not still be in balance with each other by the time either bottle is empty.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
About
A whiskey and vermouth cocktail first recorded in New York bartending guides of the 1880s, whose best-known origin story (a Manhattan Club banquet arranged by Winston Churchill's mother) does not survive scrutiny of the dates.
The earliest documented reference is a newspaper item from September 1882 noting that a mixture of whiskey, vermouth and bitters had come into vogue under several names, the Manhattan among them 1. Full recipes followed in bartending guides two years later, some calling for Scotch and others for French or Italian vermouth before rye and Italian sweet vermouth settled as the standard pairing 2.
The best-known origin story credits a bartender at the Manhattan Club with inventing the drink at a banquet held on the night of December 29, 1874, for Samuel J. Tilden's election as governor of New York, at the request of Jennie Jerome, later Lady Randolph Churchill and mother of Winston Churchill 1. The story does not hold up against the record: Jerome had given birth to her son in England weeks earlier and was not in New York for the dinner, and the Manhattan Club did not occupy the building the story places it in until 1899, a quarter century after the party it is supposed to describe 1. A more plausible source, traced by historian David Wondrich, is a bartender named Black, probably George Black, who ran the Manhattan Inn on lower Broadway from 1874 until his death in 1881 1.
The whiskey has drifted more than the story. Rye was the drink's original base and is what most of the early recipes name, though bourbon, Canadian whisky and other blends have stood in at different points since, Canadian whisky especially during Prohibition, when it was what actually reached the country 2. The vermouth is where the drink's named variations sit rather than the whiskey: sweet vermouth is the version usually served under the plain name, dry vermouth in its place makes the Dry Manhattan, and equal parts of both make the Perfect 2.
- 1Manhattan Cocktail Historydiffordsguide.com
- 2Manhattan (cocktail)en.wikipedia.org