In our journey through classic cocktails
and their history it's probably about time that we stopped off at the
Manhattan. The Manhattan is perhaps not as widely
known as its predecessor, the Old Fashioned, but it is iconic among discerning drinkers for its complexity and depth of flavor. I've spoken in other
episodes about vermouth being a wonder ingredient for packing layers of nuance
into a simple cocktail and this is a prime example of that.
It also incidentally is the cocktail that made me fall in love with booze
forward stirred down drinks and I haven't looked back since. But before we
get to making our Manhattan let's take a look at its history and what ingredients
you're going to need to make a great one. The Manhattan actually enjoyed quite a
clear-cut and entertaining origin story until fairly recently. The story went that
Jennie Jerome, who would go on to become Lady Randolph Churchill, hosted a party
at the Manhattan Club in 1874 in honor of a New York Governor nominee and
called for whiskey and vermouth to celebrate. The only problem is, as
cocktail historian David Wondrich pointed out, Jennie Jerome was actually
in England and pretty busy with the birth of her child Winston when this
party took place. What is true is that the Manhattan Club,
which is a private member's Club was once situated in a building which had
previously been owned by Jennie's father and so when Winston Churchill became a
pretty well-known figure, this small link grew legs into a good story. It is
possible that it was invented at the Manhattan Club specifically but there's
no real way to verify it and there are several other plausible claims. What does
make sense is that there were massive waves of Italian immigration to the U.S.
around this time and so they would have brought their beloved sweet vermouth
with them. It was only a matter of time before some bright spark mixed it with
the indigenous whiskey and some bitters as a twist on the foundational American
cocktail, the Old Fashioned. The story of which you should check out in another of
my videos if you haven't already. So many of the original references for
the Manhattan, for instance in Harry Johnson's bartenders manual in 1900,
don't specify bourbon or rye, they say only whiskey. So New York was at that
time a rye drinking city and so it was more likely that this is what it would
have been made with and I'm sticking with that here, but a bourbon Manhattan
can be equally delicious. I'm using Michter's for its rich, fruity and spicy
flavor profile, it just brings a little bit of everything to the table. For vermouth I'm going with Antica Formula. The vermouth portion of the
cocktail is what differentiates a Dry, Perfect and Sweet Manhattan, just like in
the martini. However, unlike in the martini a dry Manhattan is literally one
made with dry vermouth. A perfect is made with both sweet and dry and a sweet
Manhattan is made with sweet vermouth. If you just asked for a Manhattan,
generally the standard is sweet. And please don't be afraid of this, it
doesn't mean overly sugary, sweet vermouth still has a nice bitterness to
it and it rounds out the spicy rye. A perfect Manhattan is a good option if
you're using bourbon rather than rye as the drier vermouth does balance out that
slightly sweeter a whiskey base. For me the Manhattan tends to be an end of the
night drink and so I go for this richer and sweeter style of vermouth. Antica is
a vermouth 'alla vaniglia' meaning that vanilla sits alongside the bitter sweet
wormwood as a predominant flavor, so it's perfect for a more digestif style cocktail.
Using something lighter and brighter like Martini Rosso, along with the lemon
twist would completely transform this drink into a spicy and complex aperitif.
For bitters we're going with Angostura. In Harry Johnson's recipe in 1900's the
modifiers in the cocktail where Curacao absinthe and orange bitters, this has
been streamlined somewhat the Manhattan is one of those cocktail unicorns that
can be made in basically any bar as long as they have American whiskey, vermouth
and bitters, so most and so Angostura is now accepted as the standard, probably
because of its ubiquity. If you do have some fun bitters to play with though I
would definitely go with it, I love the different notes you can get from Abbot's,
Peychauds or Bokers bitters. Now the garnish has a massive effect on
this drink as I mentioned using a lemon twist really
lifts and brightens it into something quite different, because I am going for a
more digestif style I'll twist and discard an orange for a richer citrus
note and garnish with a cherry. Some of the initial recipes for the Manhattan
called for Marachino liqueur actually in the drink but this is
generally morphed into just being a cherry garnish. Just be wary though not
all cherries are created equal and you don't want to ruin your perfectly
balanced cocktail with a big gloop of radioactive cherry juice. At Bomba we use
Morello cherries for a darker more sour snack at the end of your cocktail. As always you want to make sure that you've got your garnish prepared before you
start so we've got our cherries on hand and I'm gonna cut a twist from the
orange. As I said we are just gonna twist and discard, you've already got a cherry
in the drink so you don't really want multiple things bobbing about in there
so it doesn't have to look pretty it's just gonna give you a nice aroma. In your
mixing glass you want to pop in your bitters, two big dashes of this, 50 mils
of your rye whiskey. Now obviously if your vermouth is open it should be in
the fridge so grab that out and we'll do 20 mils of the sweet vermouth. Now the
general rule of thumb is that if a cocktail has juice whether citrus or
other it should be shaken and cocktails which have all booze should be stirred.
This one is no different you want the texture to be smooth and silky just how
you feel when you're drinking it. You want to fill your mixing glass with as
much ice as you can fit in there and then you're gonna stir your drink by
placing the back of your bar spoon against the inside of the mixing glass
and pushing the ice around. Obviously this cocktail has a lot of
spirit in it so it does take a little bit of dilution to make it nice and
palatable, especially be conscious of that if you're using a higher proof rye.
Once you start to feel the mixing glass get really cold and a little bit frosty
give it a taste. Delicious. Grab your coupe out of the fridge or freezer,
use a julep strainer to hold the ice back and pour into your glass. Grab your orange twist and just give it
a sharp fold over the top of the glass, you're getting all of the oils of
skin and then last but not least grab your cherry and pop it in to the bottom
of the glass. Obviously you can stick it on a skewer if you like, but I quite like
it soaking in the drink and then that's my last mouthful, a lovely boozy and sour
cherry. A sweet Manhattan. So now you know!
