Manhattan (cocktail)

Manhattan

IBA official cocktail
A classic 2:1 Manhattan, made with a whisky, sweet vermouth, bitters and a cherry
Type	Cocktail
Base spirit	Whiskey
Served	Straight up: chilled, without ice
Standard garnish	Maraschino cherry
Standard drinkware	Cocktail glass
IBA specified ingredients†	50 ml Rye whiskey 20 ml Sweet red vermouth 1 dash Angostura bitters
Preparation	Pour all ingredients into mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Commonly served	Before dinner
Notes	Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
† Manhattan recipe at International Bartenders Association

A Manhattan is a

The whiskey-based Manhattan is one of five cocktails named for a New York City borough. It is closely related to the

The Manhattan is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's 1948 classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.

Origin and history

Popular history suggests that the drink originated at the

Some of the earliest records of the cocktail can be found in Charlie Paul's American and other Drinks and O.H. Byron's The Modern Bartender's Guide, both written in 1884. Paul describes it containing "three or four drops of angostura bitters, ditto of plain syrup; add half a liqueur glass of vermouth, half wine glassful of Scotch whiskey" and garnished with lemon.[9] Byron describes two versions, one with French vermouth and the other with Italian.^[10] Another early record of the cocktail can be found in William Schmidt's The Flowing Bowl, published in 1891. In it, he details a drink containing 2 dashes of gum (gomme syrup), 2 dashes of bitters, 1 dash of absinthe, 2⁄3 portion of whiskey, and 1⁄3 portion of vermouth.^[11]

The same cocktail appears listed as a "Tennessee Cocktail" in Shake 'em Up! by V. Elliott and P. Strong: "Two parts of whiskey, one part of Italian Vermouth, and a dash of bitters poured over ice and stirred vigorously."^[12]

During Prohibition (1920–1933) Canadian whisky was primarily used because it was available.^[13]

Traditions

On the small

Originally, bitters were considered an integral part of any cocktail, as the ingredient that differentiated a cocktail from a sling.^[16] Over time, those definitions of cocktail and sling have become archaic, as sling has fallen out of general use (other than in certain drink names), and cocktail can mean any drink that resembles a martini, or simply any mixed drink.

The following are other variations on the classic Manhattan:

• Black Manhattan – replaces vermouth with Averna amaro, add one dash orange bitters (in addition to one dash Angostura bitters). Created in 2005 at San Francisco bar Bourbon & Branch by bartender Todd Smith.^[17][18]
• Blonde Manhattan – made with 2 oz moonshine, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 0.5 oz orange liqueur, and 3 dashes of orange bitters.^[19]
• Brandy Manhattan – made with brandy instead of whiskey, and is very popular in Wisconsin.^[20]
• Cuban Manhattan – a perfect Manhattan (see below) with dark rum as its principal ingredient.^[21]
• Dean Lyder – a twist on the perfect Manhattan, made with orange bitters and zest, giving it a 'big, bold character'. It is named for Courtney Lyder, dean of UCLA School of Nursing.^[22]
• Dry Manhattan – made with dry vermouth instead of sweet vermouth, usually also replacing the maraschino cherry with a twist in keeping with the overall principle of reducing the cocktail's sweetness. A Manhattan made with dry vermouth but retaining the cherry rather than twist is sometimes known as a "half-dry Manhattan", but this name risks confusion with the perfect Manhattan, whose quantity of vermouth consists of equal parts sweet vermouth and dry vermouth.^[7]
• Fanciulli – adds the bitter flavors of Fernet-Branca.^[23]
• The Fourth Regiment – a classic (ca. 1889) cocktail that uses a 1:1 ratio of
  whiskey and vermouth, and uses three dashes of three different bitters – orange bitters, celery bitters, and Peychaud's Bitters.^[24]
• Metropolitan – similar to a brandy Manhattan, but with a 3-to-1 ratio of
  simple syrup.^[25]
• Perfect Manhattan – made with equal parts sweet and
  dry vermouth.^[7]
• Rob Roy – made with Scotch whisky.^[7]

• List of cocktails
• Vesper (cocktail)

References