AuthorThe Cocktails Must FlowCategoryAngostura Aromatic Bitters, Maraschino Cherry, Rye Whiskey, Sweet VermouthDifficultyBeginnerPopularly thought to have been created by Iain Marshall in the 1870s at The Manhattan Club, New York, the Manhattan combines rye whiskey with sweet vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters.
This is the official IBA recipe for the Manhattan.
Add ice to a mixing jug.
Add all ingredients to the mixing jug and stir until well chilled.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.
A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred then strained into a cocktail glass and garnished traditionally with a maraschino cherry. A Manhattan may also be served on the rocks in a lowball glass.
The whiskey-based Manhattan is one of five cocktails named for a New York City borough. It is closely related to the Brooklyn cocktail, which uses dry vermouth and Maraschino liqueur in place of the Manhattan's sweet vermouth, and Amer Picon in place of the Manhattan's angostura bitters.
The Manhattan is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's 1948 classic The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks.
Popular history suggests that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the mid-1870s, where it was invented by Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston) 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 to the name of the club where it originated—"the Manhattan cocktail". However, Lady Randolph was in France at the time and pregnant, so the story is likely a fiction.
However, there are prior references to various similar cocktail recipes called "Manhattan" and served in the Manhattan area. By one account it was invented in the 1860s by a bartender named Black at a bar on Broadway near Houston Street.
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. Byron describes two versions, one with French vermouth and the other with Italian. 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.[ 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."[ During Prohibition (1920–1933) Canadian whisky was primarily used because it was available.
[cocktail-ingredients]
Ingredients
Directions
Add ice to a mixing jug.
Add all ingredients to the mixing jug and stir until well chilled.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.