How to Make a Manhattan | Cocktail Recipes

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Recipe: 2-Â_ oz Rittenhouse Rye; Â_ oz Sweet Vermouth; 2 dashes Angostura Bitters. Stir and serve straight up. Garnish with 2 cherries on a pick.

I’m going to show you how to make a drink that’s about as classic as classic can get, the Manhattan. Manhattan dates back to about the 1860’s a long time ago when it was invented; when vermouth came over from Europe to America and then American’s being the cocktail innovators that they were, decided to mix it with their favorite cocktail ingredient, whiskey; and the Manhattan was born. So we’re going to start by using our base whiskey, two and a half ounces of rye whiskey.

I’m using rye whiskey as opposed to bourbon, which is what a lot of people use to make Manhattans. I’m using rye, because it’s historically accurate for one, back in the 1860’s rye was a little more popular than the bourbon. So that ‘s how the Manhattan was originally made. I also think it makes a little bit of a better drink, because rye is made of 51% rye grain, by law as opposed to bourbon, which is 51% corn. So bourbon is a little sweeter whereas rye is a little bit sharper and I think comes through better in the drink.

But if you prefer bourbon Manhattan’s don’t let me stop you. So that’s two and a half ounces of rye whiskey and now the vermouth. I’m going to do three-quarters of an ounce vermouth. And again, the proportions; you know if you prefer something that’s a little more whiskey forward or maybe something with a little more vermouth in it; feel free to take some liberties. These are just general guidelines.

Three-quarters ounce vermouth, an important note about vermouth, is that you really should refrigerate it once it’s been opened. Even though it’s been fortified with a little bit of alcohol it’s still wine-based, so it will oxidize like wine and it will go bad. Since we only use three-quarters to an ounce at a time, it takes a long time to move through an entire bottle of vermouth, so remember keep your vermouth in the fridge or else it will go bad.

And now our final ingredient, just a three ingredient drink, about as easy as it gets is our bitters. This is angostura bitters, definitely the most common bitters that you’ll find. You can even buy them in most bodega’s, which is funny because they actually are 44.7% alcohol, higher proof than a lot of whiskeys, and any kid can buy them. So if you see a kid chugging angostura bitters, tell them that you’re on to them. But I don’t know why you’d do that, because I do not recommend drinking these by themselves.

They don’t call them bitters for nothing. So now two dashes of bitters; one, two. Whoa, blow back. Again, we’re making drinks, we’re also making a mess. Okay, now we’re done and we’re going to stir this cocktail. Because all the ingredients are alcoholic, so we don’t need to shake it, because we don’t need to force the ingredients together as much.

We just need to kind of gently coax them into mingling, if you will. And you can really fill it up with a lot of ice. I like to have the ice sort of just above the level of the drink, so that it really gets in there. Now when you’re stirring you’re doing two things. You are chilling and diluting at the same time. And you’re not stirring kind of like you’re stirring cake batter, you know? It’s just gently gliding around the outside of the glass, and stirring takes time to perfect, so it’s effortless when you’re making cocktails.

I mean I used to go home, and just stir water and ice after work, and try to perfect it. Until it got to the point where it was effortless. So don’t feel bad if it doesn’t look as sexy as this. About 20-25 seconds of stirring should do it and now it’s time to strain our drink. i put a glass in the freezer, so it’ll get nice and cold, and keep this freezing drink, freezing.

All right, nice, frosty glass. All right and for our garnish, we’re going to use a cherry. These are the best cherries you can buy. They’re called Luxardo cherries. They’re a lot better than your normal maraschino cherry. They’re expensive, but totally worth. And with our garnish we are done and that is how you make a Manhattan.