Science Of Drink

Today I want to toy with one of three classic variations of the Manhattan – the Perfect Manhattan. As we know, the Manhattan Cocktail has three well-known varieties – the Sweet Manhattan (basically a Manhattan. Actually, nobody names the Manhattan as the ‘Sweet’ Manhattan), the Dry Manhattan (with dry vermouth instead of sweet one) and the Perfect Manhattan. The pivotal point of the Perfect Manhattan lies in using an equal proportion of both vermouths instead of sweet vermouth. Incidentally, the name of the Perfect Manhattan seems open for debating and your approving depends upon preferable sweetness of the Manhattan.

I have paid attention to today’s first cocktail at Cheri Loughlin’s Blog – The Intoxicologist. The concept of the Rat Pack Manhattan is to improve the Manhattan with a help of the legendary French liqueur – Grand Marnier. It sounds quite interesting. In average Ukrainian conditions we have only two or, well, three cut-and-dried vermouths for the regular mixing. Thus an idea to support my regular Cinzano with one of my favorite aged liqueurs attracted me at first sight. It had made my mouth water and I went to surf (unfortunately, Cheri’s recipe is quite inaccurate, she avoids bitters, but as we know, the Manhattan always contains bitters). The appropriate recipe was founded at the diffordsguide.

The Rat Pack Manhattan sounds not quite delicious (or, frankly speaking, absolutely inedible). But really, rats have nothing to do with the Rat Pack Manhattan. Actually the Rat Pack was a group of American movie stars originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. The Rat Pack existed since 1950-s and in different time included among the partakers a number of famous actors and singers – Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. After the Bogart’s death the leader of the Rat Pack was Frank Sinatra (who was a notorious Dry Manhattan lover, by the way).

The Rat Pack Manhattan was created in 2000 by Wayne Collins at High Holborn, London, England. Forsooth all members of Rat Pack (apart from Joey Bishop) were dead by that time. Probably Wayne liked the Rat Pack and named the cocktail after it. As Simon Difford supposes, originally Wayne used different whiskies to represent each of the Rat Pack crooners. The wash of Grand Marnier was for Sammy Davis, the wild card of the bunch.

The Rat Pack Manhattan is a Perfect Manhattan with a little French twist.

Rat Pack Manhattan

15 ml Grand Marnier (for washing)
45 ml bourbon
20 ml vermouth sweet
20 ml vermouth dry
3 dash Angostura bitters
Coat a chilled cocktail glass with the liqueur and discard. Stir whiskey, vermouths and bitters with a lot of ice. Strain into the prepared glass and garnish with an orange twist and a maraschino cherry.

Admittedly, I should say that it is simply the Perfect Manhattan with bourbon. The minor savor of an orange is barely noticeable. Thus it is so restrained variation of the Manhattan. Perfect. In a true English style, you know.

More recently I decided to taste another Manhattan-like cocktail with Grand Marnier liqueur – the Boulevard (pretty often called as the Boulevard Manhattan). Actually the Boulevard Cocktail is rather similar to the Perfect Manhattan with Grand Marnier instead of sweet vermouth.

I have found a recipe of the Boulevard Cocktail at the diffordsguide also. As Simon supposes the Boulevard is an old classic cocktail with an unclear origin.

Boulevard (aka Boulevard Manhattan)

50 ml bourbon
25 ml dry vermouth
10 ml Grand Marnier
1 dash orange bitters
Stir all ingredients with a lot of ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a twist of an orange peel (discarded) and two maraschino cherries.

Crikey! The Boulevard is indeed a stunning cocktail! It’s like a harmonious jazz band of well-coordinated jazz stars. All ingredients – the whiskey, the vermouth, the liqueur and the bitters – play a perceptible role. The Boulevard Cocktail is a perfect citrus Manhattan. One of the most interesting things is an amazing play of two well-aged spirits – Grand Marnier and Makers Mark bourbon. The liqueur adds more noble notes of ageing to the bourbon. The notes of vanilla, candied fruits, especially orange, orange cake prevail in the nose and palate of the cocktail. The main palate of the cocktail is slightly dry with a lot of warm sweet savors. Undoubtedly, the Boulevard is an amazing cocktail though isn’t a Manhattan. The herbal part of the taste is so simple and too light as for the true Manhattan.

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Sorry, but this post is not available in English. But coming soon!

Now, we have a third S.I.P. – an exciting on-line event for Russian-speaking blogers-imbibers. If you are following my blog, you may know what the S.I.P. is something like a Russian-speaking MxMo. Previous two S.I.P. kindled the Russian-speaking mixosphere and gave rise to some new blogs. So we will see who will delurk at the today’s event!

The main topic of the S.I.P. is the Manhattan. That’s a coincidence! Actually, I have had the Manhattan time during the last two months. The Manhattan is my passion. No, I should define it more precisely, the Manhattan is my challenge. No other cocktail exhilarates me more than the Manhattan. The Manhattan is an absolutely magnificent cocktail with its own story, its unique composition and look.

A popular story about the creation of the Manhattan Cocktail tells that the Manhattan was created in 1874 by a Dr. Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Lady Randolph Churchill (born Jeanette Jerome, a daughter of a notorious New York’s tycoon Leonard Jerome), the mother of one of the most outstanding Brits. The banquet was organized at the Manhattan Club in honor of an electoral victory of Samuel J. Tilden – the Governor of New-York, a famous politician and a Leonard’s old friend. The cocktail was named after his birth-place.

Actually, I think, that Jeanette Jerome – a noted beauty and a member of New-York’s high society – was worthy to be a godmother of the Manhattan. But some notorious facts destroy the story. As a matter of fact, the banquet took place at the Manhattan Club, New-York, USA, on December 29, 1874. A very curious detail: as we know Sir Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, prematurely, at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England. In the second half of the XIX century there was only one way to cross the Atlantic – by boat and the voyage normally took about two weeks! It seems improbable for a woman, who just has given birth, to travel a distance of about 3000 miles and organize the banquet.

On the other hand, cocktail historian William Grimes specifies that Manhattan Club’s records indicate that the drink was invented there, but without noting of a precise date. He suggests that the banquet only popularized the Manhattan.

Thus, the New-York’s origin of the Manhattan Cocktail is absolutely specified. In fact, as some competent people say, New-York was a rye-drinking city in the XIX century. So, American rye whiskey is an authentic type of whiskey for the Manhattan. Both bourbon and brandy came in after the Manhattan gained popularity in some other states. But then Prohibition turned everything upside down, all was changed. During Prohibition, whiskey as well as other kinds of liquor was not produced. American whiskey was dead. But Manhattan was not. The Manhattan Cocktail obtained new fresh blood – the Canadian whisky. Actually, Canadian whisky, also called Canadian Rye Whisky, is quite a different type of whiskey. It has different maturing and blending methods but it makes use of similar to American whiskies raw materials – corn, rye, barley etc. Legal European bartenders and, of course, illegal bartenders of American speakeasies had a practice of using Canadian Rye in the Manhattan during the Prohibition. And it was then, I think, Canadian Rye Whisky became a third proper type of whiskey for the Manhattan.

Well, we know that the Manhattan is a truly American cocktail which consists of whiskey, vermouth and cocktail bitters. The Manhattan has three standard executions – properly speaking, the Manhattan (‘Sweet’ Manhattan), the Dry Manhattan (with dry vermouth instead of sweet vermouth) and the Perfect Manhattan (with both sweet and dry vermouths in it).

It seems toIt seems so simple. But actually the Manhattan has a great shade – potential which lies in using three pretty different types (-sic! Not trademarks, but three different types!) of whiskey. Vermouth also boasts a rich variety. And a range of cocktail bitters is unbelievably wide. It all makes a Manhattan quite a diverse cocktail though within a standard variation. Now I decide to devote the entry to my favorite recipes of three typical variations of the Manhattan. I am exploring each of these over and over again. The recipes below reflect my today’s vision of the Manhattan.

Manhattan

50 ml rye whiskey or bourbon
25 ml sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitter
Stir all ingredients in a mixer glass filled with ice cubes. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a red cocktail cherry.

Actually I prefer to use Canadian Whisky in my Manhattan. If I am in proper mood I use smooth and not very spicy bourbon. I regret to confess that I have only one bottle of American rye and do not use it in my Manhattans. Why? Because WILD TURKEY Rye 101 proof is an extremely powerful spirit and it easily kills my ordinary vermouths in the Manhattan. That result is categorically unsuitable for me. My Manhattan is about vermouth, not whiskey. The Manhattan, I am concerned with , is not the Old-Fashioned one . The idea of the Manhattan lies in pairing vermouth and whiskey and not in making whiskey easy to swallow.

My average Manhattan is a well-balanced, smooth and little spicy potation with some velvet bitterness. Properly made it is quite a libation.

My next Manhattan is the Dry Manhattan. When I say ‘dry’, it must be dry. I mean, a standard 2:1 version with dry vermouth instead of sweet is not dry enough for my palate. Therefore I use Embury’s proportions (5 : 1) for the Dry Manhattan:

Dry Manhattan

70 ml bourbon
14 ml dry vermouth
1 generous dash orange bitters
Stir all ingredients in a mixing-glass with a lot of ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Another important point is using orange bitters instead of Angostura for a great dry taste. I prefer using light bourbon like Four Roses in my Dry Manhattan.

My Dry Manhattan is a pretty dry cocktail. Not fabulous but dry enough. Both bitters and essential oils of lemon peel help drying the cocktail. The entry is dry with a hint of bourbon sweetness, the palate is dry and herbal, and the finish is complex with prevailing bitterness of citruses. My average Dry Manhattan is a well-balanced, dry and moderate cocktail.

Well, and now some words about the Perfect Manhattan. The next recipe I have borrowed from the one of my favorite cocktail book ‘Cocktails and Mixed Drinks’ by Anthony Hogg.

Perfect Manhattan

40 ml straight rye whiskey or Canadian rye whisky
20 ml dry vermouth
20 ml sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitter
Stir all ingredients with a lot ice in a mixer glass. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry and lemon peel.

Basically, the perfection of the cocktail lies in equal ratio between whisky and vermouths not in equal ratio between vermouths. My Perfect Manhattan is a herbalicious, well-balanced cocktail with moderate spiciness. Actually the balance of it is quite close to my average Manhattan. It is the golden mean of Manhattans. By the way I often prefer the Perfect Manhattan with Peychaud’s bitters instead of Angostura. It gives yet another kind of bitterness, you know.

Finally let me make a short brief:

1. Rye you must. But Canadian whisky works quite well too.

2. Good vermouth makes a good Manhattan. A crap makes a crap. Cinzano works.

3. No Manhattan without bitters. But I mean bitters in quite a wide sense. Palatable bitters sometimes work as good as cocktail bitters, but the Angostura is that will do.

4. Do not shake the Manhattan, it will bruise an excellence.

5. Garbage in, garbage out. And, one drop of poison infects the whole tun of wine. There is no place for any drop of chemical cherry juice in the Manhattan. So, macerate your own cocktail cherries or wash well commercial cherries for garnishing good Manhattans.

6. It seems ’so bitter’ for you? Leave it and leave me alone!

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I have shaken off my unexpected ailment to be back to shaking cocktails again. My passion – Manhattan – took a two week holiday while I was being shaken by fever. Yet my new old infatuation with Manhattan found its way around and became the topic of our next S.I.P. Isn’t that great!

Well, now then, I am back to my Manhattan project in which I am exploring a very interesting idea – the use of exotic Italian liquor called amaro instead of trivial sweet vermouth. Amaro is a kind of strong herbal liquor made on the neutral spirit base. A composition of most Amaro drinks is rather complex. It includes dozens of different spices and herbs.

Some time ago I posted about my exhilarating experience with Amaro used as an ingredient in Fernet Cocktail. Actually, Fernet is the strongest variety of Amaro. Believe me, Fernet cocktail with rye whiskey makes quite a potion. The spiciness of rye on a par with the herbal strength of fernet makes magic.

Frankly speaking, what I really want to try next in my Manhattan is a certain kind of amaro –sweet and rich Amaro Felsina Ramazzotti. A quick web search is made which brings to me two lovely recipes. The former is an old MxMo post by Stevi Deter who describes the almost flawless Purosangue cocktail – an interesting concoction of Ridgemont Reserve 1792 bourbon with Amaro Ramazzotti. And the latter is nothing but Black Manhattan, the recipe of which was given in the “Washington Post”. It recommends to use Amaro Averna and rye as ingredients. However I would rather take Amaro Ramazzotti instead.

Black Manhattan

50 ml bourbon or rye whiskey
25 ml Amaro Ramazzotti
1 dash Angostura bitter
Stir all ingredients with a lot of ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

I have tried Black Manhattan with different kinds of whiskey – American bourbon whiskey (Jim Beam Black) and several Canadian whiskeys (unfortunately I am still constrained to use Canadian whisky instead of most authentic rye).I have got a perfect result with my new Canadian whisky – Black Velvet Reserve 8 y.o. This very smooth whisky with delicate rye spiciness works very well with sweet and herbal Amaro Ramazzotti. The use of bourbon also produces a good effect.

The Black Manhattan Cocktail is a thoroughbred Manhattan. It possesses a bitter-sweet taste with herbal and whiskey notes. It also has a long-lasting aftertaste too. It is awesome Manhattan with great look – the color of this Manhattan is almost black. With its black colour it is as elegant as Armani in his hey-day :)

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My new passion is Manhattan. Manhattan is old and classic cocktail with american whiskey (bourbon or rye), sweet vermouth and cocktail bitters. One of the key ingredient of the good Manhattan is vermouth. Unfortunately we have very pour range of vermouth in Ukraine now. There are available Martini, Cinzano and somewhere Gancia. But we have another way to vary our Manhattan expirience – to use Dubonnet instead vermouth in this magnificient cocktail.

The vermouth is fortified wine vwith aromatic plant extract. Dubonnet is fortified sweet wine with hint of quinquina. It is so similar stuff.

The first recipe of Dubonnet Manhattan was founded at CocktailDB. It is so similar to Dubonnet Cocktail with whiskey instead gin.

Dubonnet Manhattan

35 ml bourbon or rye whiskey
35 ml Dubonnet Rouge
Stir in mixing glass with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

First I try this cocktail with bourbon whiskey. I use Maker’s Mark handcrafted bourbon.

The Dubonnet Manhattan Cocktail is realy very good. This cocktail has very interesting taste with sweet muscat entry with a lot of fresh grapes and fruits, so sweet and smooth palate and great bourbon finish. I try this cocktail with canadian whisky also. The result is quite different. The main palate is sweet wine with a hint of whisky. But both of this cocktails are not Manhattan, actually.

Another recipe of Dubonnet Manhattan I found at the great Intoxicologist’s post Make Mine a Manhattan Holiday. This cocktail contain some dry vermouth for good balance.

Dubonnet Manhattan #2

50 ml bourbon
20 ml Dubonnet Rouge
7 ml vermouth dry
3 dash Angostura bitters
Stir in mixing glass with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist and cocktail cherry.

Actually this recipe is promo for Evan Williams bourbon and american Dubonnet (both crafted by Heaven Hill). I use Four Roses bourbon and french Dubonnet Rouge. Also I use only 1 my big dash of Angostura for good balance.

The cocktail is excellent! It is very good Manhattan recipe. Dubonnet Rouge and Martini Extra Dry work very well together. The result is great sweet “vermouth” taste. The Dubonnet Manhattan #2 has smooth very good balanced and round piquant taste with main bourbon palate. It is admirable Manhattan!

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Angostura bitter is hard available in the Ukraine. But Angostura bitter is essential ingredient of the famous Manhattan. Manhattan is truly magnificient cocktail. As Garry Regan wrote in they The Joy of Mixology Manhattan is King of Cocktail. Actually we can make acquaintance with Manhattan with help of two very interesting special variations.

The Special Manhattan Cocktail was found at the CocktailDB. It contain Campari Bitter instead Angostura.

Special Manhattan Cocktail

50 ml whiskey
25 ml sweet vermouth
7 ml Campari
Stir well with a lot of ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with cocktail cherry.

Actually a proper whiskey in Manhattan are american whiskeys like rye whiskey or bourbon, but you may substitute with canadian whisky with apropriate results.

I tasted several combinations with all of my canadian whisky – Canadian Club, Black Velvet and my favorite Crown Roal De Luxe. Also I use two of my sweet vermouths – Martini & Rossi Rosso and Cinzano Rosso. IMHO Martini Rosso vermouth is not great choice for both cocktails. The Cinzano works well in both.

The Special Manhattan Cocktail is great man’s drink. It is connoisseur’s choice. This cocktail is too similar to original Manhattan. It is strong bitter sweet and complex cocktail with aromatic profile. The bitternes of this two cocktails are so different.

Our next cocktail is Esquire Manhattan. This cocktail was created by D. Wondrich for Manhattan Experience Contest. This Manhattan contain Fernet-Branca instead of Angostura.

Esquire Manhattan (Эсквайр Манхэттен)

50 ml bourbon
25 ml sweet vermouth
12 ml Fernet-Branca
Stir well with a lot of ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and add a orange twist.

Original recipe prescribe Woodford Reserve bourbon and Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth.

The Esquire Manhattan is great cocktail. It has strong bitter-sweet taste with great bourbon palate. The bitter finish are very interesting with a lot of herbal bitter notes of Fernet-Branca. It is great Manhattan expirience.

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This cocktail I found at the Mandarine Napoleon promo-site. Actually I doubt promo-cocktails but in this case it is sounds great.

Mandarine Old-Fashioned

25 ml Mandarine Napoleon liqueur
25 ml premium bourbon
1-2 dash Angostura bitter
a piece of orange peel
Put orange peel and bitter into old-fashioned glass. Add some liqueur and bourbon, add one large ice cube and stir. Then add another liquors and second large ice cube. Stir and serve.

The Mandarine Old-Fashioned is truly magnificient cocktail. I use one of my favorite premium bourbon – Maker’s Mark. The results are great. Strong but extremely smooth taste with great bourbon and fresh citrus palate. Taste and aroma are so complex and delightful. The Mandarine Napoleon liqueur and this cocktail are highly recommended to consume :)

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The Boulevardier Cocktail was introduced for me by Eric Elestad. I read about this cocktail at his perfect blog – Underhill Lounge. His specify that The Boulevardier is more better cocktail than tasted Old Pal. And now I collected a few bottle of perfect bourbon whiskey and ready to taste some interesting.

The story of Boulevardier Cocktail conected (as Ted Haigh in his Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails specify) with name of Erskine Gwynne – expatriate writer, socialite (I like this word!) and nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt, which edited a magazine The Paris Boulevardier circa 1930. The Boulevardier was his signature drink. This cocktails was rirst mentioned in Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone (1927).

First I atsted the adapted version from the Ted Haigh’s book:

The Boulevardier

45 ml bourbon whiskey
30 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml Campari
Stir all ingredients long and well with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

I use the Four Roses Bourbon and Cinzano Rosso for my first Boulevardier. It is so good and interesting cocktail. But it is not ideal. The Boulevardier cocktail has bitter-sweet taste with some hints of bourbon. I decide to taste the authentic proportions of the Boulevardier Cocktail from Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone.

Boulevardier aka Bourbon Negroni

25 ml bourbon
25 ml sweet vermouth
25 ml Campari
Stir all ingredients long and well with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass.

The Boulevardier Cocktail aka Bourbon Negroni is great and magnificient cocktail. It has rich and complex palate with notes of sweet herbs, citrus fruits and bourbon.

Also I try the Old Pal Cocktail with rye whiskey instead canadian:

Old Pal

25 ml rye whiskey
25 ml dry vermouth
25 ml Campari
Mix well with a lot of ice. Strain into fancy cocktail glass.

This cocktail is not bad bad no great. It has so bitter taste with herbal pakae of vermouth and Campari and spicy taste of rye whiskey. The Boulevardier is my choice from this two cocktails.

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The Mint Julep is very old mixed drink. The word “julep” is derived from Arabic word gulab – a sweet syrupy drink in which medicine was given in the past. First recording about julep as alcoholic beverage flavored with mint was in 1787.

The Julep was born somewhere in South of USA – in Maryland, Virginia or North Carolina in the early to mid 1700s. The author of this cocktail is unknown. The Modern Mint Julep with bourbon was born in second half of the XIX century somewhere in Kentucky.

The Modern Mint Julep is cocktail consist of bourbon, sugar, mint and water.

Mint Julep

dozen of fresh tender mint leaf
1-2 bsp. sugar
1-2 tsp. water
75-90 ml bourbon
Delicate bruise mint, sugar and water on the bottom of frosted old-fashioned glass (or, preferable, silver or pewter julep cup) than add crushed ice and little of bourbon and swirl the drink until glass frosted. Than add more bourbon and ice, garnish with sprig of mint.

Use frosted glassware, very cold and dry crushed ice and bonded (over-proof) bourbon for great results. Also use metal (silver or pewter traditionally) cups for great look.

The properly made Mint Julep is gorgeous drink with great balanced smooth sweet and strong taste. It is so strong, very strong cocktail with power kick. The main palate of Mint Julep is spicy bourbon and mint sweetness.

The Old-Fashioned Cocktail is genuine cocktail. Actually, as Jerry Thomas suppose, cocktail is mix of strong spirit, bitter, sugar and water. Consequently the old-fashioned is the cocktail. Whiskey cocktail. Simple but famous and great.

The Old-Fashioned Cocktail was created in the Pendennis Club in Loisville, Kentucky circa 1890. This cocktail consist of whiskey (bourbon as a rule or rye), cocktails bitter (Angostura is common), sugar and water. The standart recipe and preparation is follows:

Old-Fashioned

1 sugar cube (or 1-2 bsp. of simple syrup)
1-3 dash Angostura bitter
1 tsp. water
50 ml bourbon (or rye whiskey)
Place sugar cube on the bottom of an old-fashioned glass (or pour simple syrup). Soak the sugar cobe with bitters and carefully muddle it. Add some water and stir. Than add some whiskey and stir. Than add two (only two!) large (very, very large!) cubes of ice. Fill the glass with more whiskey and stir. Garnish with a lemon peel.

You may add some dash curacao or Cointreau in your Old-Fashioned Cocktail (optional).

Actually the Old-Fashioned Cocktail is gobsmacked palate-paralysing drink. Absolutely idiosyncratical cocktail. And I love it!

Next great thing about Old-Fashioned Cocktail is the question. To muddle or not to muddle? :) Some barman (DeGroff for example) prefer to muddle some fruits (as a common – piece of orange and maraschino cherry) for yours Old-Fashioned. Some purists deny.

Old-Fashioned (Muddled)

1 sugar cube (or 1 tsp. simple syrup)
1-3 dash Angostura bitter
1 piece of orange
1 maraschino cherry
1 tsp. of water
50 ml bourbon
In the bottom of an old-fashioned glass carefully muddle the sugar cube, bitter, orange slice and cherry with splash of water. Remove the fruit husks. Add the ice and whiskey, stir. Garnish with orange slice and red maraschino cherry.

Yoг may also muddle some pineapple cubes.

The muddled Old-Fashioned is another Old-Fashioned Cocktail. It has interesting and delicious fruit and whiskey taste. It has great look. But it has not the charisma :) or power… But it is delicious, whatever!