Science Of Drink

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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About year ago one my friend presented me a bottle of NARDINI Fernet Amaro. I was intrigue by this black stylish bottle very much. Actually Italian amaro and fernet are one of my favorite local European beverage. Fernet is a strong type of amaro – herbal liqueur with bitter taste. Now I have two bottle of Fernet in my liquor cabinet – the weel-known Fernet Branca and NARDINI Fernet. The B.^LO NARDINI Distilleria a Vapore is famous Italian manufacturer of grappa. This distillery is one of the oldest in Italia. This distillery also produce some kind of traditional Italian liquor – Amaro, Fernet etc. The NARDINI Fernet is very quality and interesting product thus I decide to teste it in Fernet Cocktail.

The very interesting recipe of the Fernet I found at the CocktailDB. The main interest of this recipe is possibility of variation the base spirit. Some time ago I tested the Fernet Cocktail in brandy version. Now I will taste this cocktail with cognac and rye whiskey. It is very interesting for me as I am big fernet fun.

Fernet Cocktail

35 ml cognac or rye whisky
35 ml fernet
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 dashes gum syrup
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon zest.

The Fernet Cocktail with NARDINI Fernet and Hennessy VSOP Cognac is brilliant cocktail with deep bitter-sweet very smooth palate. It is excellent cocktail.

Hereafter I explore this cocktail with rye whiskey. Actually the Fernet cocktail with whiskey is so similar with Manhattan with fernet instead sweet vermouth. The sweetness add with sugar syrup.

I try my authentic rye whiskey – WILD TURKEY Rye and it habitual substitute – canadian whisky (I use cheap Black Velvet). The cocktail with WILD TURKEY is great! The powerfull drink with compose palate of whiskey spicy taste and bitterness of fernet. The cocktail with canadian whisky is so unsophisticated predictably. But it is so interesting drink too. It has bitter-sweet herbal taste of fernet with spicy whisky notes in the finish. No so bad!

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This awesome cocktail has strange name with mysterious etymology, great story and elegant old-school composition – main alcohol (gin), vermouth and Ferne-Branca as bitter. The story of Hanky Panky Cocktail related to Ada Coleman – famous head-barman of Savoy Hotel and actor Charles Hawtrey. You may read great post about this cocktail on the LUPEC-Boston, one of my favorite cocktail-blog.

I prepared Hanky-Panky Cocktail (recipe courtesy of John Gertsen).

Hanky Panky Cocktail

50 ml gin
20 ml sweet vermouth
8 ml Fernet-Branca
Stir. Cocktail glass, garnish with an orange peel.

Great evening cocktail with well-balanced taste – dryness and botaniс of gin, sweetenes and herbal vermouth, bitternes and compose of Fernet-Branca. Great composition for real connoisseur.

This very interesting cocktail was found in the Coctails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg. Elegant and delicious composition of brandy and Fernet-Branca. Actually, Fernet-Branca is my favorite palatable bitter.

Fernet Cocktail

35 ml brandy
35 ml Fernet-Branca
1 dash Angostura
2 dash rich sugar syrup (2:1)
Stir. Cocktail glass, garnish with a twist of lemon peel.

Awesome cocktail!

This cocktail probably named in honor of first artificial satellite of Earth – Sputnik. Sputnik-1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now at the Baikonur Cosmodrome).

The recipe of Sputnik Cocktail was founded on Cocktail DB. Elegant mix of vodka, Fernet Branca and lemon juice balanced with sugar sound interesting. Another recipe of Sputnik Cocktail with cream, oranje juice, vodk and peach schnapps is totaly shit.

Sputnik Cocktail

45 ml vodka
15 ml Fernet Branca
15 ml fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp sugar
Shake. Cocktail glass.

The Sputnik Cocktail has interesting bitter taste. It is great aperitif. Admirable cocktail for real imbiber.