Science Of Drink

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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The Deshler Cocktail attract my attention at the one interesting cocktail bolg with good fotos – . . Cocktails with M . . – Adventures with (Mostly) Vintage Cocktails. The autor of this blog like old and classic cocktail and thi is very close to me. Now I explore many cocktail with Dubonnet – the Deshler among them.

The Deshler Cocktail is so old and rare cocktail. It name derived from name of famous lightweight pugilist Davide W. Deshler Jr. I found this cocktail in two my cocktail books – The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff и The Essential Bartender`s Guide by Robert Hess. The recipes are different. It seems that recipe from The Essential Bartender`s Guide by Robert Hess is original. The same recipe contain the CocktailDB. I hope this recipe is equal to first printed in Recipes for Mixed Drinks by Hugo Enslin. The Dale’s version look like modern adoptation. I decide to try both variations.

The original type of whiskey for Deshler Cocktail is rye whiskey. The most common substitute of so rare american rye whiskey is blended canadian whisky. Actually is so different kind of whiskey but they have some similar characteristics – spiciness above all.

First of all I try old formula of the Deshler Cocktail:

Deshler

30 ml rye
20 ml Dubonnet Rouge
1 tsp. Cointreau
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
1 orange twist
1 lemon twist
Stir all ingredients (yes, with twists) with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel.

The first Deshler was mixed with WILD TURKEY 101 Rye. It is magnificient cocktail with great whiskey palate. The rye absolutely dominate in the drink. Another ingredient has minor notes only – some vine notes of Dubonnet, hint of orange from Cointreau, some bitterness from Peychaud’s. Main palate is powerfull spiciness of rye. Great cocktail!

As rye substitute I try two ordinary blended canadian whisky – Black Velvet and Canadian Club. The results are not awesome but very interesting. This cocktail with ordinary product is great demonstration of mixology goal – to improve drink. Both cocktails has so sweet vine entry, spicy whisky palate and so citrus finish with a pleasant bitterness. Great cocktails too!

In second I try modern version of Deshler Cocktail from The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff. This cocktail is so close to another classic cocktail with Dubonnet – the Dandy Cocktail (see The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock or it’s web-monument for details).

Deshler Cocktail (Dale’s DeGroff var.)

35 ml Dubonnet Rouge
35 ml rye
1 tsp. Cointreau
dash of Angostura bitters
Shake. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel.

Actually the shaking of this mix is a grand mistake. This method ruine this cocktail completely. Both modern Deshler (with canadian whisky and with rye whisky) are so poor (but cocktail with rye has great aftertaste) with unplesant sharp bitterness in finish. Certainly, the modern Deshler is not very bad but it is no so good as original.

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