Drinking Manhattans is a deliciously boozy experience. It’s an elegant drink. Even if you’re wearing cargo shorts, white slippers, and tube socks at a dock bar in Dunedin at eleven in the morning. Even if you find yourself blinking in the bright white heat blowing in off the gulf of Mexico. You kind of feel like you’re in a tuxedo at a New York whiskey bar and here’s the thing:
Drinking Manhattans is top-shelf behavior. It indicates to your friends and the other people at the bar: here is a contender. This person is not to be fucked with. Here be dragons.
Ingredients in a Manhattan drink:
This is how a Manhattan is made:
The classic Manhattan is made with rye whiskey because rye is a little more street than Bourbon. This inherent bad-boy quality means that rye is not as smooth as Bourbon, which is the perfect quality to balance against the Vermouth, which is sweet and soft.
What kind of drink is a Manhattan? It’s more than just whiskey. It’s a date in a glass. The rye is a hot mess Magic Mike from the Bronx. The vermouth is a smoldering Italian princess from the Jersey shore. Alone, they’re hot trash magnets. You’d never even give them a ride home. But put them together with the magic of those bitters, and a chemical wedding elevates them. They go from bad reality stars to pure Hollywood rom-com in the first sip. Suddenly he’s Idris Elba in a tux, and she’s Anya Taylor-Joy wearing a black strapless thing that’s more like fog than fabric, and they’re at a dark bar, and there’s a band playing accessible jazz from 1953. That’s what’s in a Manhattan.
In the classic Manhattan recipe, bourbon is not the main liquor. But you can still make a Bourbon Manhattan drink. It’s ok. Just like the strangely written sentences in this article, which have been used entirely for their enduring long-tail SEO qualities and not for the rhythm of their scintillating syntax, your ingredients for your Manhattan are beyond reproach.
Making a Manhattan cocktail is easy.
You can put it in the freezer for half an hour, or you can load it with ice and some cold water while you make the cocktail. Toss it out when you’re ready to pour.
If you don’t have a cocktail pitcher, your mixer or a large container will work.
Pour the ingredients into the pitcher over the ice. The order doesn’t matter, but an argumentative mixologist will insist you start with the whiskey.
But don’t get all crazy. Just stir the cocktail ingredients until they are very, very cold. About one and a half minutes.
Remember to throw the ice and water into the sink!
A Luxardo Maraschino cherry dropped into the bottom is pretty classy. But any cherry will do. Remember to hold the glass by the lowest part of the stem when you serve it. This preserves the chill on the glass and ensures it looks great when you slide it across the counter to your date.
Are Manhattans a girl’s drink?
No, you moron. Go read this.
What glass should we use when drinking Manhattans?
A coupe is required for the classic recipe. If you don’t like coupes or you don’t have one, then a rocks glass will work.
What liquor do I use for a Manhattan? Bourbon or Rye?
Rye is the original ingredient, but Bourbon works just fine. A lot of people prefer a bourbon Manhattan because most Bourbon has wheat in the mash bill, so they are softer.