Stir everything with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail or coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Found on Charles H. Baker Jr.’s The Gentleman’s Companion. This is slightly elaborate twist on the classic Manhattan. Rye in place of bourbon, and two extra bitters to support drink. It’s the first time I’ve used celery bitters in a cocktail, which is often used in savoury drinks such as the Bloody Mary or Bullshot, but also contains flavours of citrus and ginger that complements the Angostura and orange. Often you will find Angostura been substituted by Peychaud’s or creole bitters, such as Robert Hess’ version and the one done by the Bitter Truth company. Instead of Angostura I’m using Bitter Truth’s Old Time Aromatic Bitters, it has a stronger clove aroma that I really adore, and it performs well in whiskey cocktails.
Stir everything with ice and strain into a chill cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon slice.
This is a combination of Manhattan and Metropolitan, not the modern Metropolitan which is a variation on the Cosmopolitan, but the classic version that’s basically a Manhattan made with brandy instead of whiskey. In old recipes the style of brandy and whiskey weren’t specified, so I presume you have the freedom to choose, later rye became the standard whiskey choice.
Stir everything with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Martini and Manhattan, the king and queen of cocktails. I prefer the latter. This was supposedly to have been invented in the Manhattan Club in New York City back in the 1870s.
Use bourbon or rye whiskey depending on if you like it sweeter or spicier.
2:1 is the classic ratio, also try out other ratios such as 3:1 and 5:1 etc.
Just like the Martini, Manhattan’s dryness can be classified into three categories: dry, medium (perfect), and sweet (wet). Dry Manhattan uses only dry vermouth; Medium Manhattan uses a mix of dry and sweet vermouth; and Sweet Manhattan is the original.
Garnish with a cherry for the sweet version; lemon twist for the drier versions.
Stir everything with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Created at Arnaud’s Restaurant. It’s a Rob Roy substituting Dubonnet for vermouth and orange bitters for Angostura. A nice combination of smokiness of scotch and frutinss of Dubonnet.
Stir this drink with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass.
Let’s start from the beginning, most of us are familiar with the Manhattan cocktail, it’s made with American whiskey (usually rye or bourbon) and sweet vermouth with a dash or two of bitters. A Rob Roy is a variation of the Manhattan that uses Scotch instead. And the Affinity is nothing more than a perfect Rob Roy. The term “perfect” does not refer to the quality of the drink, but rather describes the sweetness or dryness of it, in another word: medium. A medium cocktail always mean that both sweet and dry vermouths are used, often 50:50.
And this is the difference between the Affinity cocktail and a Rob Roy cocktail. Most bartenders nowadays would get these two mixed up, and thinking they are the same, but in fact Affinity is a little drier.
I prefer to garnish this drink with a lemon twist, release some citrus oil on the surface. According to an old rule: cherry for the sweet, lemon for the dry.
There are a few versions of this drink, some involves using sloe gin, but this is the most common version found in most bartending books. A delightful “whiskey-vermouth” style cocktail, the recipe resembles a Manhattan, except Irish whiskey is used in place of bourbon or rye, and a dash or two of absinthe was added. Be really cautious when using absinthe, a few drops of it is enough for the drink, too much can overpower the taste of whiskey, which should be the main flavour in this drink. Adding a few more dashes of Angostura won’t hurt. This should be a really smooth drink with a hint of absinthe.
