A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitter. The cocktail is often stirred with ice and strained into a cocktail glass where it is garnished with a maraschino cherry on a stem.
“A popular history suggests that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s, where it was invented by Dr. Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston’s mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet made the drink fashionable, later prompting several people to request the drink by referring to the name of the club where it originated—”the Manhattan cocktail.” However, Lady Randolph was in France at the time and pregnant, so the story is likely a fiction. The original “Manhattan cocktail” was a mix of “American Whiskey, Italian Vermouth and Angostura bitters”.
“An early record of the cocktail can be found in William Schmidt’s “The Flowing Bowl”, published in 1891. In it, he details a drink containing 2 dashes of gum, 2 dashes of bitters, 1 dash of absinthe, 2/3 portion of whiskey and 1/3 portion of vermouth.”
The Manhattan After Dark is twisted take on the classic cocktail, using rye whiskey, Amaro, and Lillet Rouge.
The basic “material” – whisky. The best is to use rye whisky!
An important component of this cocktail is Lillet Rouge – it substitutes Vermouth rosso from the classic Manhattan recipe.
Bitter is a natural cocktail flavoring. There are plenty of them but the most-used one is Angostura bitter. We used Bob’s Bitter in this Manhattan After Dark.
It is important to mix the drink intensely in a mixing glass or in a jug with ice.
Strain the drink to a Coupe glass (as in the picture) or a Martini glass to get rid of the ice. Garnish with amareno cherry.