Like all good cocktails, the Manhattan has a je ne sais quoi, an insouciance, a devil-may-care attitude about it. (It really was a great pick as the Mad Men cocktail.) It is also infinitely variable.
The traditional recipe is:
1 oz Rye or Canadian
2 oz sweet red vermouth
a couple of dashes of Angostura
garnish with a maraschino cherry.
Alas the maraschino cherry in America, outside of NYC and Joisey is not the animal of the hinterland. I therefore avoid it, unless I can get the real Italian maraschino, which is more flavourful, less sweet and has a poignant bitter finish.
I also tend to make mine with closer to the whiskey lover version 1:1 whisky to vermouth.
Note that Alberta Premium is a pure, 100 per cent rye. No barley, no corn, no wheat, no artificial additives of any sort. And if you’re my kind of drinker, you’ll use the 30 year old to make the drink.
There’s nothing like a real mixed drink made with the best ingredients.
Lately I’m a convert to Stock red vermouth.