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.
Thanks for all the great information James. I cut out your S.P. column awhile back about Cognac because I had never tried Cognac and knowing that I would be in the states at Christmas, thought I could get a good deal there. I’m in San Diego right now and Costco has the Remy Martin’s but they only have several xo’s, which you didn’t write about. Are these better than VSOP or VS?