The Cocktail Spirit with Robert HessBitters, and the Manhattan Cocktail
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Few drinks have been able to make the tortuous journey through American Prohibition and into the modern era unscathed by alterations, shortcuts, gimmicks, and obscurity. The Manhattan, retains a modicum of popularity, and is even made pretty much the same way it was back in the late 1800's when it first came onto the scene. Most notably, it is one of the few cocktails which you can still expect to be made with bitters.
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Recipe
Manhattan
- 2 oz American whiskey (rye or bourbon)
- 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.
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Comments
As you’ll come to see through future episodes of The Cocktail Spirit, bitters often play an important role in making cocktails. I have dozens of bottles of bitters at home, and unlike most of you, go through them quite regularly! :->
Great episode!
Love the part about the cherries.
Luxardo is exporting Marasca cherries into the U.S. as of a few months ago. My prefered treatment is to soak them in Maraschino liqueur. They are very distinctive.
Greg, glad you liked it and thanks for the tip about Luxardo, I’ll check with them to see if they are distributing in my area.
-Robert
Great episode, Robert! I was wondering if you were also aware of “The Boothby Cocktail” named and created by William “Cocktail” Boothby in San Francisco in 1908? I’m told it’s more or less a Manhattan (minus the twist of orange) with a Champagne float…
Well done episode, especially the coverage of the bitters. The Manhattan is one of my favorite winter cocktails but Iv’e been omitting the bitters, the next one will include them! Iv’e been using the Italian amarena cherries and reducing the amount of sweet vermounth with excellent results.
Hi Ted & Robert,
I’ve just finished putting up a complete copy of the 1907/1908 edition of William “Cocktail” Boothby’s The World’s Drinks & How To Mix Them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinah/sets/72157603645295415/
I have tagged all the recipe names so just search by name in my Flickr pictures and you should find what you’re after.
Nothing labeled “Boothby Cocktail” in this edition, so all I’ve got to go on is that San Francisco Chronicle article about the historical society presentation on it. Time for more Boothby scholarship, I say! Sic Wondrich on it, right?
- Dinah
Thanks Dinah… I’ll check with John Burton about the Boothby cocktail and see if I can get him to post some details here.
-Robert
Robert,
Watched this, went downstairs and followed your recipe exactly with Rittenhouse Bonded. Wow! It is a killer. I’m curious to know whether the various bitters you have available change the character much. Seems like Fee Peach Bitters would be awesome with Maker’s Mark.
Cheers!
Blair
Blair,
Using different bitters will add subtle differences to the final drink. I’ve never tried it with Peach bitters however, might be interesting.
-Robert
Re: Angostura Orange Bitters
I just heard back from Angostura USA, they said that their shipment is “on the water”, with expectations to reach the warehouse by the end of this month. He expects country wide distribution in April and May.
-Robert
Huzzah!
I believe this calls for a drink, eh?
The links to the video have been lost.
Do you mean the “download” link? Works fine for me…
Here is an interesting use of bitters: Food Guru - $50 Mac and Cheese
There ain’t no way I’d pay $50 for Macaroni & Cheese! An original Trader Vic Mai Tai, yes! But, mac & cheese, never!
Robert,
I don’t really have any other way of contacting you (I can’t find an e-mail address for you anywhere and Drinkboy.com is down). I have a question that maybe you can help me with. I bought a bottle of Fee’s Lemon bitters the other day from Kegworks and the shaker cap was stuck to the screw on cap. I pried it out of there with a knife, but now the shaker cap won’t attach to the bottle anymore. I don’t really know how I can attach it on there (I really don’t want to glue it). I could always transfer it to another bottle, but I don’t have one.
Any suggestions? Thanks.
Matt… a quick fix, would be to use a thin “sip straw” (which hopefully you have on hand). Simply dip the straw into the bottle of bitters, then cover the open/top end with your finger, and pull the straw out. This will extract some of the bitters as well. Then just hold this over your mixing glass or cocktail shaker and release your finger to release the bitters.
A better option, but one which will take some legwork, is to find a herbal/health store which sells empty “eye dropper” type of bottles, and then simply fill it with the bitters and use it to add bitters to your drinks.
As seeon on the “Traveling Mixologist” episode, I use such eye-dropper bottles to keep bitters with me when I think I might be out on the town and need some…
-Robert
Robert:
New to the show. I’m enjoying it very much. You do a great job exposing the details that turn a good drink into a great one. Your comment about the bitters was spot-on. The Manhattan is one of my favorites, and it’s consequently one of my “test drinks” at a new place or with a new bartender to gauge the talent behind the bar. I can always immediately tell if the bartender left out the bitters, and this tends to be the ingredient that determines whether the drink passes or fails the test for my palate, more-so than the choice of spirit.
As a fairly young boy (around 15 or so) I was introduced to mixing some classic cocktails by an old friend of my grandmothers, who recently passed away at the ripe old age of 92. His recipe for happiness and long life included a good cocktail, scotch, or whiskey, and the occasional puff of a fine cigar. At the time he taught me how to make some of these classics, (I was just barely sipping them to taste them, and not actually drinking them at my young age!) I didn’t care for them, but now, some 20 years later, I’m a big fan of these drinks.
This brings me to my question about a certain detail you didn’t cover in your making of the Manhattan: He always insisted on chilling the glass first with ice before pouring. I always still do this today, out of tradition, even though I don’t know why, and I’ve certainly had many Manhattans served both ways.
Since you are such a detail-oriented student and teacher of cocktails, I was wondering what your thoughts on the matter are.
Thanks.
Joel, a great Manhattan really is a thing of beauty, and one which we shockingly find so few bartenders that really understand. They usually just have “the” recipe which they’ve been told to use, without really understanding any of the ingredients that go into it, or the roles they (or the methods used) play. Sad…
As for chilled glassware…
My freezer contains just ice and cocktail glasses. Periodically the odd bit of frozen food might make an appearance, but since I never used processed frozen foods, and almost always cook with fresh vegetables, my glassware usually is the sole occupant. Which makes using properly chilled glasses ever-so-easy.
I SHOULD however spend some time talking about that in a future episode, as well as show using ice&water; to nicely chill glasses when pulled from the shelves. There are a couple episodes coming up where you’ll see me chilling down a glass, but I don’t think I really talk about it much.
-Robert
Re: Angostura Orange Bitters…
Just heard that the folks at KegWorks.com will be getting their first shipment of Angostura orange bitters in a couple of days. They are apparently getting the FIRST shipment in all the US… hope they ordered lots and lots of it!
-Robert
Robert-
I’m a recently-turned-21 young man trying to educate himself about cocktails, and I’ve found your site and these videos to be an absolutely wonderful way to start learning. Somewhat regrettably, however, being a college student in a rather small college town, none of the bars in my area truly deliver in the cocktail arena, meaning I really am mostly stuck to teaching myself. While this has its advantages (such as picking my own ingredients and making things the way I want them every time), it also means that I’m woefully uneducated about proper ordering protocol and what brands a decently stocked bar will carry.
To relate this to the Manhattan of this video, I’m going to be going on a trip to Vegas this summer, and am unsure what rye whiskey to ask for in my Manhattans in bars out there. What are they likely to have out there, or at least something that’s not so far out of the ballpark as to seem bizarre (the only rye available through my local liquor stores is Old Overholt, and while I like that, I don’t really know if it’s common)? Also, I find that I more often than not I prefer a Manhattan on the rocks over putting them in a cocktail glass (mostly because of mood and, I admit, I like the bulk of the glass in my hand as opposed to a cocktail glass. I know. I’m a philistine. I’ll work myself up to it in good time, I swear). Is this a faux pas in a bar? Finally, while I figure that a Manhattan is a fairly safe bet at any reasonably decent bar, do I run the risk of not getting any bitters in my drink? Do I need to specify? Thanks for any help you can give.
-Stefan
Stefan,
While the Manhattan was originally made with rye whiskey, these days it can be VERY hard to find a proper rye stocked in most bars (although it is getting easier). Often, when asked about their ryes, most bartenders will point to their Canadian whiskies, incorrectly thinking that those are true ryes.
Old Overholt is perhaps the most common rye today, and pretty good for the bargin price.
If you want to call your whiskey, and want it to be a rye (if possible) to boot, then the best way to do this would to order your Manhattan, and then ask the bartender what brands of American rye they have. Anything they they have will be pretty good, perhaps the only one I might shy from would be the Jim Beam rye. Sazerac, Old Overholt, Rittenhouse, Pikesville, are some of the brands you might see around, with some “upscale” bars carrying Pappy Van Winkle, and some other expensive brands.
For Vegas, I personally recommend stopping in at the bar at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. It’s a tad small and personal, and while the bartenders aren’t going to blow you away, they are very friendly, and love to chat about cocktails. Let them know I sent you. As I recall, they don’t have any rye however. But they do have Maker’s Mark, which is my default whiskey for a Manhattan.
And don’t worry about ordering it on the rocks, there isn’t anything wrong with that. I’ve got other friends who prefer theirs that way as well (are you listening gary?)
And as for bitters… I find that about 10% of the general bars don’t include bitters. I try to watch while it is being made, and if I don’t see them adding any bitters, I ask if they could add a dash. Even if you can’t get to that point until after the drink is poured, just have them put a couple dashes straight into the drink and then stir it up, easier if you are doing it on the rocks.
-Robert
If you add complexity through a spicier vermouth like Punt e Mes, you can make up for some of the shortcomings of whiskey like Jim Beam. Not likely to apply at the bar - any place with Punt e Mes will have better whiskey choices too, but handy if you want to mix something up while traveling. (See my The United Cocktail http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinah/2444085647/in/set-72157594314769876/ )
As with Robert, I find traveling with my own orange bitters is a good plan and one drop can save many a drink delivered to a table. At the very least, a dash in a glass of water can help settle your stomach and certainly makes mediocre tap water taste better.
Robert-
Thanks for the tips. I’ll definitely check into the Eiffel Tower’s bar. If I can’t get rye whiskey, maybe I’ll just switch to a perfect Manhattan to tone down the sweetness of the drink- just might be a good compromise.
And Dinah, carrying orange bitters doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all- in addition to the points you brought up, it’s probably easier than trying to get a martini with it anyway.
Thanks a lot!
Robert
I was watching Art of the Drinks podcast earlier today and i came a cross and they showed how they made their Manhattan. They were shaking them, I know from your podcast that you stir yours. other than the color and transparency in the cocktail and adding more water to the drink. Which method is better used, or would that be something a customer would need to specify?
Oh, don’t you DARE get me started on “Art of the Drink”, I was embarassed to watch their videos with Charlotte Voisey, and take somebody as talented as she is and make her appear to be yet another “bimbo of the week”... dang… I TOLD you not to get me started.
If you shake a Manhattan, you end up with a frothy head, and a visibly disgusting drink. There is a different texture to the drink as well. It just should not be done.
Today, the vast majority of bartenders shake everything. Frankly, shaking a drink gets it cold a lot quicker than stirring it, although the dilution is almost identical either way, and from a geeky tecnical standpoint, you should be able to get a drink “colder” by stirring instead of shaking.
But “speed” is the main reason I feel that most bartenders have adopted shaking instead of stirring, or more importantly, knowing which drinks are better stirred than shaken.
It’s sort of like going into a restaurant and having your food cooked by microwave. It heats your food a LOT quicker, but at a cost in many cases.
A bartender who realizes a Manhatten should be stirred, is a bartender who deserves a big tip!
I apologize for making you go on a rant. I know i read this some where or maybe watched it on a podcast, but is there a sort of standard on when you should shake it and when you should not? My understanding, and correct me if I am wrong on this, is when you are using juices or ingredients that are opaque, its ok to shake it. When all the ingredients are transparent like in the Manhattan you should stir it so it keeps that transparency. Is this right?
Sounds like you’ve been paying attention! :->
Yes, the basic rule regarding when to shake and when to stir, is that if your ingredients are clear, you should always stir, if you have anything cloudy, then you can go ahead and shake.
In my mind, it is never wrong to stir a cocktail, but it can sometimes be wrong to shake it.
-Robert
My wife and I had our last date night out for a while (baby’s due at the end of the month). We had a fantastic meal at Marcello’s in Lafayette. I also had my first Sazerac, the first American cocktail and the official cocktail of Alcoholic Disneyland (better know as New Orleans, La.). A very nice drink indeed. If you haven’t tried one yet I highly recommend it. If you decide to have a second one you may want to have a designated driver handy ‘cause it’s mostly rye whiskey. Incidentally, the J Pinot Gris I chased it with was quite tasty also. I’m going to bed now.
One thing I enjoy is pouring just a slight amount of the cherry juice into the cocktail before the stirring. It is almost unnoticeable but it adds just a little. . . something.
Thanks again Professor.
Great Drink and video! I was wondering the name and where you got the mixer with the built in strainer? That is nice!
@Scott S
I sometimes put a drop or two of cherry bitters…
Lawrence,
“...was wondering the name…” I assume you mean “wondering where the name came from”? It likely got it’s name from the “Manhattan Club” in… well… Manhattan New York. There were a variety of clubs serving cocktails, some of which took off, some didn’t. The whiskey, plus sweet vermouth, plus bitters, was apparently a drink that popped up in a few of these different clubs and was then referred to as being “name of club” cocktail. For whatever reason, it was the Manhattan Club’s moniker which stuck (or at least that’s the story I’ve heard).
As for the mixer… that is unfortunately an antique which I got on eBay. I absolutely love these oversized mixing glasses with integrated strainer like this. Most of the “cocktail pitchers” you get these days are just formed glass, sometimes with a lip, but rarely with anything t hold the ice back. I wish somebody would take a look at coming out with things like this again.
-Robert
Oops! Sorry my bad! I meant the name of the mixer/cocktail pitcher…lol Thanks for info on the Manhattan! I agree some of the “oldies” are still “goodies” its a shame these old items are not around anymore and wish, like you, someone would make some of the old classic glassware, shakers, mixers. etc…
Speaking of which, I found some 4 1/2oz and 5 1/2oz Champagne Coupe style stemware on the Anchor Hocking website, great looking stuff! better looking than the boring “v” and just the right size too…
Thanks again!
Robert,
First of all, thank you. You have revolutionized the way I look at alcohol in general. I really appreciate the pragmatic and classic, historical approach you have used to capture the essence of the cocktail. I also received a copy of Jerry Thomas book for Christmas which is quite interesting, and look forward to reading yours.
I was in need of some orange bitters to round out my home bar. Bitters have become hard to find in my area as of late, so I ordered a 3 pack of orange bitters from kegworks, and I am very pleased with all of them. In fact, I really enjoy the subtle differences each (Fee Bro’s, Regan’s, and Angostora) bring to the same drink. I don’t foresee myself flying through these bottles as fast as some, so my question is, can bitters go bad?
Thank you again,
ozarkbeatnik
Beatnik… well I think we just need to find you some more recipes which use orange bitters :-> Here is a link to the recipes on my DrinkBoy website: http://www.drinkboy.com/Spirits/Default.aspx?itemid=7
As for going bad… nope. Bitters should do quite well on your shelf for a long time. As illustrated my the many dusty bottles of Angostura that some bars seem to have. The only bitters I’d be cautious of would be the Blood Orange Bitters by Stirrings, they are non-alcoholic, and so they don’t have that to act as a preservative. I’d recommend keeping them in the fridge if you don’t use them regularly.