Want to Make a Better Manhattan? Start With These Whiskies

Food & Wine | Brian Freedman | January 10, 2024

[Excerpt]

For such a simple cocktail, the Manhattan inspires as much hand-wringing as any classic in the canon. Much of this is likely because of how many variations there are, even when sticking to the standard recipe of two parts whiskey, one part sweet vermouth, and a few dashes of bitters. Indeed, because there are only three main ingredients (in addition to the garnish, which also catalyzes heated debate…but that’s an entirely different discussion for an entirely different article), the selection of each of them has the potential to result in a drink that’s significantly different from one that utilizes other components.

Since this piece is all about the whiskey, however, it’s important to have a baseline against which those spirits will play. For the vermouth, let’s assume that you’re using (or your bartender is using) Carpano Antica Formula, which lends a sweet, almost root beer-ish spiciness to the cocktail. And for the bitters, let’s stick with the omnipresent-for-good-reason Angostura, whose woodsy spice notes are beloved.

What, then, should you choose for the whiskey, which is responsible for around two-thirds of the volume of the cocktail?

Rye is the classic selection, since its inherent spiciness tends to play well against the sweetness of the vermouth. It also is a historically accurate one, if you’re the kind of person who prefers to stick with cocktail orthodoxy. According to most sources, the Manhattan’s origins date back to the 1870s, when it was first crafted, and the early 1880s, when it first appeared in print. And while many early iterations of the recipe simply call for whiskey — as opposed to rye whiskey specifically — it’s generally assumed that that’s exactly what was typically used in practice.

[…]

Classic bourbon Manhattans are excellent as well. Some people add an additional dash of bitters so that the sweetness doesn’t dominate, whereas others keep the recipe as-is in order to allow the whiskey to shine — it’s a very personal decision […] Old Elk’s Wheated Bourbon […] make[s] for lovely, velvety Manhattans that are hard to resist.

Read the full article at foodandwine.com