The Manhattan is whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters, three ingredients and one of the most important cocktails ever made. Its story has been embellished for more than a century, so let’s sort out what’s true.
The story everyone tells
The famous version says the Manhattan was invented at New York’s Manhattan Club in 1874, at a banquet thrown by Lady Randolph Churchill, the former Jennie Jerome, for the newly elected governor Samuel Tilden. It’s a great story and almost certainly false. In November 1874, Jennie Jerome was in England, giving birth to her son Winston.
What we actually know
The drink was clearly popular in New York by the early 1880s. Newspapers mention the “Manhattan cocktail” in 1882, and it appears in print in bartender’s guides by 1884, including O.H. Byron’s The Modern Bartender’s Guide and, soon after, Harry Johnson’s manual. A New York bartender named William Mulhall, who worked for decades at the famous Hoffman House bar, wrote in 1923 that the Manhattan was invented in the 1860s by a man named Black who kept a bar on Broadway near Houston Street. That’s as close to a credited inventor as we’re likely to get.
Early Manhattans were often made with more vermouth than whiskey, a lighter drink than today’s. Over the 20th century the balance flipped. Rye was the original whiskey, and during Prohibition and after, when rye nearly disappeared, Canadian whisky and bourbon took over. Rye has come back, and it’s what most bartenders reach for today.
How to make a great one
The Manhattan
Ingredients
- 2 oz rye whiskey (or bourbon)
- 1 oz sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Garnish
A brandied cherry, such as Luxardo, or an orange twist
Instructions
- Combine everything in a mixing glass with plenty of ice.
- Stir for about 30 seconds, until very cold.
- Strain into a chilled coupe or Nick and Nora glass.
Notes
Keep your vermouth in the fridge. It's wine, and it goes stale within a few weeks of opening. Rye gives a spicier, drier drink; bourbon a rounder, sweeter one.
- Stir, don’t shake. Shaking clouds the drink and adds air. A Manhattan should be silky and clear.
- Chill the glass. Fill it with ice water while you stir.
- Use good vermouth. It’s a third of the drink. Carpano Antica, Cocchi di Torino, and Dolin Rouge each make a different Manhattan.
The Manhattan family
- Perfect Manhattan: split the vermouth between sweet and dry.
- Dry Manhattan: dry vermouth only, often with a lemon twist.
- Rob Roy: made with Scotch, created in 1894 at the Waldorf Hotel in New York, named after an operetta.
- Black Manhattan: the Sicilian amaro Averna in place of vermouth, created by Todd Smith at San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch in the mid-2000s.
- The Brooklyn: rye, dry vermouth, maraschino, and Amer Picon, from the early 1900s.
- Red Hook: rye, Punt e Mes, and maraschino, created at New York’s Milk & Honey in the early 2000s, which started a wave of drinks named after Brooklyn neighborhoods.
- Greenpoint: rye, sweet vermouth, and yellow Chartreuse.
- Little Italy: rye, sweet vermouth, and Cynar, from Audrey Saunders at Pegu Club.
For our episode on the borough and the drink, and the modern Manhattan that earned ChatGPT a perfect taste score, listen below.
Listen to the episode
“Manhattan and The Manhattan with Greg Benson” is Season 1, Episode 9 of Drinking With Robots. Rob talks Manhattan, the borough and the cocktail, with Greg Benson of The Speakeasy podcast. Listen above, on Buzzsprout, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Drinking With Robots is sponsored by Remedy Cocktail Company, makers of handcrafted cocktail bitters.