Manhattan Cocktail (No. 1)

Use small Bar glass.
2 Dashes Curacao or Maraschino.
1 Pony Rye Whisky.
1 Wineglass Vermouth (Mixed).
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters.
2 Small Lumps of ice.

Shake up well, and strain into a claret glass. Put a quarter of a slice of lemon In the glass and serve. If preferred very sweet add two dashes of gum syrup.

The Savoy Manhattan Cocktail (No. 1) is pretty much verbatim from the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas’ Bar-tender’s Guide:

Manhattan Cocktail.
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 2 dashes of Curacoa or Maraschino.
1 pony of rye whiskey.
1 wine-glass of vermouth.
3 dashes of Boker’s bitters.
2 small lumps of ice.

Shake up well, and strain into a claret glass. Put a quarter of a slice of lemon in the glass and serve. If the customer prefers it very sweet use also two dashes of gum syrup.

The only real differences being the directive to use “1 Wineglass Vermouth (Mixed)”, which I can only assume to mean a mixture of Dry and Sweet Vermouth and Angostura vs. Boker’s.

I was trying to think of way to make this a little more than, as David Wondrich describes it, “a vermouth cocktail with a stick.” The first thing that occurred to me was to use a cask strength whiskey. I contemplated the Handy, and then decided to go with the…

Yeah, well, sorry about that. On the bright side, the new Buffalo Trace Antique Collection should be available again soon. And, well, speaking of things that it is unlikely that many other people have…

Yeah, the bitter truth guys made a stab at a Boker’s replica a while ago. It’s a nice old-school bitters with a strong cardamom element.

At this point, I’m thinking, heck if I’m going to use 2 obscure ingredients, I might as well use 3…

So, the cocktail is:

1 teaspoon Bols Dry Orange Curacao
1 oz George T. Stagg Whiskey
1 oz Carpano Antica Vermouth
1 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
1 tsp. Bitter Truth Boker’s Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Lemon Peel.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this cocktail. I have to admit I’ve never gone this far into whiskey debt when making a Manhattan, nor have I ever had the courage to add that much bitters.

To be honest, it doesn’t really taste like what I think of when I imagine a Manhattan. But it is, actually, a very nice cocktail. Very complex with only a little hint of the brawn of the whiskey towards the end of the cocktail when it warms up.

Very drinkable.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.