Yesterday I ran across a great cocktail blog, A Dash of Bitters.

What a fantastic find...and I was especially impressed with the latest entry, which reams the Post for printing a decidedly substandard Manhattan recipe:

Step one: Fill the shaker three-quarters full with ice.

Step two: Pour in 2 ounces bourbon - preferably Woodford Reserve.

Step three: Pour in three-quarters of an ounce of sweet vermouth. Then pour in same amount of dry vermouth.

Step four: Add 3 dashes of bitters, then a dash of maraschino cherry juice.

Step five: Put a pint glass on the top and shake vigorously for 20 seconds or until the shaker is cold with a slight frost.

Step Six: Strain the drink into a martini glass and garnish with a pristine cherry.

So right, and yet still somehow so wrong. Use rye, stir it, and skip the fuckin’ cherry juice. What is this, a Slurpee?

(Actually, I like my Manhattans shaken.  And I like bourbon Manhattans, but they're even better with rye.  And WTF?  Cherry juice?  It's not like the bourbon's not already sweet...)

Comments

[Michael Dietsch]

Hey! Glad you like the site.

I know that the shaken/stirred debate really just boils down to personal taste, so that's no thing. But you're so right. A bourbon Manhattan is good, but a rye Manhattan? Oh man. That's another type of wow altogether. The cherry juice is bullshit.

I guess what got me was the Post presenting this as THE WAY to make a Manhattan. WTF, right?

[Vidiot]

Oh, indeed. It's not the way most bartenders make a Manhattan (actually, if you ask most bartenders for a "perfect Manhattan", they'll say something like "All my Manhattans are perfect." Which is my cue to either leave or order something no more complicated than a beer.) And it's not even a good perfect Manhattan.

Maybe -- maybe -- a bit of cherry juice is allowed if you're making it with a peppery whiskey like rye. But never with bourbon, and you're pushing it if you include it at all, IMHO.

I like mine shaken; I feel (but have no evidence) that it's a bit colder that way, and the water helps dilute the drink the proper teensy amount, but yeah, I don't insist on that.

Yes, there are variations on this wonderful drink, but the Post's falls just below the threshold of acceptability. I'm surprised they mentioned bitters at all.