Maker's Manhattan

Most cocktails require a perfect balance of all of the ingredients for them to taste right. (Traditionally, a cocktail was any beverage that included alcohol, sugar, water and bitters, with the latter being the most defining ingredient, but now it is used to refer to any mixed drink containing alcohol.) Recipes tend to give an approximation of the proportions to be used, but it seems to take quite a bit of fine tuning to get them just right. After much experimentation, I believe I have finally figured out how to make a good Maker’s Manhattan.

A Manhattan is a cocktail containing whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. While it was on sale last month, I worked extensively on honing in on making a Manhattan using Maker’s Mark bourbon as the whiskey. Maker’s Manhattans are a fairly popular drink these days, and I’ve had a few good ones and far too many bad ones. Actually, ordering two horrible ones (for me and my girlfriend) at a McMenamin’s (don’t get me started) bar called White Eagle and paying $17.50 for them became an inspiration for me to learn.

Originally the recipe called for rye whiskey, which is generally less sweet than bourbon. Unfortunately, a lot of bartenders haven’t figured this out and are ruining the drink by using bourbon and the same amount of sweet vermouth as they would with a rye whiskey. A little bit of vermouth goes along way, as anyone who’s ever gotten a vermouth-heavy martini can tell you. Interesting, although it has a relatively low alcohol content, because of its sharp flavor people who don’t know anything about liquor will mistakenly think the strong taste of their drink with too much vermouth is due to the alcohol.

The first thing you need for mixing drinks is a cocktail shaker. This is a genius little idea that enables you to fully mix the ingredients while using ice cubes to simultaneously cool it and add just the right amount of water (due to the alcohol melting the ice as you shake). I am a big fan of serving chilled drinks “up” and not “on the rocks,” because if it’s the latter, as you drink the beverage the ice melts and the drink gets more and more watered down until the taste is completely ruined. “Up,” or “straight up,” if you don’t know, refers to a drink chilled and diluted by shaking with ice but served in a glass with no ice. (“Neat,” I learned after much debate with my girlfriend, is an undiluted drink served room temperature. I think I still owe her $5.)

In my Maker’s Manhattan, I use 2.5 shots of Maker’s for every 1/2 shot of sweet vermouth. For the mathematically impaired, this is a ratio of 5 to 1. Almost all Manhattan recipes I’ve come across call for a ratio between 3:1 and 4:1. Again, this is due, in part, to the difference between rye whiskey and bourbon, but also, I suspect in part due to cheap-ass bartenders ripping off their customers (Maker’s is about $25 a bottle and 90 proof and Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth is about $6 and 32 proof). Unsurprisingly, 5:1 is the same ratio of gin to dry vermouth I use in making martinis, the Manhattan’s doppelganger. (Since I brought it up, all you do for a martini is shake those two ingredients vigorously with ice cubes and strain into a glass with an olive in it. If you're using cheap, flavorless olives, add two of them. Oh, and if there’s vodka in it, don’t call it a martini.)

Purists will note that another reason I use less sweet vermouth is because I cheat and pour in a little cherry juice straight from the jar of cherries. If unlike me you know how to make it, you can instead add a splash of simple syrup. If you would rather be proper about how you’re supposed to make a Manhattan, instead of adding the cherry juice I recommend adding two cherries to the drink instead of one. (To mirror the idea of a martini with olive juice added (not recommended) being called a “dirty martini,” probably a Manhattan with cherry juice added should be called a “dirty Manhattan.”)

Without further ado, here’s my (dirty) Maker’s Manhattan recipe: Pour 2.5 shots of Maker’s, ½ shot of sweet vermouth, a splash of cherry juice and one or two drops of Angostura bitters into a shaker filled with ice cubes. (Like vermouth, a little bit of bitters goes a long way, but if you don’t use too much it nicely balances the sweetness of the vermouth.) Shake the mixture vigorously at least 50 times and strain into a cocktail glass with a cherry in it.

Try it; you'll thank me later.