Sam Horwitz's Classic Cocktail Compendium

(With photos)


Manhattan

Stir all of the ingredients with ice in frozen mixing glass and strain into a frozen cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Perfect Manhattan

Replace the Italian vermouth with a 50∶50 mixture of Italian vermouth and French vermouth. Express and discard an orange peel and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Brooklyn

Replace the Italian vermouth with French vermouth. Instead of bitters, add ¼ fluid ounce (1½ teaspoons) each of both maraschino liqueur and an Amer Picon substitute. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Rob Roy

Replace the rye with blended Scotch whisky and the Angostura bitters with orange bitters or Peychaud’s bitters. Express and discard a lemon or orange peel and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Waldorf

Add ¼ fluid ounce (1½ teaspoons, 12 dashes) of French absinthe. Instead of a cherry, garnish with a lemon twist or peel.

Sherman

The same as the Waldorf in additions and garnish, but replace the 2 dashes of Angostura bitters with 1 dash of Angostura bitters and 1 dash of orange bitters.

Brain-Duster

Similar to the Waldorf and the Sherman, but with more absinthe. Combine 1 fluid ounce each of rye, Italian vermouth, and French absinthe and add just 1 dash of Angostura bitters.


As the Manhattan and Brooklyn cocktails pair off in similarity, while representing two New York City boroughs, so do the Bronx and Queens cocktails.

See Also