How they stare...
There are too few solid, standard bourbon cocktails. There, I said it. And I’d say it again if I had to.
Let’s disambiguate that statement. What I mean by “standard” : most bartenders know how to make them, and if they don’t, the recipe is simple enough to explain (even after four Slippery Nipples and one Slow Hard Screw, so to speak). What I mean by “solid”: I’m blushing into my collar on this one, but I’m using “solid” as a synonym for, well, “manly.” Or more accurately, “gentlemanly.”
Gentlemanliness is not the sole purview of men (as hemingwaygarter’s recent post illustrates with aplomb). Gentlemanliness is, instead, an aesthetic. Gendered, yes, but not gender-exclusive. For instance, a gentleman does not drink anything ending in “-quiri,” or anything ending in “-tini” that does not begin with “mart”.
As a bourbon devotee, I’m often tempted to order a Manhattan, a drink which, in its luminous cocktail glass form, is about as manly as CATS. Too many times have I seen men turn cosmo-scarlet when the waiter appears with a tray of long-stemmed glasses, each more feminine than the next. Sometimes, a man wants a man’s drink (or for that matter, a woman wants a man’s drink). And the Manhattan, at default, is not.
So the Manhattan becomes the first in what I hope to be a series of reclaiming certain “femme” drinks for the masculine persuasion.
To Man Up a Manhattan:
- Replace the sweet vermouth with dry, to give your drink that rugged brown bourbon color.
- Order it “on the rocks.” Served with ice, your drink will come in a low-ball or “old fashioned” glass. Nothing long-stemmed. (Long-stemmed is fine for Martinis, a drink whose power transcends gender, and some have argued, time and space.)
- Order “with a twist.” Maraschino cherries are the clowns of the booze world, the stuff of nightmares.
And there you have it. “A dry Manhattan on the rocks with a twist.” A respectable, gentemanly drink order, for the New Gentleman.
Tags: Cocktail, dry vermouth, gentlemanliness, manhattan
February 9, 2009 at 7:41 am |
Man up? Find a bottle of Rittenhouse Rye or 6-year Sazerac, and do it right. The original recipe calls for rye whiskey, not bourbon. I also find, personally, that a 50/50 split of sweet and dry vermouth does the trick nicely, though if you’re in the mood for darker and more bitter, ride your way up the vermouth scale to an nice italian amaro. Guaranteed sucker punch, though you might want to use orange bitters with an amaro, to balance out the bitter flavors.
September 8, 2009 at 7:11 am |
[...] To that end, we have a post on turning the Manhattan into something both you and your pride can swallow. [...]