Manhattans

[Natch]

Portly Gentleman?

Natch

 

[Benjamin Button]

OK BB.....Now watch'a gonna' name your new concoction :?: FTRPLT

Hah, I'm not sure but I like Natch's suggestion above!

 

[rick]

Friday night for me and am having a, er...um....................cuppa Manhattans, as we speak.

2 things:
1. Wild Turkey 101 (not of the rye persuasion)
makes a lousy M.
Love the juice but Ive tried it with many Sweet vermouths and ............it just aint happnin.

2. Punt Y mes is sooooooooooooooo bitter to me, I was gonna write it off.
BUT, HOLD THE PRESSES !!!
Added some marischino cherry juice to the mix and it is purdy tasty.
Dont know if I'll buy it again, considering the Antica is only a cuppa bucks more, but at least I'll enjoy the rest of this bottle.

 

[Benjamin Button]

Friday night for me and am having a, er...um....................cuppa Manhattans, as we speak.

2 things:
1. Wild Turkey 101 (not of the rye persuasion)
makes a lousy M.
Love the juice but Ive tried it with many Sweet vermouths and ............it just aint happnin.

2. Punt Y mes is sooooooooooooooo bitter to me, I was gonna write it off.
BUT, HOLD THE PRESSES !!!
Added some marischino cherry juice to the mix and it is purdy tasty.
Dont know if I'll buy it again, considering the Antica is only a cuppa bucks more, but at least I'll enjoy the rest of this bottle.

Rick, you're killin me over here, bud. It's barely 11 over there, isn't it? And here I am feeling guilty needing a drink at 2!

I am meeting my dad out for a few drinks after work today, but I am quite leery of allowing just ANY bartender to mix my manhattans. I gotta build up a trust before I allow myself to imbibe just ANYONES manhattan, you know what I mean?. I feel a stop at the liquor store coming on the way home. :drunken:

 

[rick]

1115am, right now.................but I was off work at 6am. Its MY Friday night !!!

Good luck with teaching a "barkeep" how to make a good Manhattan.............I aint found one yet :evil:

 

[Benjamin Button]

1115am, right now.................but I was off work at 6am. Its MY Friday night !!!

Good luck with teaching a "barkeep" how to make a good Manhattan.............I aint found one yet :evil:

Ahh, it all makes sense now. Hmm..when your Friday night starts at 6 AM, what time is last call?

I won't be taking the chance with the bar keep. I'll be picking up my own ingredients after the bar and mixing at home where it's legal to smoke as well!

-Adam

 

[rick]

OK.
Fine..................

heres the rub:
Punt Y Mes is bitter.
Maraschino cherry juice is sweet.

mix em together and its aaaaaaallllllllllll good.

Had a cuppa this "evening", 1 with Evan Williams 1783 and 1 with Rittenhouse
BOTH were fabulous.

and.
No bitters neccesary

 

[glpease]

Good luck with teaching a "barkeep" how to make a good Manhattan.............I aint found one yet :evil:

I think the movie "Cocktail" (I would NEVER call it a FILM) did a lot to destroy the art of mixology in the US. There are a great many cocktails that simply must not be shaken, and the Manhattan and the Martini are two of them. But, it's all about flash with these movie-trained yahoos, and nothing at all about good taste, in either sense of the word.

Hollywood strikes again. Sophistication and elegance are apparently as endangered as the proper Martini. (WITHOUT chocolate, apple juice, or vodka, thank you - well, except for a Vesper, in the latter case.)

BTW, try a Martini with Lillet Blanc, and a nice, austere gin, like Beefeaters. Very nice! I shall still pine for Noilly Prat's defiling, but only a little.

-glp

 

[glpease]

OK.
Fine..................

heres the rub:
Punt Y Mes is bitter.
Maraschino cherry juice is sweet.

mix em together and its aaaaaaallllllllllll good.

Had a cuppa this "evening", 1 with Evan Williams 1783 and 1 with Rittenhouse
BOTH were fabulous.

and.
No bitters neccesary

Bravo! I shall have to give that one a sip!

-glp

 

[rick]

glp:
still have the pantry all stocked up awaiting your visit.......................of course, we are vacationing in Cambria next month.
That aint too far for ya to travel for a cocktail, is it ???? :scratch:

 

[Benjamin Button]

It's Friday, gentlemen. What will be the libation of choice this evening?

My local store only has Old Overholt, Jim Beam Rye and (ri)1 - Jim Beams attempt to make rye look posh by putting it in a vodka bottle and giving it a trendy name and an even trendier price tag ($40 for 750ml).

I'll probably just go with the JB Rye for tonight.

 

[rick]

If those were the only choices, I'd go with the Old Overholt.

Just had 1 with some Noilly Prat SV and a splash of cherry juice. No bitters. Good, really good.

 

[Benjamin Button]

Nevermind...I found something MUCH better!

Thank the good people of my state for being drinkers. We have three state liquor stores in this town alone (Hooksett where I work, which is not a large town). I did a product search of another store nearby and they have something tasty. I'll post up when I get it tonight.

 

[Benjamin Button]

Finally I can post up...it's been a crazy busy weekend/week, but I've found time to slip in a few manhattans over the course of the past few days.

So I picked up a bottle of Sazerac Straight Rye (aged six years, but also available aged 18 years) on Friday night. I searched high and low for morello cherries however none of the local markets had them (I know they are not in season) and the nearest Trader Joes was 45 min away. Against my better judgment, I opted for the standard maraschinos and soaked them in filtered water, emptied, soaked, and repeated about 4 times until a good portion of the sweetness was diminished. I let them air dry for a while then reintroduced half of them to a jar with sweet vermouth and the other half to a jar of Sandemans Reserve Port. I let those marinate overnight and on Saturday I mixed up a manhattan to test out the new rye.

I mixed about 1.5 oz of Sazerac Rye, 2/3oz of sweet vermouth (Noilly Prat), a dash and a half of bitters, and a generous twist of Cara Cara Orange peel (delicious oranges if you can get your hands on some). Of course, the obligatory cherry was pulled from the vermouth jar and added to the mix.

I chilled a martini glass, let the rye, vermouth and bitters chill in a shaker with ice, lightly stirred, then introduced the liquid to the glass and added the orange and cherry.

This, my friends, is a great manhattan. The Sazerac is delightfully peppery without being overly pronounced. It lends itself well to mixing and seemed to meld perfectly with the other ingredients. There was not one characteristic that popped more than the other, all the while still allowing for the individual strengths of each ingredient to shine equally. In fact, the rye mixed so well, I added a little more the next night to my manhattan but much to my dismay, as it overpowered the other ingredients this time around. This rye demands to be mixed strictly as a manhattan should. Let's say it shines without shadowing when mixed appropriately. Your mouth watering yet? It should be. Moving on...

Before mixing the manhattan, I tasted the Sazerac neat, and again with an added ice cube (I prefer my drinks this way plus I like how as the cube melts it opens up some of the subtle characteristics of the rye/bourbon/scotch etc...). The Sazerac has a wonderful nose of honey, cream, some apple/pear notes, even subtle chocolate notes and of course the obvious wood like/campfire char smell. The taste is much smoother and creamier than I would have expected of a 90 proof rye and leaves a tingle on the tongue but in an extremely pleasant way. Think of enjoying a really nice hot sauce with sour cream to cool your palate and letting the flavor of the pepper really well up in your mouth. This is good rye. It is somewhat understated when drinking by itself though, but seems to need a few friends to really make it pop, hence the manhattan really letting this rye show it's strength. I highly recommend Sazerac and at $20 a bottle, you can't go wrong. I look forward to picking up the 18 Year Sazerac, which at around $45 is quite a steal if it stands up to my expectations. We will see...

A quick snap of my Saturday evening libation...



-Adam

 

[rick]

So I stopped by Bev-Mo yesterday and picked up:
(2) bottles Rittenhouse 100 BIB Rye
1 bottle Russells Reserve (6 yr old) Rye
1 bottle Lillet Rouge ( thought it may make an interesting Manhattan variation......................I was WRONG )

I went in looking for the RR and was pleasantly surprised to find the Rit 100. They had it mismarked ($139) on the shelf but I recognized it for what it was and at $20 a bottle, it is a good buy.
The RR was $25 and I think is just great.

Had a few last night and after a couple tonight I have come to this conclusion:
The RYE aint really what its all about.....its the VERMOUTH that makes it or breaks it.

Ive been using Noilly Prat, Punt e Mes and the Carpano Antica for the last couple months and I have to say that, without fail, the Carpano is THE most delicious vermouth I have ever tasted.
Every drink I use it in is great; unlike the Punt e Mes which I find to be much too bitter to be enjoyable.

So, for the sake of posterity..........my fave to date:


2 parts Russells Reserve
1 part Carpano Antica
3 dashes Stirrings Blood Orange bitters

Shaken a bit, then stirred and strained into a bucket of ice.
Thatsa Nice !~!