Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Rye Whiskey Cocktails

Perfect Manhattan

Perfect Manhattan cocktail

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

Many drinkers will agree that the standard Manhattan is a perfect cocktail: simple, balanced and elegant. But the Perfect Manhattan is in fact a separate, though closely related, drink; the “Perfect” in the drink’s name refers not to a cocktail made perfectly (though that is, of course, the aim) but rather to the use of two different styles of vermouth in “perfect”—which is to say, equal—proportions.

0:39

Click Play to See the Perfect Manhattan Come Together

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces rye whiskey

  • 1/2 ounce dry vermouth

  • 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

  • 2 dashes Angostura bitters

  • Garnish: brandied cherry or a lemon twist

Steps

  1. Add the rye whiskey, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth and bitters into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled.

  2. Strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass or cocktail glass.

  3. Garnish with a brandied cherry or a lemon twist.