Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Rye Whiskey Cocktails

Perfect Manhattan

By
Kathryn Maier
Kathryn Maier
Kathryn Maier

Kathryn writes for Liquor.com, covering drinks, food and travel. She previously worked as an editor at publications including Condé Nast Traveler and Robb Report.

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Updated 01/28/21

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.

Perfect Manhattan cocktail

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

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.