What is a manhattan?

According to the official specification of the International Bartenders Association, a manhattan consists of 5 cl rye whiskey, 2 cl red vermouth and one dash of angostura bitters.

All ingredients go into a mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well and strain the drink into a pre-chilled cocktail glass. A cocktail cherry goes in as garnish.

The recipe has nothing else. No sugar, no lemon juice, no water. Three ingredients and a cherry, and the ratio between them determines the result.

Rye whiskey is the standard in a manhattan, bourbon is the common alternative.

American federal rules set the same requirements for both, apart from the grain. Rye whisky comes from a mash of at least 51 percent rye, bourbon from a mash of at least 51 percent corn. Both are distilled to at most 160 proof, go into the cask at at most 125 proof, mature on new, charred oak and are bottled at a minimum of 40 percent alcohol.

Canadian whisky is also used. Canadian legislation lists it under three names side by side, Canadian whisky, Canadian rye whisky and rye whisky, and prescribes maturation of at least three years in small wood.

A Manhattan uses red, sweet vermouth, called wermoet in Dutch.

The European rules for aromatised wine products describe vermouth as aromatised wine whose characteristic flavour comes from substances from Artemisia species, the wormwood family. The alcohol content is between 14.5 and 22 percent and at least 75 percent of the volume consists of vine products.

So this is wine, not a spirit. That explains why 2 cl of vermouth noticeably tempers the strength of the cocktail compared with pure whisky.

You stir a Manhattan with ice in a mixing glass and then strain it; shaking is not part of it.

The official method of preparation literally states that all ingredients go into the mixing glass with ice cubes, that you stir well and that you strain the drink into a pre-chilled cocktail glass. Shaking does not appear in that description.

Reference works, too, describe the Manhattan as a cocktail that is traditionally stirred rather than shaken.

The best-known variants are the perfect manhattan, the dry manhattan and the Rob Roy.

In a perfect manhattan you replace half of the red vermouth with dry, white vermouth: two parts rye whiskey, half a part dry vermouth, half a part sweet vermouth and two dashes of bitters. A dry manhattan switches entirely to dry vermouth, in two parts whiskey to one part vermouth.

The Rob Roy follows the same structure, but uses Scotch whisky instead of rye or bourbon.

A manhattan with 5 cl of whisky at 40 percent contains about 16 grams of pure alcohol, good for just over one and a half standard glasses.

The Trimbos-instituut counts a standard glass as about 10 grams of pure alcohol, which for spirits comes down to 35 ml of 35 percent. If you count the 2 cl of vermouth too, a manhattan comes to almost two standard glasses, even before the meltwater from stirring is added.

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