Maker's Mark 46™ Manhattan

Made with whisky, sweet vermouth and bitters, the Manhattan is also open to variation. It's often a platform for great bartenders to show off their creativity. Here's our favorite version.

Ingredients

2 parts Maker's Mark 46 Bourbon
1 part sweet vermouth
2 dashes aromatic bitters
Cherry for garnish

Pro Tips

The < 15% rule: Spirits that are 15% alcohol or less should generally be refrigerated. An opened bottle of vermouth will stay fresh in your fridge for three months.
A little bitter: With bitters, a little bit goes a long way. Two or three drops will add much depth to your Manhattan. Also, you might like orange bitters for this drink.
Hurry up & chill: Forget to chill your glass? Before you prepare the drink, fill your glass with ice and water and put it in the freezer. When the drink is ready, your glass will be, too.
Shake vs. stir: Cocktails made mostly of spirits like this one generally look and taste better when stirred. Drinks with fruit juice, dairy or egg white should be given your best shake.

How to

Combine ingredients over ice in a mixing glass.
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass neat or on the rocks.
Garnish with a cherry.

Mysterious Manhattan History of the Manhattan

Achieving wild popularity in the 1880s, the Manhattan was among the first cocktails to use Italian Vermouth, appearing even before the Martini did. Like many stories involving whisky, the rest of its history is a bit cloudy. One widely circulated account claims the cocktail was invented at the Manhattan Club, a prestigious organization renowned for its stock of old whisky. The drink is alleged to have first been served at a party thrown there by Winston Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, for presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The hiccup with that, though, is Lady Randolph was likely pregnant and in Europe during the date in question. One thing is clear, the Manhattanite who first concocted this cocktail created a classic with true staying power.