The Manhattan – just a spirit, vermouth, and bitters,
stirred with ice to chill and served up.
The vermouth is what differentiates a Manhattan from an Old Fashioned
(spirit, sugar, bitters). So what
exactly is vermouth? It’s technically a
“fortified and aromatized wine”. It starts out as white wine. A neutral grape spirit or brandy is added to
raise the alcohol content. It’s then
blended with a botanical infusion made by macerating botanicals (bittering
agents, spices, citrus, and so on) in alcohol.
Sound familiar? It turns out that
vermouth has a lot in common with amaro, which starts with a spirit base rather
than a wine base. Exact processes and
recipes vary by type and brand, of course, and amari generally end up with
higher ABV, but the similarities are pretty cool. All of this is to say that the Lilywhacker,
invented by Phil Ward of Death & Co. around 2008, is a Manhattan variant
that uses apple brandy as the spirit and features a bit of Cointreau to balance
the flavors. The apple brandy is Laird’s
Bottled In Bond, which is strong enough to stand up to the other flavors. This one should come in kind of hot, but it
doesn’t. Balanced, fruity, delicious.
Recipe
0.75 oz Carpano Antica
0.5 oz Cointreau
1 dash Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
-Stir ingredients with ice. Strain into chilled coup or Nick & Nora. No garnish.
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