Recipes
Precedent Manhattan
Grain spirit, sweet vermouth and bitters, stirred cold. Precedent is column distilled from Australian grain and bottled clean, so the Manhattan comes out lighter and brighter than a rye version, with the vermouth doing more of the talking.
Ingredients
- 60 mL Precedent
- 30 mL sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- A brandied cherry, or a strip of orange peel
Method
- Stir everything with ice for 30 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled coupe.
- Drop in the cherry, or express the orange peel over the top.
Where it comes from
The Manhattan dates to the 1870s or early 1880s and was probably first stirred at the Manhattan Club in New York. The story that it was invented for a party thrown by Winston Churchill’s mother is repeated everywhere and is almost certainly untrue; she was in England at the time. What is true is that it is the first great vermouth cocktail, the one the martini and the Rob Roy came from.
A rye Manhattan is spicy and dry; a bourbon one is sweeter. Precedent gives you a third option, cereal-soft and clean, which lets a good vermouth show. For a richer drink use Jumpinpin IPA Whisky in place of Precedent: the two years in ex-bourbon oak and the hop note make it closer to a classic, with something of its own on the finish. For a “perfect” Manhattan, split the vermouth 15 mL sweet and 15 mL dry.