Manicure

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (28 ratings)

Photographed in an UB Koto Old Fashioned 30cl

Ingredients:
34 oz Calvados / apple brandy / straight applejack
34 oz Blended Scotch whisky
34 oz Honey herbal liqueur (e.g. Drambuie)
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill an Old-fashioned glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of apple wedge or slice..
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into ice-filled glass.
  5. Garnish with apple wedge or slice.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 8/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 5/10

Review:

Due to the use of Calvados and honeyed Scotch herbal liqueur, for a brief moment of madness, this riff on a Rusty Nail was going to be called 'French Nail Care' but thankfully this led to the name Manicure.

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History:

Created in 2010 by a collaboration between Emma Ramos and yours truly at the Cabinet Room in London, England.

Nutrition:

One serving of Manicure contains 176 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.5 standard drinks
  • 31.5% alc./vol. (31.5° proof)
  • 21.3 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Peter McCarthy’s Avatar Peter McCarthy
24th November 2024 at 20:41
Made this with Avallen Calvados, Johnnie Walker Black, & Drambuie. Not bad, but the "smoke" was fairly dominant. I'm curious to play with the proportions and/or try a different Scotch.
Andy Parnell-Hopkinson’s Avatar Andy Parnell-Hopkinson
8th October 2021 at 22:15
I found the two sweeter ingredients slightly overwhelmed my well scotch but adding 10ml more gave a better balance.
Marie-Therese Straus’ Avatar Marie-Therese Straus
21st December 2020 at 07:54
Funny name for what turned out to be a rather lovely, fairly subtle drink. We drank this with an eggy baked brioche pudding topped with fleur de sel caramel sauce and it was a surprisingly nice pairing. The Drambuie had just enough sweetness to stand up to the caramel and the Calvados complemented the rich eggy, almost fruity quality of the baked brioche very nicely. A lovely drink.