New Amsterdam

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (8 ratings)
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    New Amsterdam

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New Amsterdam image

Serve in a Nick & Nora glass

Ingredients:
1 1⁄3 oz Oude genever
2⁄3 oz Kirschwasser (cherry) eau-de-vie
0.08 oz Demerara/Muscovado/brown sugar syrup (2 sugar to 1 water)
2 dash Peychaud's or other Creole-style bitters
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 9/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 6/10
More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

A delicately flavoured and lightly balanced genever based drink with hints of kirsch and aromatic Creole bitters.

View readers' comments

History:

Adapted from a drink created in 2006 by Jim Meehan at PDT, New York City, USA. This cocktail features in Jim's 2011 The PDT Cocktail Book.

NEW AMSTERDAM
2 oz. Bols Genever
1 oz. Clear Creek Kirschwasser
1 barspoon Demerara Syrup
2 dashes Peychaud's Bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with a Lemon twist
Manhattan was first colonized by Dutch traders, who named the island and surrounding area New Amsterdam.

Jim Meehan, 2011

Nutrition:

One serving of New Amsterdam contains 113 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.4 standard drinks
  • 30.96% alc./vol. (30.96° proof)
  • 19.5 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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John Hinojos’ Avatar John Hinojos
2nd June at 03:40
Had this again after dinner. It was perfect. Since it is fresh cherry season, we used fresh cherries as the garnish. It was perfect. An after-dinner cocktail and dessert combined.
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Charlie Forbes’ Avatar Charlie Forbes
10th October 2024 at 14:42
I find this pretty boozy for limited taste/complexity. Any ideas on how to punch things up w/o adding more alcohol to the equation?
1
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John Hinojos’ Avatar John Hinojos
10th October 2022 at 00:11
This was a very good cocktail. We had it before dinner and it worked perfectly. Great colour and very spirit forward. Sugar syrup does add a hint of sweetness.
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Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
23rd February 2022 at 06:50
'Oude' doesn't mean a genever is old, it means it is old style rather than young style (jonje). Oude genevers have more flavoursome moutwijn (malt wine) than jounge genevers. Aged genevers are called 'gerijpt' genevers. I’m not a huge fan of Bols Genever in cocktails but I do very much like their Bokma Oude which is closer to Rutte Old Simon.
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James Brooke’s Avatar James Brooke
22nd February 2022 at 19:22
That is great, Simon, thank you for the amended recipe and for the original.
Do you have any feelings on the difference using Bols Genever makes compared to using Rutte Old Simon Genever?
Also, I see that you classify Rutte Old Simon Genever as an Oude (old) Genever, but I thought that Rutte Old Simon Genever was unaged, like the Bols Genever (in the smoked glass bottle)? Wouldn't this make the Rutte Old Simon Genever a "Jonge" (or young) Genever or am I missing something?
Great website BTW.
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James Brooke’s Avatar James Brooke
19th February 2022 at 18:28
Hmmm. I'm not sure if the spoon refers to a tea spoon (5ml) or an IBA bar spoon (2.5ml).
I think using a tea spoon of sugar syrup has made it a bit too sweet for my taste. I'll have to try with a bar spoon next time.
Also, I only have Bols Genever (in the smoked glass bottle) so that may make a difference.
As a home cocktail person, there are only so many different bottles I can justify having!
1
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Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
20th February 2022 at 17:00
I've amended the recipe above to make clearer and also slightly reduce the volume of serve. I've also added Jim's original recipe.
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