Name: Manhattan (Sweet)
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Bourbon whiskey; 15 ml Rye whiskey 50% abv; 30 ml Rosso/sweet vermouth; 1 dash Aromatic bitters

Manhattan (Sweet)
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Photographed in an UB Retro Coupe Gold 7.75oz

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Bourbon whiskey
¹⁄₂ oz	Straight rye whiskey (100 proof /50% alc./vol.)
1 oz	Strucchi Rosso Vermouth
1 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist and Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
STIR all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS orange zest twist over cocktail and discard.
Garnish with skewered cherry.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Rosso/rouge/sweet vermouth (di Torino) - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

17th June 2025 is The aniversary of the Statue of Liberty's arrival

Review:

I prefer my Manhattans served "Sweet", or "Perfect " at a push. The Manhattan is complex, challenging and moreish. Best of all, it's available in a style to suit every palate. For me, it's this recipe or the brilliantly simple High Ryeser Manhattan.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Served on-the-rocks in an old-fashioned glass.
High Ryeser Manhattan
Dry Manhattan
Perfect Manhattan

History:

See Manhattan cocktail history

Nutrition:

One serving of Manhattan (Sweet) contains 191 calories

Alcohol content:

1.8 standard drinks
28.51% alc./vol. (28.51° proof)
25.8 grams of pure alcohol

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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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Showing 10 of 32 comments for Manhattan (Sweet).
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Scott McIsaac

18th June at 00:52

A note on blending bourbon and rye: Triticale is a grain that is a hybrid of wheat and rye. Some distilleries are beginning to make whiskey from it. I've found that Dry Fly Straight Triticale whiskey makes a very nice Manhattan.

Paul Belczowski

6th June at 13:57

Tried something a little different with this one. I usually stick to my go-to recipe, but this time I swapped out the sweet vermouth for Chambord raspberry liqueur — and it was fantastic! Not saying it’s the ultimate version, but definitely worth a try. If you do, try it and let me know what you think!

Egg McKenzie

17th May at 08:30

i made with bulleit rye (95% rye) and martini rosso and it came out very dry. splitting the base with bourbon would help, or perhaps a sweeter vermouth. it didn't hit the spot so i need to revisit along the lines of this recipe.

John CARR

31st May at 15:42

Yeah Bulleit rye is amazing but super spicy. Definitely good to cut it back with something more harmonious. I’m currently loving Elijah Craig but any of the decent bourbons will mellow it nicely.

Tony Jones

24th December 2024 at 17:59

Hi Mr Difford
I appreciate you have to change your website, but it's gone really hard to use.
I've got a bottle of 101, but your site doesn't think I can make this cocktail because it doesn't think I have any bourbon.
What's going on?
(Couldn't find another way to contract you.)

Simon Difford

26th December 2024 at 09:43

We categorise standard strength bourbon (circa 45%) and BIB (50%) as different ingredients due to taste and affect on our calorie and alcohol strength calculations. However, I have now linked these as interchangeable ingredients so hopefully will now work for you.

Annechien

2nd December 2024 at 20:37

I make this with rittenhouse rye and martini rosso. 2:1 is perfect for me. And a generous splash of luxardo syrup goes in with the cherry. Together with the ango spice an orange zest this is a lovely cocktail for the colder and darker days.

Scott McIsaac

18th June at 00:46

I agree with the 2:1 ratio and the cherry syrup (I typically add about a barspoon). My favorite vermouth is Carpano Antico, and my favorite whiskey is Angel's Envy or Jameson Black Barrel, but to my taste these proportions work well with nearly any bourbon, rye, or Irish and nearly any red vermouth.

1 reply

Annechien

8th June at 18:55

After finishing the martini rosso I bought a bottle of carpano antica and all of a sudden I didn’t enjoy this cocktail anymore. I started reading up on manhattan preferences online and somewhere I found the information that fixed my problem. With a bold vermouth like antica you just need different ratios. Now I do 2,5 shots rittenhouse rye to 1 shot carpano antica and I’m a happy girl again.

Eugene Granger

26th November 2024 at 20:11

Irish whiskey is for me a great choice

Paul Belczowski

5th October 2024 at 12:24

The bourbon and rye combo really sets this apart. This is a favourite as I prefer American style whisky as opposed to scotch and therefore understandably that some prefer the Rob Roy. Both are great for all the right reasons

John CARR

6th November 2024 at 14:10

Exactly. I think we tend to go through phases of preferring certain flavours, or balances of sweet/sour/dry/aromatic etc. From a traditional herbal medicine point of view, this will be balancing certain states of the body’s tissues.
Agree re the specialness of the combo of the two whiskies. … I also love an Affinity for a scotch-based alternative.

John CARR

11th July 2024 at 13:44

Recently acquired a selection of The bitter truth bitters. Their aromatic bitters works fantastically well with a sweet rye mahattan. 60 Rittenhouse 25 carpano, bitters, orange twist and Luxardo cherry. Wonderful depth of flavour.

John CARR

24th May 2024 at 14:43

One of those recipes that allows for endless experimentation I believe. My current favourite is roughly 3:2 rye:islay scotch, Dolin rouge at half the spirit, angostura bitters, outrage twist and Luxardo Cherry garnish.

Juniper Lately

7th January at 22:45

I know it was a typo but an OUTRAGE twist just seems apropos to me as we begin 2025! 😉

1 reply

Cyrus Gilbert-Rolfe

26th September 2024 at 16:37

Sounds like a Rob Roy!

1 reply

Peter McCarthy

24th May 2024 at 05:50

Certainly a classic, but I fear most Manhattans are a little uninteresting for me... I'm curious to try it with different whiskeys/vermouths, though...

John CARR

24th May 2024 at 14:40

Agreed. Find the whiskey/s you like best, and try vermouths that support them, then match the level of sweetness/dryness, and appropriate bitters and garnish to lift/colour.

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