Too long, don’t want to read? Listen here👇
We’re going to discuss these two drinks, because it is easy to get them confused.
Both are: stirred, whiskey-forward, and seasoned with a few dashes of bitters.
Where they differ
- The old fashioned defaults to bourbon, is sweetened with sugar, and traditionally is garnished with an orange peel.
- The manhattan defaults to rye, is sweetened with vermouth, and traditionally is garnished with a cherry.
The recipes
|
Old Fashioned |
Manhattan |
| Whiskey |
2 oz bourbon |
2 oz rye |
| Sweetener |
1/4 - 1/2 oz sugar syrup |
1 oz sweet vermouth |
| Seasoning |
1-3 dashes aromatic bitters |
1-3 dashes aromatic bitters |
| Garnish |
Orange peel |
Cherry |
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😲
Break the rules: Try an old fashioned with rye and a manhattan with bourbon. The manhattan may need to touch more bitters and the old fashioned may need a touch more sweetener. But, they’ll be delicious!
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Let’s make one together
Pro Tips
- Stir, don’t shake!
- Measure! If you want these drinks to taste equally as good each time, measure. Eyeballing sugar syrup, meaning to pour a 1/4 ounce and unknowingly pouring 3/4 of an ounce will markedly impact the drink.
Nice to have, but not deal breakers
- Glassware: don’t get too caught up in having the perfect glassware. Useful: if you’re not serving this drink over ice, chill the glass in advance to avoid it from getting warm too fast.
- Old Fashioned: traditionally served over ice in a rocks glass
- Manhattan: traditionally served “up”, meaning without ice, in a coupe.
- On big cubes: what can I say, they’re fun😁. Will they make or break your drink? Definitely not.