The Armchair Cocktail

By Chris Stearns

Home

Here’s a drink built for a fireside armchair, a good book or a fine cigar. It’s an unbuttoning of the aristocratic manhattan, which has served us faithfully since the 1870s. This winter, it gets a well-deserved break. I’ve kept the punchy, grainy rye of the original and enlivened it with fiery Caribbean rum, which works wonders with the baking spices in bitters. To keep the rum’s sweetness in check, swap the manhattan’s usual sweet vermouth for the dry kind. A lashing of orange bitters adds depth. Now put your feet up and sip.

• 2 oz rye whisky
• 1 oz dark Jamaican rum
• 1/2 oz white vermouth
• 2 dashes Regans’ Orange Bitters*
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 orange twist for garnish

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker full of ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; then garnish with the orange twist.

* Available at buffalotrace.com

Home