BA’s Best: Manhattans
Manhattans for a crowd! What fun it is to encourage large-scale heavy drinking! These are terribly convenient if you wish to not make individual drinks for everyone. I actually cheated a bit on the recipe and made them with a whiskey that technically wasn’t bourbon, but instead a ‘sour mash’ whiskey, which was lighter and mellower, but honestly much more palatable to my non-bourbon-loving self. You could of course use bourbon as that is the traditional Manhattan foundation. Also, please maybe consider buying cherries that are not the colour of Christmas itself. You can often find lovely, less neon versions of maraschino-style cherries in many grocery stores, or instead substitute with booze-soaked sour cherries, the likes of which are often available at specialty shops.
BA’s Best: Manhattans
Taken directly from BA’s Best arsenal with very minimal tweaks
Serves 2-4 (honestly depends on the generosity of your pours)
Ingredients:
½ cup bourbon
1/3 cup red vermouth
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Orange zest and cherries, to garnish
Directions:
Combine the bourbon, vermouth, and bitters in a large mixing glass or bottle. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Pour over ice-filled cocktail glasses and garnish liberally with orange zest and cherries. To achieve the ridiculous little orange zest wheel seen in the photos, peel off a long strip of orange zest carefully, using a small sharp knife, and minding that you don’t take too much of the bitter white pith off with the peel. Trim the edges of the strip so they’re not too jagged, then tightly roll up the peel and skewer with a toothpick. Allow the orange zest to touch the alcohol in the glass, as this will infuse the drink with the fragrant oils found in the zest. Happy drinking!
