how to make a brandy manhattan cocktail drink

The Brandy Manhattan cocktail is a straight-forward variation of the traditional Manhattan. The traditional Manhattan drink is made with either Rye Whiskey or the Bourbon while Brandy Manhattan is made with well,…Brandy.

The rest of the ingredients and the proportions of the ingredients stay just about the same. Although, some recipes call for a splash of water and/or a teaspoon of maraschino cherry juice to be added as well. This is only needed if you want to mitigate the sharp bite of Brandy.

You could use equal proportions of the dry and sweet vermouth with the Brandy to make a Perfect Brandy Manhattan., just another variation of the drink.

Ingredients

Recipe/Preparation

  1. Add ice cubes into a martini shaker
  2. Add 3 shots of Brandy into the shaker
  3. Add 1 shot of sweet vermouth into the shaker
  4. Shake the contents of the shaker well
  5. Add couple of dashes of bitters into a chilled martini glass
  6. Swirl the bitters around the glass to coat the sides of the glass
  7. Strain the contents of the shaker into the glass
  8. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry
A Brandy Manhattan Cocktail

Variations

Some recipes of Brandy Manhattan call for a teaspoon of maraschino cherry juice to be added to the shaker. I have found that this recipe works just as well, with out the cherry juice.

  • Classic Manhattan: The traditional Manhattan is made with Rye Whiskey as the base spirit. So, substitute the Brandy in this recipe with either Rye Whiskey or Bourbon Whiskey.
  • Scotch Manhattan (Rob Roy): As the name suggests, the base spirit in this recipe is the Scotch Whisky. Substitute the Brandy in this drink with blended Scotch Whisky.
  • Dry Brandy Manhattan: Substitute sweet vermouth in this recipe with dry vermouth and use a twisted lemon peel as the garnish.

Tips

  • The drink is sometimes served on rocks in a short-ball glass. IMO, the drink is better served as a martini.
  • The drink is not overly sweet at all. But if you want to make the drink less sweeter, use less of the sweet vermouth. You can use 1/2 or 3/4 shots of the sweet vermouth instead of 1 shot to make the drink less sweet.
  • You can also add the bitters directly into the shaker and shake it with the other ingredients. I think the bitter shows up better when it is used to rinse the glass.