Cold Brew Manhattan
It’s officially official—everyone’s favorite season is back back back again. Happy fall, y’all! I’m going to conveniently pretend the highs in New Orleans this week are not in the 90s, and instead I’ll direct your attention to visions of clove and pies and bright orange leaves. I won’t hold my breath on those visions ever really happening down here, but that is not going to stop this family from being seasonally appropriate when it comes to eating and drinking, okay!
The other day we posted our guide for stocking your bar for fall complete with recommendations for some must-have bar ingredients. In doing so, I got to playing around with a couple fun fall cocktail concepts. This one is such a yummy blend of cold brew moonshine, rum, sweet vermouth, and orange bitters. I’ve always been obsessed with mixing citrus and coffee flavors, and the slightly cola-ish flavor of the sweet vermouth fits right in there pretty beautifully! The aged rum serves as a comparatively neutral base with just a hint of vanilla and caramel.
You may look at me calling this a Manhattan and be like “WTF Matt, you’re drunk, that is not a Manhattan,” and you’re not wrong. But calling it a Manhattan variation has more to do with the structure of the drink than its flavor or the actual ingredients. If you’re curious about starting to get creative with your bar, this is one of the easiest and most common ways to create original cocktail recipes: take established classics and use them as a template when plugging in new ingredients. So for this drink I played with the classic Manhattan recipe—2 parts whiskey to 1 part sweet vermouth, plus a few dashes of bitters—and just subbed in some other stuff. Here we’re dividing the whiskey’s portion between two liquors, the cold brew moonshine and the barrel-aged rum, to make a split base. The rest of the recipe stays the same as a classic Manhattan, with the option of twisting it a little more with a thyme sprig for garnish.
And that’s science! So go ahead and try it out and have a nice fall and let me know how it goes and call your mother and drink lots of water and make time for yourself to relax. Cheers. :)
xoxo Matt
Cold Brew Manhattan
1 oz El Dorado 5 Year Old Cask Aged Rum, or similar barrel-aged rum
1 oz Noilly Prat Rouge, or similar sweet vermouth
3 dashes orange bitters
(optional) sprig of thyme or orange twist for garnish
Combine all ingredients except garnish in a cocktail mixing glass. Add ice and stir with a bar spoon 30 seconds. Strain into your serving glass and top with garnish of your choice.