How to Make a Rob Roy

The Manhattan's Scottish cousin is a bit strange, but still delicious.

Henry Louis Reginald De Koven, born in 1859 in Connecticut, wrote a sheaf of operettas for the national stage. Twenty-nine, by our count. His two most successful shows (and they were pretty damn successful) were Robin Hood from 1890 and, of course, 1894's Rob Roy. Hence the drink. It used to be a common practice to baptize a new show with its own cocktail. Thus such forgotten delights as the Chocolate Soldier, the Peg O' My Heart, and the Florodora. All quite tipplesome, but none with the legs of the Rob Roy.

We attribute this to the lack of karmic individuation between the drink and the show. You see, like De Koven's music, there is a touch of the cut-and-paste to the Rob Roy. It's simply a Manhattan with Scotch instead of rye (Rob Roy being a Scottish national hero of some sort). The result isn't bad. Perhaps a little odd, but in the long run quite rewarding—and obtainable in joints that only know rye as a vehicle for ham and Swiss cheese. Here's how to mix one.

How to Make a Rob Roy

How to Cocktail: Rob Roy

The Rob Roy cocktail is overlooked by many, but this cousin of the Manhattan is really simple to make and delicious. Talented mixologist Brooke Arthur shows you how to correctly mix up the drink.

2 oz Scotch whisky
.75 oz Sweet vermouth
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
Garnish: Cherry
Glass: Cocktail

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Perfect Fall Cocktail Recipe: Classic Rob Roy Cocktail

Sometimes the simplest cocktails are the best. No frills, no umbrellas, no drama. The classics — the cocktails that have been around for what seems forever — have staying power for good reason: they taste good! Join me this week for a blast from the past. Let me introduce, or re-introduce, you to my reliable friend, Rob Roy.

The Rob Roy is a delightful cocktail to warm you up as fall begins to descend upon us. Scotch may not be your usual drink, but stir it with some sweet red vermouth and a dash of bitters, and you may just find you like it.

Notice we are using a blended scotch whiskey, typically a little easier to take to task in the shaker. The heavily smokey or peaty Scotches from say Islay are in my cocktail opinion best sipped solo.

This week enjoy some simple bar snacks like roasted nuts (spiced or not ) and some good dark chocolate chopped up alongside your chilled Rob Roy for a civilized and simple happy hour in minutes.

Rob Roy Cocktail

2 ounces of Blended Scotch Whiskey

1 ounce sweet vermouth

2 dashes of Angostura bitters

1 lemon peel, for garnish

In a shaker filled with ice, add the Scotch whiskey, the sweet vermouth and the bitters. Stir to chill. Strain into a martini glass (or an equally alluring vessel) and top with a lemon peel.

Recipe Notes

Feel free to substitute orange bitters for the Angostura and an orange peel, like I did this week, in place of the lemon. It's equally as delicious.

Calories 169
Carbs 0.8 g (0.3%)
Sugars 0.2 g
Protein 0 g (0%)
Sodium 2 mg (0.1%)

Submit a story

Got a tip, kitchen tour, or other story our readers should see?

Rob Roy

Created in 1894 by a bartender at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, the Rob Roy is a mix of Scotch whisky and vermouth that delivers a burst of sweet, earthy and spicy flavours.

Ingredients

The Singleton of Dufftown ® 12 Year Old

How to make

Fill a mixing glass with ice cubes.

Using a jigger, measure 50ml The Singleton of Dufftown Malt Whisky and 25ml sweet vermouth into the glass.

Stir the mixture using a bar spoon.

Place one cherry on top of the drink to garnish.

Be a good host

Everyone loves a bit of finger food and designated drivers will appreciate some fancy soft drinks.

Rob Roy Cocktail: A Simple Way to Enjoy a Great Scotch

3 mins
Prep: 3 mins,
Cook: 0 mins
Yield: 1 serving

The Rob Roy is, quite simply, a Scotch Manhattan. It is the choice of whiskey that distinguishes it from all other 'Manhattans' and it is a nice way to spruce up a good Scotch.

Keeping with the Manhattan recipe, the Rob Roy simply pairs your favorite Scotch with sweet vermouth. It is basic, easy, and one of those popular cocktails that every good bartender should know how to make.

Whether you choose a blended or single malt Scotch is a matter of preference, though a blended whiskey is often the more popular choice. Either way, the simplicity of the drink allows the whiskey to shine through, so be sure to make a wise choice. This is one cocktail where your premium Scotch will not go to waste.

What You'll Need

1 1/2 ounces Scotch whisky
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
Angostura bitters to taste
Maraschino cherry for garnish

How to Make It

Pour the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice.
Stir well.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a cherry.

Make the Rob Roy Your Way

Following the other great classic cocktails that use the spirit-vermouth combination, the Rob Roy can be adapted to fit your personal taste. You can also use any of these variations for a particular scotch.

While a 'Perfect' Rob Roy may work best with a blended scotch like Johnnie Walker Black Label, you may want to use sweet vermouth alone for a single malt like Laphroaig 10YO.

It will be a matter of personal preference and there are endless combinations available.

Use more or less sweet vermouth as desired. Some drinkers prefer a 3:1 ratio or even less vermouth.
This drink can also be served on the rocks in an old-fashioned glass and built right in the glass. For a slower dilution, use an ice ball.
Dry Rob Roy: Substitute dry vermouth for the sweet vermouth and garnish with an olive.
Perfect Rob Roy: Use a 1/4 ounce of both sweet and dry vermouth and garnish with a lemon twist.

History of the Rob Roy

The Rob Roy was created at the famous New York City Waldorf-Astoria in the 1890's. As is the case with many classic cocktails of the time, this one debuted along with the 1894 Broadway show, "Rob Roy," which told the story of Robert Roy MacGregor, the Scottish Robin Hood of the 18th-century.

The cocktail was also instrumental in introducing the American public to blended Scotch whisky.

How Strong is the Rob Roy?

The true alcohol content of any Rob Roy cocktail is going to depend on the whisky you pour as well as the amount of vermouth you choose to include. Nonetheless, we can estimate that the average Rob Roy made with an 80-proof blended scotch in the standard recipe given is around 29% ABV (58 proof).

As you can see, it is not what we would consider a light cocktail, though 'up' drinks that include alcohol alone rarely are. That is why drinks like the Rob Roy are served in such small portions, in this case slightly less than 3 ounces.

Rob Roy

Cocktail recipe

#5 / 31 in Scotch Whisky Cocktails
|
see all.
#15 / 151 in Angostura Bitter Cocktails
|
#5 / 58 in Sweet Vermouth Cocktails

3 Ingredients

Dash Angostura Bitter Dash Angostura Bitter Dash Angostura Bitter Dash Angostura Bitter Dash Angostura Bitter Dash Angostura Bitter
¼ oz Sweet Vermouth ¼ oz Sweet Vermouth ¼ oz Sweet Vermouth 0.75 cl Sweet Vermouth 7.5 ml Sweet Vermouth 0.25 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 ½ oz Scotch Whisky 1 ½ oz Scotch Whisky 1 ½ oz Scotch Whisky 4.5 cl Scotch Whisky 45 ml Scotch Whisky 1.5 oz Scotch Whisky

Original
cl
ml
oz

Microbadges (Expand)

Featured in a user list on the site

Received 10 or more positive votes on the site

Featured in 10 or more lists on this site

We have a photo of this cocktail

" > Photo Diffords 14 Key Ingredients

Can be made with Simon Difford's 14 key ingredients list

" > Diffords 14 Key Ingredients Cocktail Of The Day

Has been featured as cocktail of the day on this site

" > Cocktail Of The Day Classic

Is categorised as a 'classic' cocktail on this site

Featured in Diffordsguide Top 100 Cocktails

Found In Lists

Thankyou for your email, we'll look at the issue as soon as we can.

Activity on this cocktail

Can you make this?

Personalise your bar and see what cocktails you can make

Elsewhere on the net

How to Cocktail: Rob Roy. The Rob Roy cocktail is overlooked by many, but this cousin of the Manhattan is really simple to make and delicious. Talented . ">How to Make a Rob Roy Cocktail - Liquor.com https://www.youtube.com/embed/B3HRp1wswlQ

Watch this episode on Small Screen: http://smallscreennetwork.com/video/3572/cocktail_spirit_with_robert_hess_pre-chill_glass_rob_roy_cocktail/ Pre-Chill . ">Pre-Chill Your Cocktail Glass - Rob Roy Cocktail https://www.youtube.com/embed/_iKKXrpQEn0

The lovely May is here, and she's got a sophisticated, elegant & classy whisky cocktail for us - the Rob Roy. Made with Scotch Whisky and Sweet Vermouth, it's a . ">Rob Roy Whisky Cocktail | May Kongsrivilai

[ajax call='elsewhere_on_the_net' args='typee:web,cid:6799,title:Rob Roy']

You might also like

Bitter Mac

Whiskey Skin

Recent searches

No searches made.

Add to a list

You need to be a member in create and edit lists. Register here

Already a member? Login.

Add to basket

Dash Angostura Bitter Angostura Bitter ( )

¼ oz Sweet Vermouth Sweet Vermouth ( )

1 ½ oz Scotch Whisky Scotch Whisky ( )

Add to My Bar

Dash Angostura Bitter Angostura Bitter

¼ oz Sweet Vermouth Sweet Vermouth

1 ½ oz Scotch Whisky Scotch Whisky

Email the recipe

Text the recipe

Badges & Reputation

Advertising

Privacy Policy

T&C

FAQ

About

Subscribe

Contact

Copyright © 2017 Make me a cocktail. All Rights Reserved.

Enter your email address and we'll send you a free Ebook of cocktail recipes.

As well as receiving weekly updates packed with our latest drink and cocktail related content.

And . done! Awesome.

Your 'Top 50 Cocktails' book is whizzing through the old t'internet as we speak, and should be with you soon.

Piecing Together the History of the Rob Roy Cocktail

The lengths that a cocktail sleuth goes to finding the roots of this Scotch-and-vermouth drink.

10.13.17 5:00 AM ET

I first began drinking Rob Roys a good 20 years ago, when I was the second-string jazz critic at the Village Voice and got tired of drinking the rocket-fuel, no-vermouth Martinis prevalent at the time in the music clubs I was haunting. Manhattans were out because nobody could make one properly (too little vermouth and no bitters, plus gunk from the cherry jar). But the Rob Roy was a drink bartenders had heard of but didn’t know so well as to have ingrained bad habits about, and it was easy. Two parts Scotch, one part red vermouth, a couple of dashes bitters, up. Twist, please.

But I don’t want to talk about the Rob Roy as a cocktail, as tasty as it might be. I want to talk about it as an example of how not the history, but the historiography of cocktails has changed in the last two decades; the researching and structuring and writing of that history. If, back then in 1997, I had found myself curious about the origins of this slightly off-kilter Manhattan I had taken to ordering, I would have had to hit the books. While there was an internet, it was mighty short on this sort of information (Google only came in 1998). If I had been really clever, I would have gone straight to William Grimes’ pioneering 1993 cocktail history, Straight Up or On the Rocks, which would have told me that the drink was named after the play of the same name.

I would have then had to go to the New York Public Library and dig out a history of Broadway, which would have told me that that play was actually an operetta, that it was by Reginald DeKoven, and that it ran at New York’s Herald Square Theatre from October 1894 to March 1895, before setting out on the road.

But none of that would have helped figure out precisely when or where the cocktail was invented. For that, I’d need to look at old bartenders’ guides. Back then, hardly anybody collected these. That was good, because if you found one in a secondhand bookstore it was usually quite cheap, but it was also bad, because collections of them were few and far between and mostly haphazard in their contents. In 1999, when I began writing about cocktails and such for Esquire, I had maybe 10 or 15 assorted old cocktail books, things I had picked up by chance here and there; Charles Baker’s 1946 Gentleman’s Companion, Kingsley Amis’s 1972 On Drink, a reprint of the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, an Old Mr. Boston from the 1950s, a Trader Vic, a handful of others.

Libraries were some help: The NYPL had a few volumes, some on microfilm, and the Library of Congress a few more, although most of those would turn out to be missing from the shelf if you actually requested them. Others had more. But to consult all these books you’d have to either travel or go through inter-library loan and it would take you years to consult every book you thought might be useful.

If you were lucky, you knew a serious collector, such as Brian Rea in California or Ray Foley in New Jersey. Assuming I had access to a collection like those, I would have been able to trace the Rob Roy back to a couple of fairly well-distributed bartenders’ guides from the turn of the last century, James C. Maloney’s Twentieth Century Guide and John Applegreen’s Barkeeper’s Guide, from 1899. Now, both of these guides were from Chicago, which rather muddies the waters. Was the Rob Roy a Chicago drink, perhaps created to toast some road-show performance of the operetta? I might well have settled on that conclusion.

If, however, the collection you had access to also stretched to such small fry as pamphlets and flyers and such, and you were both lucky and diligent enough to go through all that ephemera, you might be able to move the Rob Roy’s origins back to 1898 and to the East Coast, since it appears in a couple of booklets from that year, one put out by a Providence printing house and the other by a New York silver company. And that would be that. Your quest was done. You could spend years paging through novels, diaries, and travel memoirs or, spooling through microfilm of the major urban newspapers of the day, but the odds of finding something more were vanishingly small.

For better or worse, the internet has grown in 20 years. To balance out presidential twitter tantrums and Russian political ratfucking (the term of art in that industry for extreme dirty tricks), memes and viral videos and Beliebers, there are a few small benefits. For one thing, almost every old cocktail book there is can be found in the free libraries at the French EUVS (“Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux”) or Collectif 1806 sites, and if you want real books there are reprints and modern editions covering the most important ones, which you can order online.

But all that will only get you to where you could have gotten in 1997, although a hell of a lot quicker. The modern internet can get you much further. For one thing, between Google books, Internet Archive and Hathi Trust (the archive of university-held books), you can search a great number of books of all kinds. Sometimes they’ll only show you a sliver or simply tell you that here is a book that seems to contain the phrase or word you’re looking for, but at least you know what book to look for. And often they’ll have the whole book right there in front of you. Suddenly digging through all those novels and whatnot is the work of a morning, not a couple of years.

Even more importantly for this kind of history, now we’ve got text-searchable newspaper databases. Newspapers are, as the cliché has it, the first draft of history, and in the case of things like cocktails, saloons, barkeepers and the like, they’re often the only draft. Most old bartenders guide offer no explicit context; no backstory or attribution or anything, for the drinks they contain. If such information exists at all, it would have been caught by a reporter explaining what the swells are drinking this summer or puffing the new saloon that sent a tray of drinks over to the editorial office. Since such pieces aren’t keyed to an important date, the only way to find them without electronic help is to pick a newspaper and a year and start reading every single page. If you’re good, you can get through two or three months a day; less if it’s on microfilm.

The modern databases are far from perfect. Most of the major ones cost money—Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank.com, NewspaperArchive.com—and the ones that don’t—the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America site and the challenging but amazing Fultonhistory.com (New York State newspapers, not sortable in chronological order)—have issues of their own. Each has its own peculiar (sometimes very peculiar) interface. Optical character recognition—the technology that can scan a page of microfilm and render it into searchable words on a screen—is far from perfect, and for every term you enter there will be a number of false positives and a number of missed occurrences. Nonetheless, if you’re patient and persistent and just a little bit clever at coming up with parallel search terms you can access an ocean of American writing about cocktails and their milieu.

But that Rob Roy has been sitting on the bar getting warm, hasn’t it. If you plug “Rob Roy cocktail” and some similar terms into the main newspaper databases, you quickly see how much history the bartenders’ guides missed. First off, our Rob Roy isn’t even the first drink of its name. On Aug. 22, 1873, the legendary New York Sun published a long article titled “American Fancy Drinks.” An in-depth look at bartenders, their craft and their drinks, it was the first of its kind and was widely reprinted, spawning hundreds of similar articles over the next two or three decades. In it, there is a somewhat garbled recipe for a “Rob Roy cocktail,” attributed to veteran New York bartender E. F. Barry. As far as we can tell—the article manages to omit the main spirit in the drink—it is merely American whiskey, brandy or Dutch-style gin with sugar, Angostura Bitters and orgeat (an almond syrup).

The Rob Roy next pops up again in an 1882 Chicago list of drinks. We may assume that this is the same one, since Scotch would not be a cocktail ingredient in America for another decade. After that, it slinks off the stage of history without so much as a backward look. What is clearly our Rob Roy enters the picture in November 1895, in a small item from the San Francisco Call: “An new cocktail called the ‘Rob Roy’ is a Manhattan, made with Scotch instead of rye whisky; it is excellent.” Lest we jump to the conclusion that it was a San Francisco drink, though, the item goes on to quote an unnamed New York paper about another drink. The next two appearances are also from New York, one in a joke and the other, from November 1897, in an article on new drinks. There, the Rob Roy is assigned to the bar of the city’s famous Fifth-Avenue Hotel.

At this point, one would be perfectly justified to conclude that the Rob Roy was introduced in 1895 or shortly before, and that it was probably a New York drink, perhaps connected with the Fifth-Avenue Hotel. Done. But the problem with computers is they only show you what you ask them to show you. Ask them for the earliest mentions of the Rob Roy cocktail, and they’ll show you what I’ve laid out. Ask them for the “most relevant,” as the databases put it, and they’ll show you the articles where “Rob Roy” is repeated the most often. What you can’t ask for is the most useful articles; the ones that actually tell you something. To find those, you need persistence and just plain luck.

A couple of years back, I was searching for something else and I stumbled across a 1941 “Along the Wine Trail” column by G. Selmer Fougner where one of his readers from Brooklyn wrote in to ask about Hungarian Tokay wine and where to find it. While he was at it, this old Brooklynite threw in a couple reminiscences about New York’s long-gone Hotel Hungaria, where his brother had worked as a bartender. And as long as he was talking about his brother, he might as well mention that “in around 1895,” while he was tending bar at Duke’s House in Hoboken, New Jersey, he invented the Rob Roy cocktail.

The reader goes on to give the circumstances—a salesman for Usher’s Scotch whisky, one of the new blends taking the American market by storm, invited to join a table of men drinking Manhattans; a little speech on salesman’s ethics: “It’s not ethical for me to drink anything that does not contain Usher’s Scotch whisky”; the solution one of the gents came up with: the brother should “make a round of cocktails and put in Usher’s whisky”; the drink is good, a name is suggested, and done.

Such claims often surface in the years after a drink has become popular. Most of them do not check out. But there was one thing about this one that gave me pause: the letter writer, not a cocktail drinker himself, concluded by asking Fougner “if there is a Rob Roy cocktail listed in any of the books on the subject.” You generally don’t make things up unless you know there’s something in it for you. A little sleuthing, and the basics check out: the Duke House, across from the Manhattan ferry, was a popular Hoboken bar of the 1890s. Usher’s Scotch was sold in New York. But without further information, I filed the anonymous Brooklynite’s claim in the “could be” file.

Then, a few months later, looking for something else in a different database, I came across another chatty, nostalgic old-timer’s letter, this time to a different New York columnist. After reminiscing about the city’s Tompkins Square neighborhood in days of yore, the letter writer closes by mentioning that his brother “was a barkeeper and for a long time worked at the Little Hungary Café; he invented the Rob Roy cocktail.” What’s more, he signs his name: G. Fred Orphal, Brooklyn.

More web resources are quicky deployed, including Ancestry.com’s database of city directories, the ancestors of the phone book. This discloses that one Henry A. Orphal lived in Hoboken in 1895 and 1896, and that he was a bartender.

Is this conclusive? It’s certainly not beyond a reasonable doubt. But I don’t think you can run cocktail history by that standard. Even with all of these almost magical electronic resources, cocktails were not items of study until very recently. Their origins went unrecorded far more often than not, and only occasionally does one find a little thread by which one can haul them out into the light of day. This is one of those lucky threads. If it’s still open to some doubt, it at least fits the standard of the preponderance of the evidence. A guy without a personal interest in its outcome told a story and what could be checked out in it checked out. Good enough for me.

As for our Rob Roy cocktail. So it’s a substitute Manhattan. So it’s always been one, from the moment of its birth. It’s still a damn tasty drink and you should try one. Here’s how.

1.5 oz Good blended Scotch whisky, such as Johnnie Walker Black or Compass Box Great King Street.

1.5 oz Italian (sweet) vermouth, such as Cocchi Vermouth di Torino or Martini & Rossi

2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters or orange bitters

Garnish: orange peel

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Garnish with a twist of orange peel on top. If you want a stronger drink, use 2 oz Scotch and 1 oz vermouth.

The (Perfect) Rob Roy Cocktail

The Rob Roy is an old cocktail. It's a symbol of the introduction of blended scotch to the United Stated in the 1890's. Invented at the Waldorf Hotel in New York for a Broadway show with the same name as the drink, a Rob Roy is similar to a Manhattan with the bourbon substituted for blended scotch.

When just getting started mixing cocktails, its common to look at a recipe and think, “That’s just a Manhattan made with scotch.” And you’d be correct, but you’re underestimating the power one change in a cocktail can make. The scotch produces a drink that is less sweet than its bourbon counterpart, and one I personally find to be smoother.

This recipe is for a “Perfect Rob Roy,” meaning we split the vermouth half and half between sweet vermouth and dry. If you just order a “Rob Roy” it will be made only with sweet vermouth, and a “Dry Rob Roy” will be made with only dry vermouth.

A Perfect Rob Roy Cocktail

» 1.5 oz blended scotch whisky

» .75 oz vermouth: half sweet, half dry

» Dash of Angostura Bitters

» Maraschino cherry or lemon peel

Add the ingredients to a tall glass or cocktail shaker with ice and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with cherry or lemon peel.

Andrew Snavely

Andrew is the founder and editor of Primer. He's a graduate of American University and currently lives in Los Angeles. Read more about Primer on our About page. On Instagram: @andrewsnavely and @primermagazine.

I love manhattan , but just as you said: one ingredient can change the taste as it was new cocktail.

This is my go-to drink on almost all occasions. Jack and Ginger is up there too, but nothing beats a good Rob Roy.

I will try this recipe at home it makes me wonder what does it taste. thanks for this cocktail recipe.

Seems like a great party drink. Is this better with ice or just plain cocktail?

I will definitely try this mix this week end, my friends will be surprised for this new type of drink.

@Danica, it depends upon how you like it. It is traditionally served in a rocks glass; but is just as nice in stemware.

I make both a Manhattan and Rob Roy using 3oz of whiskey and 1oz of good French vermouth — bitters of course — and always a twist of lemon rather than a cherry. This measure is great for the new larger martini glasses.

Stir over large ice cubes and never shake a martini, Manhattan, or Rob Roy. Use several large ice cubes to reduce the watering down effect of chilling. I’ve been making these for 45 years and I still measure for precision.

Rob Roy

Scotland's Manhattan.

Share story:

The first-known mentions of the Rob Roy credit New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel for the 1897 recipe, which is essentially a Manhattan made with Scotch whisky. Cocktail historians figure the name was a nod to a play about the great Scotsman, which premiered three years earlier in Manhattan (hence the Scotch whisky). The drink skews a touch leaner than its bourbon and rye counterparts, and since the Scotch gets doctored up with sweet vermouth and bitters, a blended whisky will more than suffice.

Rob Roy

from Punch (http://punchdrink.com)

Ingredients

2 ounces Scotch, blended

1 ounce sweet vermouth

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Garnish: brandied cherry (preferably Luxardo) or a lemon twist

Directions

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass.

Add ice and stir until chilled.

Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass.

Garnish with a brandied cherry or a lemon twist.

Editor's Note

We love a Rob Roy mixed with Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, but if you can’t find it, Martini & Rossi makes a fine, albeit slightly fruitier substitute. Luxardo cherries are a luxury, but if you can find them, plop one in. Otherwise, go for a lemon twist.

Latest Article

How to Build a Concept Cocktail

A look at how four bartenders are translating literature, architecture and music into cocktails.

Rob Roy Cocktail

I’ve made you a cocktail! The holidays are right around the corner and with all the dinners, cocktail parties and family gatherings, you’re going to need a drink.

We’re taking it way back with this one, an old-fashioned classic that has stood the test of time; a Rob Roy. It’s similar to a Manhattan but it’s made with a blended Scotch instead of rye or bourbon.

Normally, I prefer bourbon over Scotch. But, the sweet vermouth and fresh, bright flavor of the garnishes mellow out the smokey, peaty flavor of the Scotch so well in this drink. It’s a delightfully sophisticated cocktail that will fit right in at your next holiday party.

Author: Kristen Olson

Prep Time: 5 mins

Total Time: 5 mins

Yield: 1 Cocktail

Category: Drinks

Ingredients

2 oz blended Scotch whisky

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

3 dashes orange bitters

Morello cherries and orange slices

Instructions

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with a cherry and orange slice.

Serving Size: 1 Cocktail

Calories: 149

Sugar: 0.1g

Sodium: 1.3 mg

Fat: 0g

Saturated Fat: 0g

Unsaturated Fat: 0g

Carbohydrates: 0.4g

Fiber: 0g

Protein: 0g

Cholesterol: 0g

What’s your favorite Scotch cocktail?

Interested in Scotch? Here’s some more for ya…

Reader Interactions

I love my whisky so this is definitely a cocktail I will be making in the upcoming Christmas. Thanks for the idea!

Thanks Thalia! Happy to hear you’re a whiskey fan. Classic cocktails like this one are always a hit around my house!

Primary Sidebar

I’m Kristen: a food obsessed adventurer and hobby beekeeper with a passion for bourbon.

Sign up to grab the new Ebook!

Don't miss out, join the Bourbon and Honey community to get your free eCookbook!

B&H’s Most Popular Recipes

About Bourbon and Honey

This is a place where you’ll find easy, delicious and wholesome recipes that are impressive enough for the weekend gathering but simple enough for a weeknight win. -Kristen

Recent Posts

Stay Connected!

© Copyright 2016 Bourbon and Honey · All Rights Reserved · And Our Sitemap · All Logos & Trademarks Belong To Delicious LLC·