In 1882, The Democrat newspaper remarked that, “It is but a short time ago that a mixture of whiskey, vermouth, and bitters came into vogue. In the same article, it was mentioned that this spirit had been known as Turf Club cocktail, Jockey Club cocktail and a Manhattan cocktail. Well, how did this famous cocktail come about?
Indeed, many cocktails have a story of origin, or in other words, they have recipes that have been lost in the dusty pages of history… Like so other cocktails, Manhattan also has several theories about how it came about. The most popular of these that Dr. Iain Marshall discover the mixture of whiskey, vermouth and bitters at a party was held by Lady Randolph Churchill at the Manhattan Club in New York. However, this story goes no further than a rumor because Lady Randolph was pregnant with Winston Churchill at that time.
A bartender working at The Hoffman House in 1880s says that, a gentlemen nicknamed “Black” who lived near the hotel invented this famous cocktail. This new is remarked in Valentine’s Manual of New York, a book from 1923.
Of course, there are several recipes too. The first written recipe of Manhattan is found in a book called The Modern Bartenders’ Guide (1884). The book includes two different recipes for Manhattan:
Manhattan Cocktail No.1:
1 pony French vermouth
1/2 pony whiskey
3 or 4 Angostura bitters
3 dashes gum syrup
Manhattan Cocktail No.2:
2 dashes Curacao
2 dashes Angostura bitters
½ wine glass of whiskey
½ wine glass of Italian vermouth
Another recipe comes from The Flowing Bowl written by William Schmidts in 1891:
2 dashes of gum syrup
2 dashes bitter
1 dash of absent
2/3 pony whiskey
1/3 pony vermouth
