dry manhattan recipe: how to make a dry manhattan drink with dry vermouth

Posted on by barkeep

As you might imagine, the Dry Manhattan is a variation of the traditional Manhattan drink. It uses dry vermouth instead of the sweet vermouth that is used in the traditional Manhattan. This makes the drink much less sweeter.

The proportions of the ingredients remain more or less the same as the original Manhattan. You could try different brands of the dry vermouth to see which of them you like better. I mostly prefer a French vermouth such as Dolin Blanc. The drink is garnished with a twisted lemon peel instead of the maraschino cherry.

Whiskey and dry vermouth is a slightly odd combination and this is generally an acquired taste. A traditional or Perfect Manhattan is more popular than the Dry Manhattan, probably for the same reason.

Ingredients

  • 3 shots of Rye or Bourbon Whiskey
  • 1 shot of Dry Vermouth
  • Couple of dashes of Angostura Bitters
  • Lemon peel for garnish

Recipe/Preparation

  1. Add some ice cubes into a martini shaker
  2. Add three shots of the Rye Whiskey into the shaker
  3. Add a shot of the Dry Vermouth
  4. Shake well to mix the ingredients
  5. Add couple of dashes of Angostura bitters into a chilled martini glass
  6. Swirl the bitters around to evenly coat the glass
  7. Strain the contents of the shaker into the glass
  8. Garnish with a twisted lemon peel
Dry Manhattan Cocktail

Variations and Similar Drinks

Manhattan: The traditional Manhattan uses sweet vermouth instead of the dry vermouth.
Dry Rob Roy: This uses Scotch Whisky as the base spirit instead of the Rye Whiskey. This drink is also known as the Dry Scotch Manhattan.
Perfect Manhattan: The Perfect Manhattan uses both the sweet as well as the dry vermouth in its recipe.
Brandy Manhattan: It is actually a variation of the traditional Manhattan, and used Brandy as the base spirit.

Tips

  • As with the other Manhattan variations, you can use Bourbon instead of the Rye whiskey.
  • You can add the bitters directly to the shaker and shake with the other ingredients, instead of swirling it in the martini glass.
  • You could try a slighter larger proportion of the dry vermouth. I usually tend to make the traditional Manhattan with equal parts of whiskey and vermouth. You can try the same with the dry Manhattan as well.