The Manhattan is the king of cocktails. My golfing buddies, the Cahoonas, turned me on to the drink a long time ago but my appreciation for the cocktail and its complexity has grown as I have gotten older and wiser. The Manhattan can be stirred or shaken with ice and strained into a cocktail glass, where it is garnished with a Maraschino cherry with a stem. But Cahoona Pat taught me how to make the drink served on the rocks in a Old Fashioned glass and so that has always been my preferred method. He also taught me a little secret that I will reveal a bit later in this post.
In February 2010, my wife and I were in Orlando for the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention. We were there over Valentine's Day and so I took her to dinner to commemorate the occasion (and our very first date which was on Valentine's Day 1977!). We decided to eat at one of the restaurants in the J.W. Marroitt Hotel in which we were staying.
We commenced our evening's festivities with a pre-dinner cocktail. As luck would have it, the bar featured a Manhattan on their bar menu so I ordered one. I noticed the bar tender "shaking" drinks proving to me that he knew what he was doing.
My Manhattan was good (an 8 on a 1-10 scale). When the drink was gone, however, I tasted nirvana as I popped the dark cherry into my mouth. It complimented the complex tastes of the Manhattan so much better than the regular maraschino that normally accompanies the drink.
I asked our server about the cherry and she informed me that it was a very special cherry that was "contraband" in the U.S. I inquired about that and she told me you could not buy these cherries here. She told me they were Amarena cherries. You could only buy them in Italy. That sounded like a challenge to me - and the cherries in the cocktail were worth the challenge.
As luck would have it, our son Alex was studying in Florence, Italy that semester. Our daughter, Rachel, and her then boyfriend, now husband, Andrew, were going to Europe to visit Alex over Easter. I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to score some contraband cherries!
So I told them to forgo the Italian leather gifts, the fine Italian ties or other traditional gifts from Italy and bring me some Amarena cherries. That's all I wanted - some cherries for my Manhattans.
As the three of them traversed Italy, they looked everywhere for Amarena cherries. They had absolutely no luck in finding the cherries. Even Alex's mentor, Fr. Bruno, could not help them find the rare fruit. They did find a variety of maraschino cherries which Rachel and Andrew brought back for me (in lieu of leather or ties!).
But I was not going to take no for an answer so my quest for the scarce cherry took me where I should have started - a Google search. The second result - right after the Wikipedia entry - was Amazon. On Amazon, I found several different brands and sizes. Paydirt!
I ordered the cherries (in the gallon size) and they showed up two days later. I wanted to go straight home (at noon) and park behind my bar and experiment with my new swag. I exhibited an incredible amount of self control and waited until mid afternoon.
Now a gallon of cherries is a lot of cherries. They came in heavy syrup and so I had to separate the cherries from the syrup. I needed some containers suitable for the task. While I stumbled through the whole process the first time, I now have a system complete with the perfect containers.
As I mentioned above, Cahoona Pat had a "secret" ingredient to make his Manhattans special. That secret was a bit of cherry juice mixed in with the whiskey, vermouth and bitters. The syrup that the Amerena cherries came in would take that secret to another level.
As I mixed my first Manhattan with Cahoona Pat's recipe and my cherries, I found that I had a magnificent new twist on a great recipe for a classic cocktail. I could not wait to share it with the Cahoonas on our annual week-long golfing trek to Minnesota.
So I bragged about my new-found mélange to the boys in the lead-up to our trip. They told me that if it was as good as advertised, to be sure to bring plenty! So about two weeks before our trip, I ordered a gallon. I left it sitting on the basement bar so I wouldn't forget it.
That year we left a day early and played a round of golf in Sioux Falls and had dinner at Cahoona Mark's house. After dinner, the requests for one of these new Manhattans mounted as cigars came out. The bar was set up, all it needed was cherries - the cherries that were sitting at home on my bar, where I had placed them so I wouldn't forget them. There would be no special cocktails that evening.
As I took a relentless razzing for my absentmindedness, I was furious contemplating how I might salvage the the bar setup at the "Tiger Woods" cabin at the golf resort in Minnesota. I struck on an idea - Amazon had rescued me before, perhaps it could do it again.
I whipped out my trusty iPhone and brought up the Amazon app. I bucked up for the overnight delivery and placed and order for a $90 gallon of Amarena cherries. I was able to drown my concerns about the cherries in some fine whiskey that evening. There is always fine whiskey when you're with the Cahoonas!
The next day when we checked into the resort north of Brainerd, MN, there was a package for me already waiting. The cherries had beaten us there! I've been an Amazon fan ever since. Amazon.com - the remote bar tender's best friend!!
The relentless abuse stopped later that evening when the pre-dinner cocktails came out. The Cahoonas agreed that the cocktails were better than advertised and showed their appreciation by swilling them down non-stop for five straight days.
The Amarena cherry Manhattan has become a staple of the Cahoona trip, a signature drink at Rachel and Andrew's wedding and a trademark drink at the Knust family bar - even when it's on the road.
Here are a couple of tips for making this delectable blend. The syrup that the cherries come in is very heavy. I have learned to cut in by mixing one part water with one part syrup. I have also discovered that taking about one quarter of the cherries and soaking them in some good whiskey for a couple weeks makes a luscious bar treat.
But the most important tip I can offer is to use good whiskey or rye - whatever your preference. Life is to short to drink bad whiskey!
World Famous Knust Amarena Manhattan
1 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
4 oz bourbon or rye whiskey (my favorite for Manhattan is Maker's Mark)
1 dash Angostura® bitters
1/2 - 1 oz Amarena cherry syrup (I like 1/2 oz; wife likes 1 oz, depends how sweet you prefer)
2 Amarena cherries (unless it's an after dinner drink, then add three)
Combine the vermouth, whiskey, bitters and cherry syrup with a cocktail shaker full of ice. Shake gently. Place the cherries in a chilled Old Fashioned glass and pour ice and cocktail over the cherry or, even better, strain the drink into the Old Fashioned glass with a "bourbon ball" ice cube. The cherry juice will give the cocktail a deep maroon tint.
I have found that a good cut of beef (like a Cowboy ribeye) or a herb-crusted rack of lamb go well with the Manhattan. But nothing pairs with the "King of Cocktails" like an after dinner cigar and some stories from the day's golf game!!!
Cheers!!
Updated 7/26/2018
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