fewbottles.com

Scotch, stirred

Affinity

Barline 1h,Q,Q,2,clc

The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.

Stir with ice until cold, then strain.

Coupe, lemon twist, cherry.

Open in the menu

Taste

An ounce and a half of scotch, then three-quarters each of sweet and dry vermouth, so the whiskey leads and the vermouths split. Two dashes of Angostura sit under both. Stirred, coupe, lemon and cherry. A Perfect Manhattan on scotch: malt, grape, and bark.

History

The Affinity first appears in The New York Sun on 28 October 1907 as a Broadway cocktail of Scotch whisky, Italian vermouth, powdered sugar, and orange bitters. The version that stuck, equal French vermouth, Italian vermouth, and Scotch with aromatic bitters, prints in Jacob A. Didier's The Reminder in 1909, is repeated by Hugo Ensslin in 1917, and is the formula Harry Craddock puts in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930. Both vermouths and two dashes of Angostura remain; with an ounce and a half of scotch against three-quarters of each vermouth, the whiskey leads.

Same shape, other bottles

The Martini family, with the bottle that changed.

This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.