Scotch, stirred
Rob Roy
Barline 2,1,2,c
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 2 oz Scotch
- 1 oz Sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Orange bitters
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe.
Taste
Two ounces of scotch to one of sweet vermouth, the Manhattan ratio. Two dashes of orange bitters put peel under the malt. Stirred, coupe, no garnish on the menu. Leaner than a bourbon Manhattan, orange oil in the grape.
History
The Rob Roy is a Scotch Manhattan, named for Reginald De Koven and Harry B. Smith's 1894 Broadway operetta about the Highland outlaw Robert Roy MacGregor. The Waldorf-Astoria, then on Fifth Avenue near Herald Square Theatre, is the usual credit; other writers point to the Fifth Avenue Hotel. David Wondrich found Henry A. Orphal at Duke's House in Hoboken, around 1895, swapping Scotch into a Manhattan for a whisky salesman who would not drink anything else. Early books often use orange bitters; later ones shift to Angostura. This menu keeps two ounces of scotch, one of sweet vermouth, and two dashes of orange bitters, coupe.
Same shape, other bottles
The Martini family, with the bottle that changed.
- Manhattanbourbon for scotch
- Martinigin and dry vermouth for scotch and sweet vermouth
- Racquet Clubgin and dry vermouth for scotch and sweet vermouth
- Saratogarye and cognac for scotch
- Bobby Burnswith Bénédictine
- Dry Orange Martinigin and dry vermouth for scotch and sweet vermouth
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.