Rye, stirred
Saratoga
Barline 1,1,1,2,cl
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 oz Rye
- 1 oz Cognac
- 1 oz Sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe, lemon twist.
Taste
Equal ounces of rye, cognac, and sweet vermouth, so neither spirit leads. The cognac rounds the rye; two dashes of Angostura sit under grape and barrel. Stirred, coupe, lemon. A Manhattan that split the whiskey with brandy.
History
David Wondrich, in The Oxford Companion, treats the Saratoga as two competing drinks that shared the name of the New York spa town. Jerry Thomas's posthumous 1887 Bar-Tenders Guide prints equal ponies of brandy, whiskey, and vermouth with two dashes of Angostura, shaken, in a claret glass with a quarter slice of lemon. Harry Johnson, the following year, printed a fancy brandy cocktail with a squirt of champagne. For thirty years the books took sides; by the 1930s both were a memory. Thomas's split-base Manhattan is the one poured here: one ounce each of rye, cognac, and sweet vermouth, two dashes of Angostura, coupe, lemon.
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.