This recipe is from The Lost Kitchen, by Erin French, published in 2017. Personally, I don’t like Manhattans, and please don’t get any form of whiskey or bourbon close to my nose, because I can’t tolerate the smell! I wish I did.

The brown liquors seem so “easy” to drink. On tv shows, a crystal carafe of something brown is always sitting on lawyers’ desks. It gets poured into pretty glasses and people sip away.

My husband enjoys the brown stuff – specifically bourbon, and he loves a Manhattan. I’ve already posted a Manhattan here. I was able to get the recipe from a restaurant where he had enjoyed them. It’s where he also learned that two was the limit!

Ms. French’s recipe is a little different from a traditional one, because it includes maple syrup. I thought it would be a good fall-winter drink for the hubby.

I used the following ingredients for this cocktail. Punt e Mes is a sweet vermouth I have been using to make a Manhattan for my husband. He definitely liked Ms. French’s version as well.

Maple Manhattan
Makes 1 cocktail

2 ounces rye whiskey
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce maple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Ice
Liquor-soaked cherries

Combine the whiskey, vermouth, maple syrup, and bitters in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. In goes the maple syrup!

Shake for 30 seconds and strain into a chilled martini glass.

Garnish with a cherry.

The Manhattan was a pretty color, and my husband approved!