Rye Whiskey

This twist on the whiskey sour adds blueberries—plus a touch of amaro and funky rum.

A daisy is essentially a sour in which the sweet stuff is a liqueur (instead of just sugar). This whiskey daisy recipe is pretty classic—and totally delicious.

This fall whiskey punch has all the flavors of a pumpkin spice latte, but it’s completely transparent.

This cocktail with rye whiskey, pineapple, and sherry sits right at home with the way we drink now, but it dates back to 1917.

The Manhattan is a classic cocktail made with whiskey and sweet vermouth.

The Manhattan/Brooklyn cocktail riff that birthed a dozen others, Vincenzo Errico’s Red Hook was first served at the original Milk & Honey, the influential bar in New York.

This refreshing pick-me-up, made with rye, sherry, and crisp cold-brewed black tea, is slightly nutty, slightly malty, tart and thirst-quenching.

This fresh, tangy, tropical-style cocktail plays up the rich rum finish in Angel’s Envy Rye, without overpowering the whiskey’s spice.

Put together spicy rye, smoky mezcal, and coffee-accented amaro, and it’s easy to understand why Joe Briglio, of Chicago’s Billy Sunday, describes this cocktail as “my interpretation of the flavors of the early American West and possibly a cowboy’s campfire.” The drink name is inspired by a Tom Waits song called “Goin’ Out West,” he adds.

Manhattanesque in both composition and deliciousness, this whiskey and sherry welcomes swapping in bourbon if you prefer your drink a little sweeter.

Potent, peppery whiskey mingles with a crisp touch of sherry vinegar, but the key to the perfect mix is a softening spoonful of maple syrup. The drink comes together silky and rich, with a lingering maple flavor that’s perfect for a cool evening.

This cocktail is a smoky variation on the Manhattan, created by bartender Eryn Reece during her tenure at Death & Co.

This Manhattan variation from Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club in NYC starts with rye and vermouth, then adds Cynar amaro to appealing effect. 

This festive, spiced toddy starts with a black tea base. English breakfast tea is especially good with the black pepper and star anise, but Earl Grey would be nice, too.

Serve this festive, warming punch to welcome guests in from the cold or along with dessert at the end of a holiday feast.

This twist on the classic whiskey cocktail is the perfect companion to the fall season.

The double-shake method is key to this cocktail’s texture. The first round is to break up the egg white; the second is to chill and froth the drink.

This is a tiki drink disguised as an old-fashioned, so it's no surprise that it comes from Brian Miller, Death & Co's resident scalawag and expert on all things Polynesian. One night a waitress asked Brian to make something stirred and boozy, so he took one of tiki's core principles—blending several base spirits to create a new flavor profile—and applied it to whiskey and brandy. It was another breakthrough moment for the bar, and these days it's not unusual to find two or more base spirits in our drinks.

A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)
By John Kennedy Toole Originally handwritten on piles of paper, A Confederacy of Dunces found life only after its author lost his own; John Kennedy Toole committed suicide, his mother found those secret pages, and she began hawking the thing around their home state of Louisiana, claiming it was the next great American novel. (Sorry, guys: sometimes moms are right.) Now a universally adored Pulitzer-winner starring a brilliant New Orleans nut with a heart of odd, this classic goes best with another: the Big Easy's own Sazerac. Raise a glass to the tragically shortchanged Toole—and everything else he might have written.

We were surprised to discover the Frisco Sour, as it was so close in ingredients to our Ruby Tuesday cocktail. This very tasty cocktail provides a multidimensional gastronomical experience. We serve it mainly to people who are exploring whiskey cocktails other than Manhattans and traditional sours. We have little information about this savory cocktail besides its recipe as it appears in Charles Schumann’s American Bar and later editions of Mr. Boston.

We will not simply turn a blind eye to the contemporary version of the Old Fashioned—it was the first cocktail we were taught that used bitters. Somewhere between the 1890s and 1930s, what probably started out as an ornamental garnish of orange and cherry fell into the mixing glass and got muddled with sugar and bitters. We see evidence of this drink in Burke’s Complete Cocktail and Drinking Recipes from 1936, in which the fruit is muddled, whereas during the same period Old Mr. Boston Bartender’s Guide continued to add the fruit after making the drink. More than likely it was a trick used during Prohibition to mask poor-quality booze that stuck with many and was passed down over the generations. Today, many look down on this version of the cocktail, mostly because of the use of commercial, artificial maraschino cherries. Many young cocktail enthusiasts may not have enjoyed this cocktail in its original form, so we offer this restoration for them.

According to David Wondrich, the Whiskey Smash comes from the Baroque Age (see opposite page) of the cocktail. Obviously, it served as inspiration for our seasonal Ginger Smash cocktails, but it is in all its features a julep—the only difference being that the Smash has some ornamental fruits for garnish and is always shaken so that the mint is “smashed”—hence the name. From all the smashes in the Baroque Age, it appears that the Brandy Smash was the most popular (same drink, different base spirit—try it out for yourself), but somehow the whiskey version stuck with us. Maybe sampling Dale DeGroff’s rocking peach whiskey smash sealed the deal for us, or maybe it was just that we loved the term “smashed.” In any case, this is a very simple drink to make, and we suggest that you use our homemade Mint Syrup in place of simple syrup for a far more dimensional cocktail experience. This cocktail is one of the very few that contains no juice but nevertheless should be shaken and smashed.

The Manhattan cocktail we serve is not to be confused with the contemporary Manhattan. This recipe first appeared in the latter part of the nineteenth century and is referenced in later editions of How to Mix Drinks or the Bon Vivant’s Companion as well as Harry Johnson’s 1882 Bartenders’ Manual. This forgotten formula has a higher ratio of sweet vermouth to rye whiskey, with an accent of orange Curaçao and Boker’s bitters, served straight up with a lemon twist. Cherries in Manhattans came later as the mixture evolved into a different cocktail. The subtle mingling of flavors in this version illustrates an older style of drink making. Of course, as with any epic cocktail, there are several conflicting stories about its origins. Our favorite version has Winston Churchill’s mother, Jennie, ordering its creation for the celebration of Samuel Tilden’s election as governor of New York at the Manhattan Club. As exciting as this may sound, it seems that little Winston had more to do with disproving the theory. At the time of the election, Lady Churchill was in England giving birth to Winston, and the only noted celebration for Tilden actually coincided with the day of Winston Churchill’s christening.

Now the official cocktail of New Orleans, this spicy, heady concoction was the creation of a Creole apothecary named Peychaud whose medicinal tinctures became after-hours cocktails with the addition of whiskey and sugar.