A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred with ice then strained into a chilled cocktail glass and garnished traditionally with a maraschino cherry. A Manhattan may also be served on the rocks in a lowball glass.
Vermouth is an aromatized fortified wine, flavoured with various botanicals and sometimes colored. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced in the mid to late 18th century in Turin, Italy. While vermouth was traditionally used for medicinal purposes, it was later served as an apéritif, with fashionable cafés in Turin serving it to guests around the clock. In the late 19th century, it became popular with bartenders as a key ingredient for cocktails, such as the martini, the Manhattan, the Rob Roy, and the Negroni. In addition to being consumed as an aperitif or cocktail ingredient, vermouth is sometimes used as an alternative to white wine in cooking.
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive and/or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. A common variation, the vodka martini, uses vodka instead of gin for the cocktail's base spirit.
The negroni is a cocktail, made of equal parts gin, vermouth rosso, and Campari, generally served on the rocks, and commonly garnished with an orange slice or orange peel. It is considered an apéritif.
Apéritifs and digestifs are drinks, typically alcoholic, that are normally served before and after a meal respectively.
Campari is an Italian alcoholic liqueur, considered an apéritif of the amaro variety, obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit in alcohol and water. It is a type of bitters, characterised by its dark red colour. It is produced by the Davide Campari Group, a multinational company based in Italy.
Gaspare Campari was an Italian drinks manufacturer.
Cynar is an Italian bitter apéritif of the amaro variety. It is made from 13 herbs and plants, predominant among which is the artichoke, from which the drink derives its name. Cynar is dark brown, has a bittersweet flavor, and its strength is 16.5% alc/vol. It was launched in Italy in 1952. A version with 35% ABV, called Cynar 70 Proof, became available in the 2010s.
"Shaken, not stirred" is how Ian Fleming's fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond prefers his martini cocktail.
Amaro is an Italian herbal liqueur that is commonly consumed as an after-dinner digestif. It usually has a bitter-sweet flavour, sometimes syrupy, and has an alcohol content between 16% and 40%.
The Vesper is a cocktail that was originally made of gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet. Since that form of Lillet is no longer produced, modern bartenders need to modify the recipe to mimic the original taste, with Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano as a typical substitute.
Davide Campari-Milano N.V., trading as Campari Group, is an Italian company active since 1860 in the branded beverage industry. It produces spirits, wines, and non-alcoholic apéritifs. From its signature product, Campari, its portfolio has been extended to include over 50 brands, including Aperol, Appleton, Cinzano, SKYY vodka, Espolón, Wild Turkey, Grand Marnier, and Forty Creek whisky.
A spritz is an Italian wine-based cocktail, commonly served as an apéritif across Italy. It consists of Prosecco, digestive bitters and soda water. The original spritz veneziano uses Select as bitters and was created in Venice in 1920. Popular variants are spritz al Campari, which uses Campari, and Aperol spritz, which uses Aperol as bitters.
Punt e Mes is an Italian vermouth. It is dark brown in color and has a bitter flavor. According to its producer, the name refers to the flavor being characterized as half a "point" of bitterness and one "point" of sweetness.
Aromatised wine is a wine flavoured with aromatic herbs and spices. These are classified by their alcohol content and the flavourings and other ingredients used. The European Union defines three categories which are: 'aromatised wine', 'aromatised wine-based drink' and 'aromatised wine-product cocktail'. Drinks which have an alcohol content of 1.2% abv or less, cannot be labelled as containing wine.
Giulio Cocchi Spumanti is a winery based in Asti, in the Italian Piedmont region, since 1891. The company was founded by Giulio Cocchi, a pastry chef originally from Tuscany who moved his business to the north-western Italian town of Asti in the late 19th century. The founder was interested in the pairing of food and wines he found in Asti, the capital of Moscato wines, and began producing aromatic-infused wines and sparkling wines. By the turn of the century his Barolo Chinato and Aperitivo Americano had become commercially successful in Piedmont, London, New York, Africa and South America.
Boker's Bitters was a brand of bitters manufactured by the L. J. Funke Company of New York City. The ingredient is specified in nearly every cocktail that called for bitters in Jerry Thomas' 1862 book, How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant's Companion. Among the ingredients were quassia, cardamom, and bitter orange peel.
