Brooklyn

Difford's Guide
Discerning Drinkers (71 ratings)

Serve in a

Coupe glass

Read about cocktail measures and measuring.

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of skewered Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Garnish with skewered cherry.

Allergens:


Recipe contains the following allergens:

Strength & taste guide:


Review:

Perhaps my favourite of the many renditions of the Brooklyn cocktail due to being dry yet made approachable by faint sweet maraschino and bittersweet herbal complexity.

History:

One of the Manhattan variations named after New York's five boroughs, the Brooklyn Cocktail was inspired by the already established and popular Manhattan and the Bronx.

The Brooklyn Cocktail (as we know it today) first appears in print in Jacob. A. Grohusko's 1908 Jack's Manual.

BROOKLYN COCKTAIL
1 dash Amer. Picon bitters
1 dash Maraschino
50% rye whiskey
50% Ballor Vermouth
Fill glass with ice.
Stir and strain. Serve.

Jacob. A. Grohusko, 1908

Jacob 'Jack' Grohusko lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, and was the head bartender at Baracca's Restaurant in Wall Street, lower Manhattan. His only tenuous link with Brooklyn was that the owner of Baracca's, Victor Baracca, was a Brooklynite. No matter, he put the borough on the cocktail map and, in 1913, Jacques Straub included a version of the drink using French [dry] vermouth rather than Italian [sweet] in his Straub's Manual of Mixed Drinks.

BROOKLYN COCKTAIL
1 Dash Amer Picon.
1 Dash Maraschino.
½ Jigger French Vermouth.
½ Jigger good Rye Whiskey.
Stir.

Jacques Straub, Straub's Manual of Mixed Drinks, 1913

You'll also find the Brooklyn in Harry Cradock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book made with 2/3 Canadian Club whisky and 1/3 French vermouth alongside dashes of Amer Picon and Maraschino. In his 1934 Official Mixer's Manual, Patrick Gavin Duffy also opts for the 2/3 rye whiskey to 1/3 French vermouth formula.

BROOKLYN COCKTAIL.
1 Dash Amer Picon.
1 Dash Maraschino.
⅔ Canadian Club Whisky.
⅓ French Vermouth.
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass

Harry Cradock, The Savoy Cocktail Book, 1930

BROOKLYN COCKTAIL
1 Dash Amer Picon
1 Dash Maraschino
⅔ Rye Whisky
⅓ French Vermouth
Stir well in ice and strain.

Patrick Gavin Duffy, Official Mixer's Manual, 1934

Nutrition:

One serving of Brooklyn contains 199 calories.

Alcohol content:

  • 2.1 standard drinks
  • 24.8% alc./vol. (49.6° proof)
  • 29.8 grams of pure alcohol
Difford's Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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