It’s November, it’s grey and it’s only going to get greyer. And colder. And wetter. Which is why there’s no better time to play an old game that I like to call ‘Which Drink Is Better?” This is a game that involves me writing about two drinks, thinking about two drinks and - most probably – drinking those two drinks.
Read this post and by January 2016 when you survey the remnants of the year just passed you’ll be able to say that you chose between the Manhattan and the Old Fashioned; that you came to a decision that many have run from.
In the crudest manner possible, here is my run of ‘Which Drink Is Better?’ played out for your pleasure. Disagree?
The Glass
The Old Fashioned tumbler or rocks glass is solid in hand and sturdy enough to bash around once you’ve had too many. The Manhattan glass is a delicate vessel, which directs you to the drink’s superior level of balance between the elements. But, nobody wants broken glass and that is a stem waiting to snap.
Old Fashioned Wins
The Ice
A Manhattan has no ice in the glass – it therefore does not dilute. It therefore wins on the merits of lack of ice in glass.
Manhattan Wins
The Preparation
It undoubtedly takes more skill to balance the components of a Manhattan. Fact. Yes, the Old Fashioned has the stirring but the Manhattan takes a more intuitive hand to fine tune the drink. Each possesses a spare simplicity that’s hard to balance but the Manhattan takes it.
Manhattan Wins
The Liquor
History has failed to show me that the two drinks can be separated on their liquor. Each can be made with bourbon or the more nuanced Rye whiskey (but, really, always rye) and so why try to choose between them? Well, because we need a winner and so the presence of Vermouth swings it the way of the New Yorker.
Manhattan Wins
The Garnish
If the cherries are of the required standard then each drink gets a pat on the back. The addition of orange and its oils in the Old Fashioned gets me thinking of the Chocolate Orange at this time of year and the question, ‘why is a Terry’s Chocolate Orange the only acceptable form of orange chocolate? So… it’s obvious.
Old Fashioned Wins
The Pop Culture
The Old Fashioned is Don Draper’s drink of choice which lends it a certain gravitas but really, isn’t that double act a little ‘old fashioned’ in itself? However, I’ll concede that when a TV show has a large hand in re-popularising a cocktail it that has to be acknowledged. But, I still prefer the sound of Bette Midler requesting a Manhattan from the bartender before Tom Waits chimes in on I Never Talk to Strangers.
Manhattan Wins
The Provenance
When a drink gets its name for basically being really old we’ve got to say it reeks of ‘cool story bro’. However, when the Old Fashioned can also claim that it was quite probably the first mixed drink to be named a ‘cocktail’, then, well, kudos. As for the Manhattan. Was it invented at the Manhattan Club in the mid-19th century or somewhere else in the borough? Who cares, the Old Fashioned gets it.
Old Fashioned Wins
So, there you have it. It’s official, the Manhattan really is the King of Cocktails...
