A Coffee In Manhattan (Original Recipe)

 

Another original recipe, here: this time I'm playing around with flavors that aren't often paired together to create yet another Manhattan variation. The theme I'm going with is breakfast--coffee enjoyed with half of a grapefruit. I love this combination of acidic flavors. They don't go together at all. Coffee is so dark and bitter and grapefruit juice is so tart but also a little bitter and sweet. Having them together is jarring, but not unpleasant. I recommend it.

But I really recommend this Manhattn variation because of its lifting grapefruit bitters that set it apart from other coffee Manhattans. Lifting bitters bring essences up to your nose and provide a palate lift that breaks up heavy tasting ingredients. This is opposed to binding bitters that help join disparate flavors like whiskey and vermouths. This cocktail still has whiskey and vermouth, but it the use of Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters puts a burst of acidity right in the middle of that bitter depth of MurLarkey Coffee whiskey and bittersweet vermouth that normally a Manhattan drinker looks forward to. It essentially causes you to wake up from the boring slumber of drinking the same kind of Manhattan, and it does this with the flavors I enjoy at breakfast. 

• 2 oz. MurLarkey Heritage whiskey
• 1 oz. MurLarkey coffee whiskey
• 1/2 oz. Cocchi Dopo Teatro sweet vermouth
• 4 dashes Fee Brothers Grapefruit Bitters
• 1 Luxardo cherry garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the cherry stuck on a cocktail pick.