Member-only story
This year has been so weighty, and the sand is trickling quickly through the hourglass. I enjoyed and thoroughly celebrated a Brown Spirit Summer, and guess what? I’m ready to slip into a new season. Call it sipping season. As autumn leaves start to fall and the weather becomes increasingly chilly, that’s the time for sophisticated drinks meant to warm the spirit at a leisurely pace. I’ve been seeking a new way to understand and fully enjoy the spirits of the season, and I think I found just the drink. Let’s get into the Manhattan and the Black Manhattan, shall we?
“It is a drink that really lets the spirits that I love really shine.” – Alise Leslie, writer, mixologist and co-founder of The R&B Representers podcast
The Manhattan cocktail itself dates back to the 1800’s. The book, The Manhattan: The Story of the First Modern Cocktail tells it all. Despite some historic debate, the original Manhattan Club of New York laid claim to the origins of the drink that galvanized the bartending world and became a classic American cocktail. In 2005, renowned bartender Todd Smith created the first Black Manhattan at San Francisco’s famously innovative bar, Bourbon & Branch. What’s the difference between the Manhattan and the Black Manhattan? A Black Manhattan creates an aromatic spin on the old classic by using Averna or amaro — a herbaceous Italian liqueur — in place of sweet vermouth (which is fortified red wine).
This year, the legacy of the cocktail continued via the Black Bourbon Society and Diversity Distilled’s the Black Manhattan Project — a campaign to draw awareness to the need for diversity and inclusion within the spirits industry. Their campaign highlighted Black bartenders in a professional bartending competition — check out blackmanhattanproject.com for more details. And thanks to Durham, North Carolina based writer, podcaster, bartender and mixologist Alise Leslie, we have an official Black Manhattan recipe to try ourselves.
Alise Leslie is a writer, co-founder of The R&B Representers podcast, and she’s been…
