Black Manhattan
A Black Manhattan is 50ml of rye whiskey, 20ml of Averna and a dash each of Angostura and orange bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with a cocktail cherry. About 2.6 UK units. It keeps the Manhattan’s five parts whiskey to two of the sweet partner and replaces all of the vermouth with amaro. Drinks and Drinking, a drinks newsletter, credits Todd Smith with it in 2005, when he was working at Cortez, a San Francisco restaurant; it gives his first version as bourbon, a smaller measure of Averna and coffee-cherry bitters he made himself. Kindred Cocktails, a cocktail database, says a 2008 Washington Post recipe already had rye, Averna, Angostura and orange bitters. Averna is a Sicilian amaro at 29% ABV on Difford’s Guide’s listing, and in our view sweet first and bitter after, with orange peel and a note close to cola. In the vermouth’s place it makes a darker, denser drink with a longer bitter finish.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
50ml
At 40% ABV or a little more. Its spice is the counterweight to the amaro, and a rye bottled in bond at 50% makes a drier, firmer drink.
20ml
The Sicilian amaro, at 29% ABV on Difford’s Guide’s listing, standing where the sweet vermouth stood: caramel, orange peel and herbs, with a bitter finish vermouth does not have.
1 dash
One dash, for clove and spice under the amaro. It is an accent here rather than the drink’s only bitterness.
Instructions
Chill a coupe in the freezer.
Add the rye, Averna, Angostura and orange bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled coupe.
Drop in a cocktail cherry.
Our version
Todd Smith’s first version, by the account in Drinks and Drinking, was bourbon, a smaller measure of Averna and his own coffee-cherry bitters. Ours is the later rye version, with a dash each of Angostura and orange bitters, at the Manhattan’s 50ml to 20ml.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Replace all of the vermouth. Half vermouth and half Averna gives a muddier Manhattan rather than a better Black one; if you want both, make two drinks and taste them side by side. Use rye. Averna is sweet before it is bitter, and rye’s pepper pushes back where bourbon’s corn adds yet more sweetness. If bourbon is all you have, take the Averna down to 15ml. Give it 20 to 30 seconds of stirring, not less. There is more sugar here than in a vermouth Manhattan, and the water from a long stir is what opens the amaro up.
Behind the Black Manhattan
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Drinks and Drinking credits Todd Smith with the drink in 2005, when he was working at Cortez, a restaurant in San Francisco, and, in his later words, “drinking and trying to find as much amaro as I could at the time”. Drinks and Drinking says the drink gained wider acclaim when he opened Bourbon & Branch in 2006.
The same Drinks and Drinking piece gives the first version as 2oz bourbon, 0.5oz Averna and two dashes of house-made coffee cherry bitters. Kindred Cocktails, a cocktail database, says Smith left Bourbon & Branch in early 2008 and the bar eventually ran out of his bitters, and that a 2008 Washington Post recipe already had rye, Averna, Angostura and orange bitters.
Why Averna
Averna fills the space sweet vermouth fills: sweetness, herbs, orange peel and enough body to stand against whiskey.
What it adds is weight and a bitter finish under the sugar. Vermouth is wine, fresh and aromatic; Averna is an amaro at 29% ABV, darker and longer. The drink behaves like a Manhattan and tastes like something else.
Rye and Ratio
Ours keeps the Manhattan’s measures, 50ml of whiskey to 20ml of the sweet partner, so the only change from the classic is the amaro.
Rye matters more here than in a vermouth Manhattan. Averna is sweet before it is bitter, and rye’s pepper holds the balance. Bourbon makes a rounder drink that leans towards liqueur; a rye bottled in bond at 50% makes a drier one.
Beside Its Parent
The Black Manhattan beside the Manhattan and the Perfect Manhattan; the units are our calculation at our working figures of 40% for rye, 16% for sweet vermouth and 18% for dry, with Averna at 29% on Difford’s Guide’s listing
Manhattan
- Rye
- 50ml
- Sweet partner
- 20ml sweet vermouth
- Bitters
- One dash Angostura
- Garnish
- Cocktail cherry
- UK units
- About 2.3
Black Manhattan (ours)
- Rye
- 50ml
- Sweet partner
- 20ml Averna
- Bitters
- One dash each Angostura and orange bitters
- Garnish
- Cocktail cherry
- UK units
- About 2.6
Perfect Manhattan
- Rye
- 50ml
- Sweet partner
- 10ml sweet, 10ml dry vermouth
- Bitters
- One dash Angostura
- Garnish
- Cherry or lemon twist
- UK units
- About 2.3
| Drink | Rye | Sweet partner | Bitters | Garnish | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | 50ml | 20ml sweet vermouth | One dash Angostura | Cocktail cherry | About 2.3 |
| Black Manhattan (ours) | 50ml | 20ml Averna | One dash each Angostura and orange bitters | Cocktail cherry | About 2.6 |
| Perfect Manhattan | 50ml | 10ml sweet, 10ml dry vermouth | One dash Angostura | Cherry or lemon twist | About 2.3 |
Other Amari
Averna is the reference, not the only choice. In our view Ramazzotti runs more herbal, Montenegro lighter and more floral, and Nonino lighter again and rounder; Nonino’s own page says its Quintessentia amaro is ennobled by Nonino grape distillate aged in barriques.
Avoid the severe end. A fernet has too much menthol and bitterness at 20ml and turns the drink into something else; if you want its note, add it as a dash.
How to Serve It
Up and very cold in a chilled coupe, with a cocktail cherry and no twist. The amaro makes it an after-dinner drink more than an aperitif.
For the original with sweet vermouth, make a Manhattan; for whiskey with Campari and vermouth, a Boulevardier.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Rye)Rye whiskey, under the US standard 27 CFR 5.143, takes at least 51% of its grain from rye and its colour from new charred oak, and goes into bottle at a 40% ABV minimum; our recipes take 40% as the figure. Rye makes a drier, spicier, more peppery spirit than corn, which is why stirred classics such as the Manhattan, Vieux Carré and Brooklyn are written for it. It appears in 23 of our recipes.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Black Manhattan?
Who created the Black Manhattan?
Rye or bourbon?
Why 50ml of rye to 20ml of Averna?
Can I use a different amaro?
Should I keep any vermouth in it?
How strong is a Black Manhattan?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Drinks and Drinking, “Black Manhattan” (secondary source, a drinks newsletter (Jason O’Bryan, 19 April 2024): created 2005 by Todd Smith, then at Cortez, San Francisco; Bourbon & Branch opened 2006; the original specs 2oz bourbon, 0.5oz Averna, two dashes of house-made coffee cherry bitters).
- Kindred Cocktails, “Black Manhattan” (secondary source, a cocktail database: Gaz Regan (2007) on the bourbon, Averna and cherry-coffee bitters version; Smith left Bourbon & Branch in early 2008 and they ran out of his bitters; the 2008 Washington Post recipe was rye, Averna, Angostura and orange bitters).
- Difford’s Guide, “Averna Amaro Siciliano” (secondary source: alc./vol. 29%; an infusion of aromatic herbs, dried flowers, spices and liquorice).
- Nonino, “Amaro Nonino Quintessentia” (producer’s own page: ennobled by ÙE Nonino Grape Distillate aged in barriques).
You Might Also Like
Manhattan
The IBA specifies 50ml of rye whiskey, 20ml of sweet vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters, strained into a chilled glass with a cocktail cherry; we stir it over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and serve it in a coupe. That is five parts whiskey to two of vermouth. About 2.3 UK units. The Oxford Companion says the most commonly told story puts it at New York’s Manhattan Club on 29 December 1874, at a testimonial dinner for Samuel J. Tilden, later retold with Jennie Jerome, Lady Randolph Churchill, as host or inspiration, and calls that story simply not true: she had given birth to Winston Churchill in Oxfordshire less than a month earlier. The Companion names O. H. Byron’s Modern Bartenders’ Guide among the bar books that printed the drink in 1884, and we read Byron’s and Charlie Paul’s books of that year in the Internet Archive scans. With so little in the glass, the vermouth decides it. Twenty millilitres is over a quarter of the drink, and a bottle opened months ago tastes flat and sour against the rye. We keep it in the fridge and replace it within about four weeks.
Toronto
A Toronto is 60ml of rye whiskey, 7.5ml of Fernet-Branca, 5ml of demerara syrup (2:1) and two dashes of Angostura, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist expressed over the top and dropped in. About 2.8 UK units. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, finds it first as the Fernet Cocktail in Robert Vermeire’s Cocktails: How to Mix Them, in 1922, with a note that it was much appreciated by the Canadians of Toronto. Vermeire used equal measures of fernet and cognac or rye. Later books called it the Toronto, and modern measures cut the fernet back to a seasoning. It is an Old Fashioned with the bitters turned up. Fernet’s menthol and bitter roots run through the rye’s spice, and the demerara rounds the edge.
Boulevardier
A Boulevardier is 45ml bourbon, 30ml Campari and 30ml sweet vermouth, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with orange peel. It is the bourbon Negroni: the same Campari and vermouth with bourbon in place of gin, and that one change makes it warmer and rounder. About 3.0 UK units. It first appeared in print in Barflies and Cocktails, Harry MacElhone’s book, published in Paris in 1927, in a chapter by the columnist Arthur Moss, as the cocktail of Erskine Gwynne, an American in Paris who, Difford’s Guide says, helped found a monthly magazine called Boulevardier. Barflies and Cocktails gives the 1927 recipe as equal parts Campari, Italian vermouth and bourbon. The measures here are the IBA’s, with the bourbon ahead of the other two. Equal parts works well with a lighter vermouth. Against a rich one such as Carpano Antica Formula, the extra 15ml of bourbon keeps the drink from turning heavy.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026