Brooklyn
A Brooklyn is 60ml of rye whiskey and 22.5ml of dry vermouth, with 7.5ml each of maraschino liqueur and Averna and two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass with a cherry. About 3.3 UK units. The Averna and orange bitters stand in for Amer Picon, the French bitter orange aperitif the old recipes call for. Picon has been reformulated since, so the bottle the drink was written for is gone, and any Brooklyn poured now is a reconstruction. The earliest printed Brooklyn is in Jacob Grohusko’s Jack’s Manual, 1908, as equal parts rye and Italian vermouth with a dash each of Picon and maraschino. By 1913 Jacques Straub was making it with French, or dry, vermouth, and the revival settled on that drier reading.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry
Ingredients
60ml
Rye of 40% ABV upwards. The drink is dry throughout, and bourbon’s corn sweetness pulls it out of shape.
22.5ml
French-style dry vermouth, about 18% ABV, opened within the month and kept cold. It is what separates the Brooklyn from a Manhattan, which uses sweet.
7.5ml
A clear cherry liqueur, around 32% ABV. At a bar spoon and a half it adds cherry stone and a bitter almond note in the background, never a flavour you could name.
7.5ml
Standing in for Amer Picon. Averna is a Sicilian amaro, about 29% ABV, with bitter orange and caramel; Bigallet China-China sits closer to Picon if you can find it.
2 dashes
Two dashes, supplying the orange that Picon carried and the Averna alone does not.
Instructions
Chill a Nick and Nora glass in the freezer.
Add the rye, dry vermouth, maraschino, Averna and orange bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
Expert Tip
Keep the Averna at 7.5ml. An amaro standing in for Picon tempts a heavier pour, and at double the measure the glass tastes of amaro with rye somewhere underneath. The Brooklyn is a rye drink with two small seasonings. Use fresh dry vermouth, opened within the month and stored cold. After the rye it is the biggest measure in the glass, and an oxidised bottle turns the drink flat and faintly sour. Stir for the full 20 to 30 seconds and strain into a glass from the freezer. Nothing in the drink is sweet enough to hide a warm, under-diluted pour.
Behind the Brooklyn
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The Brooklyn first appears in Jack’s Manual, published in 1908 by Jacob Grohusko, head bartender at Baracca’s restaurant on Wall Street. His version was half rye and half Italian vermouth, with a dash of Amer Picon and a dash of maraschino.
Whether Grohusko invented it is not recorded. Naming drinks after New York’s boroughs was the fashion, with the Manhattan already well known. By 1913 Jacques Straub’s manual made the Brooklyn with French vermouth, and the revival settled on that drier reading.
The Amer Picon Problem
Amer Picon is a French bitter orange aperitif. It is still sold, but it has been reformulated and its strength reduced since 1908, so the bottle the recipe was written for no longer exists.
Every Brooklyn now uses a stand-in. Bigallet China-China, a French bitter orange liqueur, comes closest. Averna with orange bitters is the easiest to buy, and Amaro CioCiaro is a common third choice.
A Manhattan, Made Dry
Take away the two seasonings and a Brooklyn is rye and dry vermouth at a little under three to one. In a Manhattan, sweet vermouth adds sugar, body and wine fruit. Dry vermouth adds only the wine and herbs, so something has to fill the gap.
The maraschino and the bitter orange fill it. Maraschino gives cherry stone and a faint sweetness; the amaro gives bitterness and weight. Together they do the work of sweet vermouth with far less sugar, which is why the drink tastes drier than its ingredient list suggests.
The Brooklyn Against Its Neighbours
The Brooklyn, its 1908 original and two relations
Brooklyn (ours)
- Whiskey
- 60ml rye
- Vermouth
- 22.5ml dry
- Seasoning
- 7.5ml maraschino, 7.5ml Averna, orange bitters
- UK units
- About 3.3
Brooklyn (Grohusko, 1908)
- Whiskey
- Half rye
- Vermouth
- Half Italian
- Seasoning
- A dash each of Amer Picon and maraschino
- UK units
- Proportions only
Manhattan
- Whiskey
- 50ml rye
- Vermouth
- 20ml sweet
- Seasoning
- A dash of Angostura
- UK units
- About 2.3
Red Hook
- Whiskey
- 60ml rye
- Vermouth
- 22.5ml Punt e Mes
- Seasoning
- 15ml maraschino
- UK units
- About 3.2
| Drink | Whiskey | Vermouth | Seasoning | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn (ours) | 60ml rye | 22.5ml dry | 7.5ml maraschino, 7.5ml Averna, orange bitters | About 3.3 |
| Brooklyn (Grohusko, 1908) | Half rye | Half Italian | A dash each of Amer Picon and maraschino | Proportions only |
| Manhattan | 50ml rye | 20ml sweet | A dash of Angostura | About 2.3 |
| Red Hook | 60ml rye | 22.5ml Punt e Mes | 15ml maraschino | About 3.2 |
The sweet vermouth original is the Manhattan. The Red Hook replaces both the vermouth and the Picon with Punt e Mes.
How to Serve It
Strained into a Nick and Nora glass from the freezer, with one cocktail cherry and no ice. The drink is small and strong; drink it before it warms.
Make one beside a Manhattan once. The same rye in the same shape: one plush and sweet, the other dry and faintly bitter.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Rye)Rye whiskey, in American law, 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 Brooklyn cocktail?
What happened to Amer Picon?
What can I use instead of Amer Picon?
How strong is a Brooklyn?
How is a Brooklyn different from a Manhattan?
How does it relate to the Red Hook?
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Red Hook
A Red Hook is 60ml of rye whiskey, 22.5ml of Punt e Mes and 15ml of maraschino liqueur, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass with a cocktail cherry. About 3.2 UK units. Enzo Errico created it in 2003 at Milk & Honey, Sasha Petraske’s bar in New York, and named it after Red Hook, the old waterfront district of Brooklyn. It sits between the Manhattan and the Brooklyn: rye from both, maraschino from the Brooklyn, and Punt e Mes, a bitter-edged Italian vermouth, doing the work of sweet vermouth and the bitter Amer Picon at once. The published recipe takes 15ml of Punt e Mes. We pour 22.5ml, which keeps the bitterness in step with a maraschino measure twice the size of the Brooklyn’s.
Manhattan
A Manhattan is 50ml of rye whiskey, 20ml of sweet vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with a cocktail cherry. Those are the IBA’s measures, five parts whiskey to two of vermouth. About 2.3 UK units. The most repeated origin story puts it at New York’s Manhattan Club in the 1870s, at a banquet given by Lady Randolph Churchill; she was in France at the time, so the story is unlikely. What is established is that the drink was in print by 1884, in guides by O.H. Byron and Charlie Paul. 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. Keep it in the fridge and replace it within about four weeks.
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. Todd Smith is credited with it, in San Francisco around 2005. One account places it at Cortez, a restaurant where he was working before he opened Bourbon & Branch in 2006, and gives his first version as bourbon, a smaller measure of Averna and coffee-cherry bitters he made himself. The rye, Angostura and orange bitters came later. Averna is a Sicilian amaro at 29% ABV, 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.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026