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.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Orange twist expressed and dropped in
Ingredients
60ml
A spicy rye at 40% ABV or stronger. Its pepper carries through the menthol and bitter roots; bourbon makes a softer, sweeter drink.
7.5ml
The Milanese amaro, at 39% ABV: menthol, saffron and bitter roots. At 7.5ml it seasons the rye; at Vermeire’s equal measure it leads.
5ml
Demerara sugar dissolved in half its weight of water, our house 2:1. Its caramel note holds the fernet better than plain syrup, which is thinner and lets the amaro run.
2 dashes
Two dashes. They bridge the whisky and the amaro, the same job they do in the Old Fashioned this drink descends from.
Instructions
Chill a coupe.
Add the rye, Fernet-Branca, demerara syrup and Angostura to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled coupe.
Express an orange twist over the surface and drop it in.
Our version
Modern measures: 7.5ml of Fernet-Branca and 5ml of rich (2:1) demerara syrup against 60ml of rye. Difford’s Guide quotes Vermeire’s 1922 Fernet Cocktail as fernet and cognac or rye in equal measure, a far more bitter drink.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Keep the sugar in step with the fernet: 5ml of 2:1 demerara syrup against 7.5ml of Fernet-Branca holds the amaro without covering it. Push the fernet a little higher if you already love it; halve it and you have a faintly herbal Old Fashioned. Use a spicy rye, ideally bottled a little over 40% ABV. Its pepper is what carries through the menthol; bourbon’s corn sweetness sits with the demerara and leaves the fernet unopposed. Express the twist properly over the surface before it goes in. The orange oil bridges the sugar and the fernet, and the drink is flatter without it.
Behind the Toronto
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The recipe enters print in 1922, in Robert Vermeire’s Cocktails: How to Mix Them, as the Fernet Cocktail, with the note that it was much appreciated by the Canadians of Toronto, as Difford’s Guide quotes it. By 1930, William Boothby’s World Drinks was listing it as the Toronto, with whisky and Fernet in equal measure, sugar syrup and bitters, stirred.
TVO says Ontarians voted in an April 1921 referendum to stop liquor being imported from other provinces, so it is unclear whether the Torontonians Vermeire mentions drank it in Toronto or at his bar in London. The drink names its audience rather than its inventor, and nobody has a better claim to it.
The Fernet Dose
Vermeire poured fernet and spirit in equal measure. The modern 7.5ml against 60ml of rye is enough Fernet-Branca to be unmistakable without taking over, and 5ml of rich demerara syrup holds it in frame.
That measure is the argument of the drink: enough amaro to understand why people talk about it, and enough structure around it to make the lesson pleasant rather than an ordeal.
Vermeire’s and Ours
The Toronto in 1922, as Difford’s Guide quotes Vermeire, and in our glass
Spirit
- Vermeire, 1922
- A quarter gill of cognac or rye
- Ours
- 60ml rye
Fernet-Branca
- Vermeire, 1922
- A quarter gill, equal to the spirit
- Ours
- 7.5ml
Sweetener
- Vermeire, 1922
- Two dashes of sugar syrup
- Ours
- 5ml demerara syrup (2:1)
Bitters
- Vermeire, 1922
- A dash of Angostura
- Ours
- Two dashes of Angostura
Name
- Vermeire, 1922
- Fernet Cocktail
- Ours
- Toronto
| Element | Vermeire, 1922 | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| Spirit | A quarter gill of cognac or rye | 60ml rye |
| Fernet-Branca | A quarter gill, equal to the spirit | 7.5ml |
| Sweetener | Two dashes of sugar syrup | 5ml demerara syrup (2:1) |
| Bitters | A dash of Angostura | Two dashes of Angostura |
| Name | Fernet Cocktail | Toronto |
Rye, Not Bourbon
Rye’s pepper and grain bite carry cleanly through menthol and bitter roots. Bourbon’s corn sweetness sits with the demerara, so the drink gets sweeter and the fernet runs unopposed.
Pour both once if you want the lesson. In few whiskey drinks is the difference this easy to taste.
A Fernet Education
The neat shot, which is how most people first meet Fernet-Branca, tells you it is intense and little else. The Toronto puts the same amaro inside a structure that explains it: sugar under it, rye pushing back, orange oil over the top.
For a rye drinker it works the other way round, as a way into the amaro family.
How to Serve It
Stirred for 20 to 30 seconds, strained into a chilled coupe and served up after dinner, with the orange twist expressed over the surface and dropped in.
For fernet in a gin drink, try the Hanky Panky; for an amaro Manhattan, the Black Manhattan.
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 does a Toronto taste like?
Why is it called the Toronto?
Is it a good first fernet drink?
Can I use bourbon instead of rye?
How strong is a Toronto?
What was the original Toronto recipe?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Toronto” (secondary source: quotes Vermeire 1922 (¼ gill Fernet Branca, ¼ gill cognac or rye, 1 dash Angostura, 2 dashes sugar or gum syrup; “much appreciated by the Canadians of Toronto”); Embury 1948).
- Internet Archive (vintage-cocktail-books-euvs), ““Cocktail Bill” Boothby’s World Drinks and How to Mix Them (1930)” (primary source: Toronto, half a jigger each of whisky and Fernet, 2 dashes sugar syrup, 2 drops Angostura, stirred with ice, strained, orange peel twisted over).
- Branca USA, “Fernet-Branca” (importer’s site for the producer: Amaro 39% alc./vol.).
- TVO (Jamie Bradburn, 23 October 2024), ““Calm discussion is impossible”: how Ontarians faced Prohibition in the 1920s” (public broadcaster, named author: in an April 1921 referendum a majority voted to stop importing liquor from other provinces).
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Old Fashioned
The IBA’s Old Fashioned is 45ml of bourbon or rye whiskey, one sugar cube, a few dashes of Angostura bitters and a few dashes of water; we use bourbon and two dashes. The sugar and bitters are muddled in a rocks glass until the cube dissolves, then ice goes in, the bourbon goes over it and the drink is stirred for 15 to 20 seconds. Orange peel is expressed over the top. About 1.9 UK units. Only the sugar and bitters are muddled: no orange flesh, no cherry. The recipe predates the name. The Oxford Companion says that when a newspaper in Hudson, New York, defined the cocktail in 1806, it described “spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters”. The name came later in the century: the Companion has people ordering Old-Fashioneds in Chicago in 1880, as bartenders added liqueurs to the format and drinkers who wanted it plain asked for one made the old-fashioned way.
Hanky Panky
A Hanky Panky is 45ml of London Dry gin, 45ml of sweet vermouth and 7.5ml of Fernet-Branca, 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. The measures are the IBA’s. Ada Coleman made it at the American Bar of the Savoy, where, the Oxford Companion says, she rose to head bartender before Harry Craddock displaced her in January 1926. The Companion quotes her telling The People in 1925 that she spent hours experimenting until she invented a new cocktail for the actor Charles Hawtrey, who had come in complaining of overwork. He either called it “the real hanky panky” on the spot or came in the next day asking for “that hanky panky stuff”, and the name stuck. Craddock put it in The Savoy Cocktail Book, in the Internet Archive’s scan. Equal gin and sweet vermouth make a sweet Martini. The Fernet-Branca, a bitter Italian amaro, adds menthol and dark herbs, cools the finish and keeps the vermouth from tasting syrupy.
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.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026