Recipe

• 1 part Scotch whisky

• 1 part bourbon whiskey

• 1 part red vermouth

• A dash of Angostura bitters

Stir thoroughly with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and add a cherry.

My French cocktail-shaker has markings for various cocktails on the side, and none of them match the IBA recipes. In the absence of rye whiskey (the optimal ingredient for my kind of manhattan) I decided to follow the shaker recipe (pictured). The result was a particularly smooth, almost watery taste, reminiscent of a very cold dry martini. I guess it's a result of more whiskies being blended together and smoothing each other out.

For the record, I used The Famous Grouse and Jim Beam. It wasn't up to the rye version, but it was still good. Stand by for a future post for a Rob Roy, which ditched American whiskey entirely in favour of Scotch.