Remember the Maine

Kind of a variation of the Manhattan, kind of a variation of a Sazerac, the Remember the Maine is made up of Rye, Absinthe, Sweet Vermouth, and Cherry Liqueur and is one of many older cocktails featuring these sorts of flavours. The Remember the Maine's recipe first surfaced in the late 1930's.

The name of this cocktail is a reference to the sinking of the battleship, the Maine. The ship was sunk in Cuba, an action that eventually lead to the Spanish-American War in the late 1800's. As the saying goes "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!" Kind of strange though, that the drink didn't come about until nearly 40 years after the incident... The Cuban Revolution was happening around then though, so maybe there's something there...

Regardless of the name, if you like Rye cocktails, especially a Manhattan or Sazerac, you'll likely enjoy this one. So have a go.

Total Time 4

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

60 mL Rye Whiskey
20 mL Sweet Vermouth
2 tsp Cherry Liqueur
1/2 tsp Absinthe
Garnish with a cherry

Instructions

Rinse a Coupe glass with Absinthe. Swirl it around and get rid of what's left over.
Add other ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir until cold.
Strain into your prepared glass.
Garnish and serve.

Notes

As with everything, make sure you use a decent Rye. Like similar cocktails, this one is very Rye forward and you want it to shine through. Don't waste your time with something inferior!

A Few More Things on the Remember the Maine Cocktail

Whiskey, which includes Rye and Bourbon, is a very common ingredient in a lot of cocktail recipes. A lot of people probably associate Vodka or Rum for a lot of cocktails: Vodka because it’s relatively neutral and just adds a kick to other wonderful flavours, and Rum because it’s somewhat tastes wonderful and goes well with fruit juices for great tropical cocktails. However, Whiskey based cocktails get a lot of flavour from, well Whiskey! Rye has a wonderful spiciness to it that is great on its own, but does almost even better with other flavours. Of course all of this talk about Vodka, Rum, and Whiskey isn’t necessarily the rule, but you may see a few patterns as you browse through recipes.

The Remember the Maine is no exception when it comes to Rye in a cocktail! There’s plenty of Rye flavour in there, but it plays nicely with the Sweet Vermouth and Cherry Liqueur. The Absinthe adds a bit of boldness to the concoction, which is why not a lot is needed.

Have fun here.

Is it easy to scale up this cocktail recipe in order to make a few at once?

You should be able to make a few of these at once in a mixing glass without a problem. If you’re really keen you can even increase everything to a jug and mix up quite a few of these at the same time!

The biggest limitation is the Absinthe rinse for the glasses. You can’t really do a lot of rinses at once.

Can I pre-prepare a Remember the Maine Cocktail?

You can prepare one or a few of these cocktails by pre-mixing them and then leaving the mixture (without ice) in the fridge. Don’t rinse your glasses with Absinthe until you’re ready to serve though.

When’s the best time for a Remember the Maine Cocktail?

Elegant cocktails like this, especially older cocktails from the early 20th Century, really lend themselves well to being a cocktail party or bar drink. Some drinks scream to be drunk at a certain time of day, or before/after eating, or certain weather, or are really only reserved for vacation. Cocktails like the Remember the Maine don’t sit in any of those categories and really just sit for a time when you’re drinking cocktails. Of course it’s always time for cocktails, but here we’re talking about cocktails with other people!

Although this recipe has been around for a long time, it’s not as common today as many other older cocktails. While most of the ingredients in this recipe are very common, the Cherry Liqueur is slightly less common. This is, perhaps, why you don’t see this cocktail pop up quite as much! But go ahead and bring this back. Throw a cocktail party and make a few for your guests.

How strong is the Remember the Maine Cocktail?

It’s on the stronger side. Actually, it’s strong enough to say that it’s strong. The amount of Rye (60 mL) in the recipe isn’t unusual; you’d see a very similar amount in a lot of other cocktail recipes. Where things start to strengthen though is the ample amount of Vermouth, which is then added to by small amounts of Cherry Liqueur and Absinthe. It all adds up! What makes things even worse (or better depending on how you look at it!) is that there’s no other liquids in the Remember the Maine to dilute things. It’s just straight alcohol. That’s often the case with a lot of cocktails, but this one has a few more ingredients to it. So tread carefully with this one.

What music should I listen to while drinking a Remember the Maine Cocktail?

There’s a few things at play in relation to the music for this cocktail. It’s older, so perhaps some older music would go well. It’s elegant, so perhaps we go in that direction. However, we’re going to suggest Cuban Jazz to go with this cocktail. This decision goes back to the history of the cocktail’s name. As mentioned, the Battleship Maine was sunk in Cuba, leading to the Spanish-American War. This cocktail was invented around the time of the Cuban Revolution (a time when people were likely remembering the Maine), so there’s a few Cuban links to this drink, despite it having very little to do with Cuba (other than the name!). There’s actually very little else Cuban about this cocktail, but it’s fun to think about!

Keep browsing for more cocktail recipes

If you liked this recipe, we’re sure you’ll like checking out a few more recipes on our website. You’re welcome to browse as you wish, put some ingredients into our cocktail recipe generator, or follow some of the links below. Have fun.

All Rye cocktail recipes: we’re assuming you like Rye, considering you’re looking at a cocktail recipe with Rye in it. Take a look at our other recipes with Rye. We’re sure you’ll like them!

All Whiskey cocktail recipes: or if you want to widen your horizons, take a look at all of our recipes that use Whiskey. We have a fair few!

Top 10 Whiskey cocktail recipes: if all of those recipes are a little intimidating, why not just browse our top ten. These are seriously good cocktails!