Man O' War
While the Mint Julep is the cocktail of choice for the Kentucky Derby, the Man O' War Cocktail, named after a famous race horse from Kentucky, is another race day favourite.There's a certain balance to this cocktail that comes from the fruit juice and liqueur. You may want to play with the ingredient levels though to suit your tastes, as everyone is different. Use our recipe as a good basis of this standard then go from there.The Man O' War is up there with some of the simple classic Whiskey cocktails like the Whiskey Sour, the Manhattan, or the Old Fashioned, with just a couple more ingredients to make it really interesting. This is a great cocktail to have in your repetoir.
Ingredients
- 60 mL Bourbon or Rye.
- 30 mL Cointreau
- 15 mL Sweet Vermouth
- 15 mL Lemon Juice
- Garnish with lemon twist
Instructions
- Add Bourbon, Cointreau, Sweet Vermouth, and Lemon Juice to a cocktail shaker filled about halfway with ice. Shake well until the shaker is too cold to touch.
- Strain into an ice filled Rocks glass with fresh ice or serve neat in a coupe.
- Add garnish and drink it.
Notes
You can get away with replacing the Cointreau with a basic Orange Liqueur, but you won't be getting the same cocktail. There's a reason why this drink needs something a little more premium, and it's worth it. Cointreau is a variety of Triple Sec, but, as mentioned, a more premium version. If you want to to experience this cocktail the right way, spend the extra money on Cointreau. You don't have to use it for everything that calls for a Triple Sec, as less expensive bottles will do you for a lot of cocktails. But here you need Cointreau.
This goes the same for your Bourbon. The taste of the Bourbon may get lost slightly behind the other ingredients, but you'll get a better drink with better Bourbon. And if it's a better, more robust Bourbon, you'll get more of that great taste coming through the cocktail and interacting with the other flavours.
Have fun and enjoy!