[the highland manhattan]

2 1/2 oz Old Overholt Rye
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1 dash Orange Bitters
Pernod rinse

Stir on ice and strain into a cocktail glass pre-rinsed with Pernod. Garnish with an orange twist.

For my last drink at Highland Kitchen yesterday, I asked Beau to stick with the rye. He proposed a few drinks and I went with this "astringent Manhattan variant" (more in his comparison of Punt e Mes to regular sweet vermouth). On the nose was a good bit of orange oils from the twist (and perhaps some flavor from the bitters) and the anise seed from the Pernod. The flavor was very reminiscent of 1880s cocktails where a dash of absinthe was often added to give some extra zest to the drink (see the Improved Gin Cocktail write-up I did) on top of a rye Manhattan. I estimated the recipe proportions due to the free pouring, but after reading Gary Regan's Sfgate article on the Manhattan cocktail last year, I am a bit less fussy with specific proportions on this cocktail.