Message 17782 of 39188 in General Discussion

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> I'm gonna ask the same question - do you use bitters in your 
> manhattan?
> 
> And who the hell is shaking your manhattan?  honestly...  i just 
> build it in a rocks glass and put a swizzle stick in it.  i didn't 
> know people would ever even try to shake that.

See, I got annoyed the last time I ordered a Manhattan and it was built in the 
glass (bourbon, then sweet vermouth, I asked her to add bitters) and just 
handed to me.  My rule of thumb is that if the Martini or Manhattan is served 
up it get shaken, if it's on the rocks it gets stirred.  Leaving that aside (I 
don't see a problem with shaking a Manhattan served up), let's talk about the 
Manhattan on the rocks which I most certainly want to see stirred.  I want it 
stirred, I want that vermouth and bitters to marry into the bourbon.  I don't 
want it heavily watered down but I want to get it nice and chilled by stirring 
before pouring it into the rocks glass with fresh ice.  

Regarding shaking, I agree with Bippo (below), some cocktails, even Martinis, 
do well with a good shaking.  I had two guys in last night who drank several 
Extra Dry Bombay Sapphire Martinis.  Each one I poured into a shaker with a 
lot of ice and gave it two or three really hard shakes to shatter that ice, 
then the more casual shaking until the condesate froze on the shaker, about 
ten seconds.  These guys loved it, they said they'd been all over looking for 
a bartender who made good martinis.  They tipped me 30% on that check that 
went through most of a bottle of Sapphire.  You're welcome to think that 
Martinis should be stirred (and I wouldn't find it odd if someone prefered 
them this way) but there is something to be said for getting those shards of 
ice in it and a bit of water to mellow out the bite of the gin.  I just don't 
subscribe to the notion that gin pulled out of a freezer is ideal for a 
martini, that it should be as cold as possible and completely undiluted.