Brooklyn

The Brooklyn is the Manhattan's overlooked sibling — one of the four borough cocktails. It keeps the rye but swaps sweet vermouth for dry, then adds a touch of maraschino and a measure of Amer Picon, the bittersweet French orange aperitif. The result is drier and more complex than the Manhattan, with an intriguing bitter-orange backbone.

The Borough Cocktails

New York's boroughs each lent their name to a cocktail — the Manhattan, the Bronx, the Queens, and the Brooklyn. Only the Manhattan became a household name. The Brooklyn, first printed around 1908, faded with Prohibition and the disappearance of one key ingredient, and has only recently been revived by cocktail historians.

Amer Picon, the Missing Piece

The Brooklyn's defining ingredient is Amer Picon — a bittersweet, orange-forward French amer. It is the reason the drink nearly vanished: the modern Picon is reformulated and lower in proof, and the original is near-impossible to find in the United States. Bartenders substitute with Amer Picon-style blends, or with a measure of Ramazzotti amaro and a dash of orange bitters.

Dry Vermouth, Not Sweet

This is the key structural difference from the Manhattan. Dry vermouth keeps the Brooklyn lean and lets the maraschino and Amer Picon supply the complexity that sweet vermouth would otherwise bring. It is a more austere, more grown-up drink — a Manhattan for the bitter-inclined.

The Manhattan Family