Reverse Manhattan

The Reverse Manhattan has no single credited inventor; it is a name later applied to the vermouth-forward ratio that appeared in some of the earliest printed Manhattan recipes, before the drink standardized into its now-familiar whiskey-forward form. George J. Kappeler's 1895 bar manual, Modern American Drinks, called for equal parts Italian vermouth and whiskey, a far more vermouth-heavy balance than the roughly two-to-one whiskey ratio most bars now pour. Many modern bartenders and writers have accordingly described the Reverse Manhattan as arguably the more historically faithful construction, even as the standard Manhattan overtook it in popularity through the 20th century.

The Manhattan itself is generally traced to New York City bars of the 1870s or 1880s, though its exact origin is disputed among several claimants, including a Manhattan Club creation story and rival tales crediting different bartenders. The Reverse Manhattan simply inverts that drink's whiskey-to-vermouth ratio, making sweet vermouth the dominant ingredient rather than the accent, which produces a lighter, less boozy variation on the same combination of whiskey, vermouth, and bitters.