Man O' War
Print Recipe
While the Mint Julep is the co*cktail of choice for the Kentucky Derby, the Man O' War co*cktail, named after a famous race horse from Kentucky, is another race day favourite.
There's a certain balance to this co*cktail 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 co*cktails 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 co*cktail to have in your repetoir.
Total Time 5 minutes mins
Servings 1 co*cktail
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 co*cktail 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 co*cktail. 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 co*cktail 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 co*cktails. 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 co*cktail and interacting with the other flavours.
Have fun and enjoy!
Our Review of the Man O’ War co*cktail
While maybe it’s not quite as well known as the Mint Julep, the Man O’ War is still a wonderful co*cktail. There’s some fun stuff happening in this co*cktail, and you probably already have the co*cktail ingredients at home.
It’s co*cktail recipes like this that show what you can do with relatively basic ingredients. The Cointreau is the most exotic thing in this recipe, and that’s a relatively common ingredient to keep in a home bar. And if you don’t have Cointreau, a decent bottle of Triple Sec will probably work as well, just notquite as well.
Because of all of this, as well as the ease of making a Man O’ War, I’m going to classify it as an “easy co*cktail.” And that’s not a bad thing. If you’re new to making co*cktails, then perhaps the Man O’ War is a good one to start with. If you’re more experienced in making co*cktails, there’s nothing wrong with find a good, basic co*cktail that you know you’ll have the ingredients to.
Although the Man O’ War has Lemon Juice in it, it’s not a lot, so it does lean on the sweeter side of things. So if you like that sort of thing, the Man O’ War may be something you dig. If you like drier co*cktails, don’t shy away from this recipe though. It’s far from being too sweet, it even resembles a a Whiskey Sour in some ways, just with a couple minor modifications.
So my assessment is, if you’re a big drinker of Whiskey (especially Bourbon) based co*cktails, you’ll probably like the Man O’ War. If you often shy away from Bourbon, the Man O’ War probably isn’t the co*cktail that will suddenly make you love it. You won’t hate this recipe (unless you really hate Bourbon), but it’s not going to change your mind either. I’d still encourage all those Bourbon haters to give the Man O’ War a go, though, because it’s quite tasty.
7.5/10
- Review by Chas
We’ve got plenty more Bourbon and Whiskey co*cktail menus if you’re still thirsty…
Yep, we have tons of co*cktail recipes. We’re assuming you’re after something with Bourbon or Whiskey, so take a look below for your enjoyment:
Top 10 Whiskey co*cktail recipes:to make it easy, we’ve created a list of our top ten Whiskey co*cktail recipes. Hopefully you’ll find a favourite here to.
All Whiskey co*cktail recipes: if that’s not enough recipes for you, have a flick through all of our Whiskey co*cktail recipes. You’ll be sure to find something.
All Bourbon co*cktail recipes:if you’re just after Bourbon, we also have plenty of recipes that feature Bourbon. Check them out!
