Brooklyn

Rye, dry vermouth, maraschino, and Amer Picon — Grohusko's 1908 Jack's Manual, Amer Picon from Gaëtan Picon's 1837 Algeria formula for French Foreign Legion.

The Brooklyn is a pre-Prohibition rye whiskey cocktail that belongs to the family of New York City borough-named drinks developed alongside the Manhattan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The cocktail appears in J.A. Grohusko's Jack's Manual (1908) as a combination of rye whiskey, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, and Amer Picon — a French bitter orange liqueur produced by the Picon company, which has manufactured amaro in France since 1837 when Gaëtan Picon created the original formula in Algeria for French Foreign Legion soldiers as a digestive. The Borough of Brooklyn — formerly an independent city — merged with Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island to form Greater New York City on January 1, 1898, making the Brooklyn cocktail's 1908 appearance a decade after the consolidation rather than immediately following it. The Brooklyn's comparative obscurity through the 20th century stemmed primarily from Amer Picon's unavailability in the United States after the producer reformulated the product and discontinued American exports; the craft cocktail revival's interest in historical recipes drove bartenders to seek substitutes including Amaro Ciociaro, Ramazzotti, and Torani Amer. The Brooklyn is now recognized as one of the most significant rediscovered pre-Prohibition classics, demonstrating that the Manhattan's spirit-vermouth-modifier template produces equally interesting results with dry vermouth and bitter orange rather than sweet vermouth.