Brooklyn Cocktail

The boroughs have their own cocktail, and Brooklyn brings rye whiskey, dry vermouth, and maraschino together with an Italian amaro standing in for the original Amer Picon. It is drier and more complex than a Manhattan, with an intriguing bitter edge.

The Brooklyn Cocktail was first published in J.A. Grohusko's Jack's Manual in 1908, a decade after the Borough of Brooklyn became part of Greater New York City on January 1, 1898, when the five boroughs were consolidated into a single municipality. The cocktail's formula — rye whiskey, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, and Amer Picon — follows the Manhattan's spirit-vermouth-modifier structure but substitutes the dry French vermouth style and a bitter orange amaro for the sweet Italian vermouth and bitters of the original. Amer Picon, created in 1837 by Gaëtan Picon in Algeria and subsequently produced by the Picon company in France, provides the Brooklyn's defining bitter orange dimension and its most practically challenging ingredient: the product was reformulated with a lower alcohol content and different flavor profile in the late 20th century, and American imports were discontinued, making authentic pre-Prohibition Amer Picon effectively unavailable in the United States. Craft bartenders substitute Italian amari with similar bitter orange profiles — most commonly Amaro Ciociaro (produced in Pescara since 1884), Ramazzotti (produced in Milan since 1815), or Torani Amer — to approximate the original's character. The cocktail was rediscovered through the early 21st-century craft movement's systematic excavation of pre-Prohibition recipes.