NA Rob Roy

A zero-proof Rob Roy — non-alcoholic whiskey stirred with sweet vermouth and orange bitters, served up in a chilled coupe with a cherry garnish.

The NA Rob Roy is a non-alcoholic adaptation of the Rob Roy — the Scotch whisky Manhattan created at the bar of the Hotel Waldorf in New York City in 1894 to celebrate the American premiere of the operetta Rob Roy, a musical work by composer Reginald De Koven and librettist Harry B. Smith that opened on Broadway that year. The operetta was named for Robert Roy MacGregor (1671–1734), the Scottish outlaw, cattle drover, and folk hero whose life story inspired both Walter Scott's 1817 novel Rob Roy and the subsequent theatrical adaptations. The cocktail's formula — Scotch whisky, sweet vermouth, and Angostura bitters, essentially a Manhattan made with Scotch — was a natural naming gesture: the Scotch base connected the drink to Scotland while the Manhattan structure connected it to New York, and the operetta provided the specific occasion. The non-alcoholic version benefits from the Rob Roy's relatively simple structure: NA Scotch whisky alternatives, particularly those formulated to approximate blended Scotch's lighter, slightly smoky grain profile, perform adequately in the stirred framework, and sweet vermouth's own wine base can be approximated by non-alcoholic vermouth substitutes. The Angostura bitters — added in such small quantities that they contribute negligible alcohol — are typically retained in their original form.