Paddy Cocktail

Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth, and Angostura — Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, triple distillation making vermouth's complexity more audible than in rye.

The Paddy Cocktail is a pre-Prohibition Irish whiskey Manhattan published in Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) — one of the most comprehensive cocktail records of the inter-war period — combining Irish whiskey with sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters in the equal-parts or spirit-forward structure that defines the Manhattan family. The name Paddy as an informal term for an Irishman derives from Pádraig, the Irish form of Patrick — the name of Ireland's patron saint whose feast day on March 17 is celebrated globally — and was in common colloquial use in both Britain and America by the 19th century. Craddock had emigrated from the United States to work at the Savoy's American Bar after Prohibition took effect in 1920, where his decade of service before publishing the Savoy Cocktail Book documented the international cocktail culture accessible to London's sophisticated pre-war drinking public. The Paddy Cocktail's formula applies the Manhattan's proven spirit-vermouth-bitters structure to Irish whiskey, producing a gentler, less assertive version of the format than the standard rye or bourbon Manhattan. Irish whiskey's triple-distilled smoothness allows the sweet vermouth's herbal complexity and the Angostura's clove-and-spice aromatics to be more prominent than they are in a bold rye version, producing a drink of unusual balance.