Rob Roy

Scotch, sweet vermouth, and Angostura — created at the Waldorf in 1894 for the Rob Roy operetta honoring Scottish outlaw Robert Roy MacGregor (1671–1734).

The Rob Roy is a direct transposition of the Manhattan's formula — spirit, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters — from American rye or bourbon to Scotch whisky, created at the Hotel Waldorf in New York City in 1894 to honor the American premiere of the operetta Rob Roy, composed by Reginald De Koven with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. The operetta was based on the life of Robert Roy MacGregor (1671–1734), the Scottish outlaw and folk hero whose cattle-droving, outlawry, and eventual rehabilitation made him a figure of Scottish romantic nationalism celebrated by Walter Scott's 1817 novel of the same name. The cocktail's name connected the Scotch whisky base to its Scottish cultural context in a way that was commercially appealing to the Waldorf's sophisticated clientele. The Rob Roy quickly established itself as the definitive Scotch whisky stirred cocktail, the logical companion to the Manhattan's American whiskey format. It exists in three variations: the standard Rob Roy with sweet vermouth, the Dry Rob Roy with dry vermouth, and the Perfect Rob Roy with equal parts sweet and dry vermouth. The IBA recognizes the Rob Roy as an official cocktail. Like the Manhattan before it, the Rob Roy demonstrated that the stirred-spirit-and-vermouth template was applicable across different whisky traditions.