The Remember The Maine Cocktail Recipe: An Excellent Manhattan Variant Cocktail

The Remember The Maine Cocktail Recipe: An Excellent Manhattan Variant Cocktail
This drink is a touch sweeter than a typical Manhattan.

This one’s a tasty Manhattan variant that adds some cherry liqueur and a little absinthe to the mix. It’s a touch sweeter than a typical Manhattan, but you still get the spicy zing of the rye and the complexity of the vermouth showing through.

The drink is named for the famous rallying cry, “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!” that helped launch the US into the Spanish American war. The cry is a reference to the USS Maine, a battleship that was sunk in Havana Harbor, Cuba in 1898. While there was no proof that the Spanish caused the explosion that consumed the ship and rapidly plunged it to the bottom of the harbor, killing the majority of its crew, American newspapers used the tragedy to whip the public into an anti-Spanish frenzy.

A group of people standing in front of a large ship in the background

Above: The USS Maine shortly before the explosion. Below: Her crew.

Why adding cherry liqueur and an absinthe rinse to a Manhattan should be associated with this bit of history, I’m not entirely sure, especially since it seems to have been created more than thirty years later. Nonetheless, it’s an excellent drink, and well worth a try!

This article is a modified and enhanced version of a post that ran on my nightly cocktail blog, DrinkShouts. Liquors in parentheses are what I used when I made this recipe, and are included as suggestions.

remember the maine cocktail recipe

The Remember The Maine Cocktail Recipe

An excellent Manhattan variant cocktail
Total Time 5 minutes
Course Drinks
Servings 1 Drink

Equipment

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Rinse a chilled cocktail coupe with absinthe and discard the excess. Combine all ingredients in a pint glass over ice and stir thoroughly.
  • Strain into the rinsed cocktail coupe. Garnish with a Luxardo maraschino cherry.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Christopher Buecheler

Christopher Buecheler is a novelist, a web developer, an award-winning amateur mixologist, a brewer, a guitarist, a drummer, and an NBA enthusiast. He lives a semi-nomadic life with his wife and two cats, currently residing in Providence, RI. You can learn more at his website, cwbuecheler.com.