Drink in Focus: Smoky Manhattan at Mizunara
The Wan Chai bar injects extra depth to the classic cocktail with precision techniques and innovative spirit pairings
If you choose to celebrate World Whisky Day at Mizunara, you can enjoy a wee dram from the bar’s stellar collection or, alternatively, via a precisely mixed cocktail such as the signature Smoky Manhattan.
“Our Smoky Manhattan is not meant to cover ‘flaws’ of the Manhattan cocktail,” Endo tell us, “but to enhance specific flavours not found in it. The Rob Roy cocktail has a hint of smokiness, but it is very subtle and does not have nutty notes. So I tried to combine these together to get it closer to a perfect flavour.”
Unlike many of Hong Kong’s modern cocktail creations, Endo’s version of the classic was refined not through the use of extra equipment, juices or heavy ingredients processing, but by meticulously fine-tuning each step of the cocktail’s construction.
“At first I separated the Manhattan into several flavour profiles, like woody, herbal, spicy, sweet, bitter and fruity,” Endo explains. “Then I thought about what was missing from the flavour, and the answer is smokiness.”
To combat this, the Smoky Manhattan subtly introduces Islay whisky to the party – but not to the point of risking Rob Roy comparisons. The key, according to Endo, is to reverse the assembly of the cocktail.