Place an ice cube in the old fashioned glass and strain and divide the liquid between the two glasses
Plop the cherries in each drink
2 maraschino cherries
Sip
Smile
Enjoy
Video
Notes
Helpful tips
Although I like to use a cocktail shaker, you can also place the ingredients in a mixing glass and stir it with a cocktail spoon.
Buy the best bourbon you can afford for this cocktail because in a cocktail like this since there are basically only 2 ingredients which means you can more easily taste the difference.
If you can, get some fun bitters. I purchased Woodford Reserve flavored bitters. The package arrived with 4 different flavors: spiced cherry, orange, aromatic and chocolate. I've used them all and they're delightful, but my favorite is spiced cherry. This recipe calls for 5 drops for two cocktails, but I usually use 10 for two drinks. You need to play around with the amount of bitters to see what suits you.
If you don't have fancy bitters, it's perfectly fine to use Angostura or an orange bitters.
You can serve this Manhattan straight up or on the rocks. I like mine straight up and served in a martini glass. My mother used to drink her Manhattans on the rocks.
Whenever I use maraschino cherries as garnish, I rinse them off so the juice they are stored in doesn't infiltrate the cocktail.
If you'd like to, you can garnish this drink with an orange peel, but I like it with just a maraschino cherry.