The 7 Best Classic Rye Cocktails

Bourbon is America’s official spirit if you’re the type to follow the declarations by people in Congress who have the power to make things “officially” American. Yet before bourbon had even been formally defined, rye was king. In fact, most of the classic whiskey cocktails that land on just about every bar menu today were originally based on the flavor profile of rye. 

Broadly speaking, rye whiskey has spicy, peppery, and herbaceous notes. Like bourbon, it’s aged first in new, charred oak barrels. In the United States, it must be made with a minimum of 51% rye grains in the mash bill. Some designations indicate more, like high rye whiskey and Empire Rye, the latter being specific to New York that requires 75% rye grains that come from farms within the state.

As with any spirit, the exact flavor of a rye whiskey will vary from others within the category. But regardless of the bottle you choose, these classic rye whiskey cocktails all benefit from using the original liquor style the recipe maker intended.

There are a few stories to how this straightforward mix became the iconic drink it is today. The most prevalent is that a bartender at New York City’s The Manhattan Club created the drink in the 1860s or 70s, and that’s where the name came from. The other is that a bartender at The Hoffman House in Manhattan made it. The recipe was recorded a short time later in books and newspapers in the 1880s. Variations aren’t as ubiquitous as the martini, that other drink served in a v-shaped stem glass, but they do abound, from the simple addition of different bitters to various fat washes and absinthe rinses. What’s undeniable is that it has traditionally always included rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters.

New Orleans is a melting pot. That’s clearly evident in the cuisine, but just as much so in drinks created in the city, like the Vieux Carré. The name is French for “old square” in reference to the French Quarter. It was created in the Hotel Monteleone by bartender Walter Bergeron in 1937. Today, it’s still served in the hotel’s rotating Carousel bar, which opened in 1949, as well as in cocktail bars around the world. The Vieux Carré’s ingredients list tells a story of its own. According to legend, Bergeron paid tribute to the different people living in the area when he made it: Italians (sweet vermouth), French (Cognac and Benedictine), Americans (rye whiskey), and people from the Caribbean (bitters). Drinker beware: this all-alcohol cocktail is a heady one.

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There are many remnants of Prohibition in America. Most can be cumbersome and confusing, like the three-tier alcohol system that led a specific set of steps producers have to take in each state to get a bottle from the distillery to a bar or home. Others are more enjoyable, like the Scofflaw cocktail. The name is a reference to people who drank during Prohibition, thereby “scoffing,” or showing contempt of, the law. Inspired by those scoffing anti-drinking laws, this classic was created at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in the 1920s (cocktail bars, as one might imagine, weren’t in the business of fancy cocktail making during Prohibition). The original recipe is one of proportions: a third each of rye whiskey and dry French vermouth, one-sixth lemon juice, and one-sixth grenadine. The latter two ingredients add a bright sweetness that lightens the Scofflaw up more than the typical heavy whiskey cocktail. It’s not all that whiskey forward in its original incarnation, but lowering the ratio of lemon juice and grenadine while upping the whiskey by the same amount can help out on that front if you’re looking for something that really highlights the rye.

Named after Boston’s Ward Eight neighborhood, this classic cocktail is a twist on another whiskey classic, the whiskey sour. In addition to rye whiskey, the cocktail gets a lift from orange and lemon juice as well as a sweet kick of grenadine. The most repeated origin story is that a bartender made it in 1898 in honor of the long-serving politician and Ward Eight political boss Martin Lomasney. Just because the recipe has stuck around for more than 100 years doesn’t mean it’s exactly loved by bartenders, as orange juice and grenadine can lead to a sweetness some can’t get over. Boston Magazine assembled a handful of the city’s bartenders in 2006 to perfect the original Ward Eight. The experimental “improvements” failed for being either too sweet or too sour. While it might not make it into the canon of bartender favorites like the Manhattan, there’s no denying the fact that any recipe that lives as long as Ward Eight has at least something going for it, and it’s delightful in the right time and place (outside on a hot and humid summer day, for example).

Anyone who has been to New Orleans knows there is no shortage of cocktails in the city. One look around to see people wandering the streets with a hurricane or hand grenade in tow is all it takes. Yet since 2008, there is only one official cocktail of New Orleans: the Sazerac. Originally created in 1838 by Antoine Peychaud, there’s some debate whether the cocktail originally used Cognac, rye or a combination of the two — Peychaud was known to be fond of the brandy, but the cocktail’s origin story is, like many cocktails, a bit murky. Rye whiskey, however, is the standard now and was recorded as the base spirit in cocktail books dating back to at least 1908. Joining it is a cube of sugar, absinthe (or sometimes the anise-flavored Herbsaint, which took absinthe’s place after it was banned in the States in 1912) and Peychaud’s own bitters.

Created in the 1930s, the Algonquin is named after the Algonquin Hotel in New York City’s Midtown. The spot is more known as a literary hangout (it was a favorite of authors who were dubbed “The Vicious Circle” and met at the hotel’s restaurant in the 1920s, and it’s also where The New Yorker was started) than as a cocktail hotspot. The drink that carries the hotel’s name is a lesser-known whiskey cocktail, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of adding to your drink rotation — especially if you’re a fan of adding some tropical flavors to your whiskey drinks. Traditionally, the Algonquin is made with two parts whiskey, one part dry vermouth, one part pineapple juice, and bitters.

Another classic from Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, the Old Pal is as inviting as the name suggests. According to legend, the drink was created for The New York Herald sports editor William “Sparrow” Robinson, and is a twist on the Boulevardier (which itself is a variation of the Negroni). Like those two drinks that came before it, the Old Pal is an equal parts cocktail composed of rye whiskey, Campari and dry vermouth. The dry vermouth keeps the Old Pal lighter while delivering a strong, rye-forward beverage.

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