Drink in Focus: Festive Manhattan at DarkSide

It’s no surprise then that DarkSide is serving more than just mulled wine this Christmas. Its festive cocktail menu offers guests not one, not two, but five Christmas-inspired concoctions. And although the All The Way Mulled Wine and Hot Apple Toddy have their appeal, it’s the Festive Manhattan that really stands out like the star atop a Christmas tree.

“The Manhattan is a great classic cocktail for any occasion, but there’s also a festive feeling to it when you think about its flavour components,” explains Bob Louison, Rosewood Hong Kong’s director of bars, “so we decided to give it a twist and an even more Christmassy feel.”

To that end, Louison has jazzed up the traditional recipe with more festive elements than a fully decorated Christmas tree. Whisky is swapped out for a – no, really – panettone-infused cognac, traditional Christmas spices are infused into the vermouth, and special house-made Christmas bitters round off the ingredients list. The result is a strong, velvety drink, with a spicy back end, that’s all too easy to drink. In other words, a perfect winter warmer.

As an added present, a slice of panettone, imported straight from Italy, comes served on the side. “We used a cookie cutter in a shape of a snow star to make the shape of the panettone even more festive,” explains Louison, a French master mixologist who worked everywhere from London to New York and Beijing to Seoul before arriving in Hong Kong.

Louison casually dismisses the complexity of the drink, telling us, “You can master this recipe instantly. Once the infusions are done you just need to combine all the ingredients and stir them for 30 seconds before straining everything into a coupe glass.”