Spritz in the summer, Manhattans in the winter… that’s pretty much Taylor’s cocktail game as of late. Once he finds something he likes he tends to stick with it… until he finds something else, that is.

The fact that he’s had at least a few of these every weekend since Christmas should tell you something about this cocktail.

Namely that you should probably make one, stat.

A classic Manhattan has 3 ingredients: rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and Angostura bitters. Here we’ve simply swapped the whiskey for a pear brandy, resulting in a fresher, fruitier version of a manhattan.

We’d run across an Apple Manhattan recipe in 3-Ingredient Cocktails (one of Taylor’s new favorite cocktail books) that uses apple brandy in place of whiskey. Since we didn’t have apple brandy, he pulled out a bottle of pear brandy from St. George Spirits. We had actually visited the Oakland distillery a few years back when we were out visiting my sister, and fell in love with the fresh pear taste of this brandy (seriously, it tastes just like fresh pears). Luckily our local liquor store was able to order us a bottle and we’ve been hoarding it ever since.

The simple swap of pear for whiskey results in a fresher, fruitier version of a Manhattan. I’d say it was downright summery if pear weren’t a winter fruit. But it’s not heavy or overly strong, rather the fresh notes of pear play beautifully with the infused herbs and spices from the vermouth.

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