The Rob Roy , with sweet vermouth, bitters, and scotch whisky, may be nothing more than a scotch Manhattan, but it is nevertheless a legitimate classic and indeed the premiere cocktail with that spirit. See Manhattan Cocktail.
As usual in these matters, there are several claims to its creation, the most creditable of which comes from a 1941 letter to G. Selmer Fougner’s Along the Wine Trail column in the New York Sun, describing how the writer’s brother was tending bar at the popular Duke’s House, across from the New York ferry in Hoboken, New Jersey, when a representative of the newly introduced Usher’s blended scotch whisky came in. See Fougner, G. Selmer. The representative wanted a cocktail, but with his whisky. Since at the time scotch was not generally used in cocktails, Henry August Orphal, the bartender, was forced to invent something, which the appreciative salesman and his friends christened the Rob Roy (most likely after the popular Broadway show of the time). According to his brother, Orphal won $10 from the Police Gazette for his cocktail; this has not been confirmed, but Orphal’s employment in the area as a bartender is well-attested, and other circumstances check out. In any case, the cocktail was in circulation by the end of 1895 and in bar books from the turn of the century. (Orphal’s was not the first recorded Rob Roy cocktail; that belonged to well-known New York bartender Edward F. Barry [1844–1920], who dictated it to a reporter from the The Rob Roy’s simplicity and harmoniousness (one of the few scotch cocktails to possess that quality) earned it an enduring spot in the cocktail canon, one that it still occupies. It might be reductive to say that it is not a scotch cocktail, but rather the scotch cocktail. But it is not wrong. Recipe: Stir well with ice 60 ml blended scotch whisky, 30 ml sweet vermouth, and 2 dashes Angostura bitters. Strain into cocktail glass. Add cherry or orange twist. Note that early versions called for equal parts whisky and vermouth and used orange bitters, while some modern drinkers prefer Peychaud’s Bitters. Fougner, G. Selmer. “Along the Wine Trail.” New York Sun, March 24, 1941, 16. Walker, Dunton. “Gossip of the Nation.” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 15, 1948, 11. By: David Wondrich