Cocktail Wars Episode 9 Recipes: New York Manhattans

Cocktail Wars episode 9 recipes came out of the most cocktail-literate night the season has had. The theme was New York, and the first challenge asked for a unique take on a Manhattan, which is the bartending equivalent of being handed a standard and told to be interesting without being wrong. Three mixologists, one elimination after round two, and $10,000 at stake. Joey Fatone and Lance Bass host, Melissa Brooke handles the technical scoring, and the guest judge was actor and lifelong Manhattanite Nathan Lee Graham. E! lists the episode as New York, New York while the official recipe page files the theme simply as New York. Below is the full Cocktail Wars episode 9 recap plus every drink the show published, each with a one-tap link that saves it to your Velvet Shelf account.

Every spec below is copied from the official episode 9 recipe page at cocktailwars.com, so the measurements are exactly what the mixologists poured on camera. Nothing has been rounded, converted or tidied up, and where the page prints an ingredient with no measurement we left it blank. One thing to flag before you scroll: the page publishes challenge one and challenge three only, so there are five recipes here rather than the usual eight. Save any of these and the cocktail lands in your bar with cocktailwars.com credited as the source.

Who competed on Cocktail Wars episode 9?

Carlos Gin, Zak Polhemus and Lana Epstein competed on Cocktail Wars episode 9. Gin won the first challenge and closed the night as episode winner. Epstein was still at the rail for the final head to head. Polhemus does not appear in the third challenge, which is where this format puts its single elimination.

The three builds in round one read like three different philosophies of the same drink. Gin went minimal and spirit-forward, four ingredients and a stir. Polhemus turned a blender on a raw apple and made his own modifier from scratch before he touched the mixing glass. Epstein stacked eight lines into a Nick and Nora, three of them fortified wine, and called the result The Modern Manhattan without apology.

Challenge 1: A unique take on a Manhattan

The first impression challenge handed all three mixologists the most argued-over template in the American canon. A Manhattan is whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters, stirred, no citrus, and the room for invention sits almost entirely in what you swap for the vermouth and how far you are willing to split the base. All three went stirred, nobody reached for a shaker, and Gin took the round.

Night Out in the City (Carlos Gin)

The round one winner and the shortest build on the page, with no vermouth in it at all. Cognac rounds out the bourbon, blended PX and Oloroso sherry does the sweetening, and four dashes of tobacco bitters carry the whole aromatic load.

Glass: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Maraschino Cherry

Ingredients

• 2oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon Whiskey
• .5oz Hine Rare Cognac
• .5oz Gonzalez Byass Nectar Alfonso Pedro Ximénez & Oloroso Sherries
• 4 Dashes Fee Brothers Turkish Tobacco Bitters

Method

1. Combine all ingredients and Stir. 2. Serve Up in a Coupe Glass. 3. Garnish with a Maraschino Cherry

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Orchard on 5th (Zak Polhemus)

The only drink of the night that makes its own modifier, blending raw apple into sweet vermouth and straining it before anything else goes near the mixing pitcher. The official page lists vermouth twice, once as Cinzano Vermouth Rosso and once as sweet vermouth, and its method tells you to use apple whiskey or a bourbon or rye of your choice where the ingredient list names the apple liqueur. Both are reproduced as printed.

Glass: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Fanned apple slices arranged with a bamboo skewer or cocktail pick

Ingredients

• 2 oz Jack Daniel's Tennessee Apple Liqueur
• 1 oz Cinzano Vermouth Rosso
• ½ fresh apple, cored, sliced, then pureed
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• ½ barspoon black strap molasses
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Molasses Bitters

Method

1. Slice up a fresh apple (peel on, no core or seeds). 2. Set aside half of the apple to make garnish slices. 3. Toss half the apple into a blender. 4. Add an ounce of sweet vermouth to the blender and puree. 5. Once the apple and vermouth are completely blended into a puree, strain the mixture. 6. Take the apple vermouth and add an ounce into your mixing pitcher. 7. Add two dashes of molasses bitters Add a half bar spoon of black strap molasses. 8. Add 2 ounces of apple whiskey or a bourbon or rye of your choice. 9. Fill the mixing pitcher with ice enough so that the ice sticks out above the cocktail ingredients then stir for about 10 seconds. 10. Once stirred, double strain the cocktail into a CHILLED coup glass. GARNISH: 1. For the garnish, slice the remaining half apple into long thin slices, much like feathers, take 3-5 slices and fan them out. 2. Use a bamboo skewer or cocktail garnish pick of your choosing to connect the apple slices to each other and rest the garnish across the top of the glass.

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The Modern Manhattan (Lana Epstein)

Japanese malt as the base, a quarter ounce of aged rum for depth, and Madeira plus PX sherry standing in for the vermouth, with amaro and green Chartreuse supplying the bitterness a Manhattan usually gets from one dash bottle. Eight lines and a two-step method, because once the proportions are right there is nothing to do but stir it cold.

Glass: Nick & Nora glass
Garnish: Expressed orange twist

Ingredients

• 1.25 oz Nikka malt whiskey
• .25oz Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva rum
• .5 oz green Chartreuse
• .5 oz Sandeman Fine Rich Madeira
• .25 oz Vecchio Amaro del Capo
• .25 oz Gonzalez Byass Nectar Pedro Ximénez Sherry
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers orange bitters
• As needed Orange peel

Method

1. Stir & strain into a Nick & Nora glass. 2. Garnish with an expressed orange twist.

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Challenge 3: An NYC borough inspired cocktail

The creative challenge sent the last two standing out to the boroughs. The recipe page skips straight from challenge one to challenge three and publishes nothing from the skills round in between, so the only account of the middle challenge is the episode itself. What the page does record is that two mixologists came back for the final, and that they went in opposite directions: one built a long, carbonated, floral highball, the other a short, rich, whole-egg flip.

Mi Casa Es Su Casa (Carlos Gin)

The $10,000 winner, and the one drink of the night with no whiskey in it: butterfly pea flower gin, two floral syrups, two citrus juices, then three separate sparkling ingredients poured on top rather than shaken in. The official page names no glass and prints the garnish line as orange peel and candy corn, which appears to be carried over from episode 8, since the method itself calls for expressed lemon peel, rosemary, blackberries and gooseberries. The garnish field is reproduced as published.

Garnish: Orange Peel and Candy Corn Garnish

Ingredients

• 2oz Butterfly Pea Flowers infused Gin Mare
• .5oz Monin Lavender Syrup
• .5oz Monin Rose Syrup
• .5oz Yuzu Juice
• .5oz Lime Juice
• 1oz Q Elderflower Tonic Water
• 1oz Icelandic Glacial Sicilian Lemon Carbonated Water
• 1oz Lanson Rosé Le Rosé Création Champagne
• 4 sprays Cortas Hibiscus infused Rose Water
• 2 Dashes Fee Brothers Fee Foam

Method

1. Rapid infuse Gin Mare with Butterfly Pea Flower at the same time Rapid Infuse Rose Water with Cortas Hibiscus. 2. Combine infused Gin Mare, Lavender Syrup, Rose Syrup, Yuzu, Lime and Fee Foam Pour over glass. 3. Add Q Elderflower Tonic Water, Icelandic Glacial Sicilian Lemon Carbonated Water, and Lanson Rosé Le Rosé Création Champagne. 4. Garnish with an expressed Lemon peel, Rosemary, Blackberries and Gooseberries. 5. Spray Hibiscus Rose Water over the drink for aromatics.

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West Harlem Flip (Lana Epstein)

The runner-up, and a flip built on two aged cane spirits instead of the usual brandy or whiskey, with coconut milk and Madeira filling in for cream and sherry. The official page publishes no measurement for the whole egg, so we left it blank rather than guess.

Glass: Nick & Nora glass or a small rocks glass
Garnish: Shake of cinnamon

Ingredients

• 1 oz Novo Fogo Barrel Aged cachaça
• 1 oz Diplomático Reserva rum
• .5 oz Sandeman Fine Rich Madeira
• .5 oz coconut milk
• .25 oz rich Demerara syrup
• Pinch fresh vanilla bean
• Pinch salt
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• Whole egg

Method

1. Emulsify with a mini-immersion blender. 2. Shake & double strain into a Nick & Nora glass or a small rocks glass. Garnish with shake of cinnamon.

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How the episode played out

Gin set the tone in round one by taking vermouth out of a Manhattan and handing the job to blended Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry, with cognac softening the Woodford and tobacco bitters doing the rest. Next to that, Polhemus made his own apple vermouth in a blender and Epstein assembled eight ingredients around Nikka malt. The judges gave the round to the four-ingredient drink, which is a useful result to sit with: on a Manhattan brief, the shortest build won.

Round two is the gap in the record. The recipe page jumps from challenge one to challenge three without publishing the skills round, and only two mixologists return for the final, so the page tells us Polhemus went home without telling us on what. In the final, Gin abandoned whiskey entirely for a floral, triple-carbonated gin drink over butterfly pea flower infusion, and Epstein answered with a whole-egg flip on cachaça and aged rum. Mi Casa Es Su Casa took the $10,000.

Three techniques worth stealing from episode 9

Make your modifier in a blender, then strain it. Orchard on 5th purees half a fresh apple into an ounce of sweet vermouth and strains that before a single other ingredient arrives, which gives you fruit character with none of the pulp or the dulling you get from a bottled syrup. Any firm fruit works, and the vermouth keeps it from browning on you mid-service.

Emulsify a flip before you shake it. West Harlem Flip asks for a mini immersion blender on the whole egg and the rest of the build first, then a shake. Thirty seconds of blending breaks the yolk's fat into the drink more completely than ice ever will, and the shake afterward is doing aeration and chilling rather than the hard work.

Let fortified wine do the sweetening in a stirred drink. Three of the five recipes here reach for sherry or Madeira where you would expect vermouth or syrup. PX brings raisin and real sugar, Oloroso brings nut and oxidation, Madeira brings caramel and a saline edge, and all three come with acidity that a syrup cannot give you. Start at a quarter ounce in place of a bar spoon of simple.

Save the whole episode to your shelf

Every recipe above has its own save link, the same kind we drop in the comments on Instagram. Tap it, sign in, and the cocktail lands in your favorites with the ingredients checked against your bar. Short a bottle of Madeira or a jar of butterfly pea flower? The Barkeep will tell you what to swap. Cocktail Wars airs Tuesdays at 10 on E!, and we do this every week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won Cocktail Wars episode 9?

Carlos Gin won Cocktail Wars episode 9 and the $10,000 prize with Mi Casa Es Su Casa, a butterfly pea flower infused Gin Mare drink with lavender and rose syrups, yuzu, lime, elderflower tonic, carbonated water and rosé champagne. He also won the first challenge. Lana Epstein was runner-up with the West Harlem Flip.

Who was the guest judge on Cocktail Wars episode 9?

Actor Nathan Lee Graham was the guest judge on Cocktail Wars episode 9, which E! lists as New York, New York. A lifelong Manhattanite, he joined hosts Joey Fatone and Lance Bass and mixology expert Melissa Brooke for an episode built around New York City drinks.

Why are there only five Cocktail Wars episode 9 recipes?

The official cocktailwars.com recipe page for episode 9 publishes challenge one and challenge three only, with no specs from the skills round in between. That leaves five recipes rather than the eight a full episode usually yields: three from the Manhattan round and two from the borough final after the elimination.

What makes a cocktail a Manhattan variation?

A Manhattan is whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters, stirred and served without citrus in the drink. A variation keeps that shape and swaps one part out: Cocktail Wars episode 9 saw sherry, Madeira and a blender-made apple vermouth all used in place of the sweet vermouth, with the stir and the no-citrus rule left intact.