Elijah Craig Small Batch Sure, it’s harder now to find the quality rye that existed during the Great Experiment. Powerful in anything shaken or stirred. The New York Distilling Company had always intended to make spirits for cocktails, gin and rye chief among them. And drinkers should get cozy with classic rye whiskey cocktails because it shines as the base spirit for a cocktail. High West Double Rye Whiskey — with its nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon notes — really is the best mixer to go into a Manhattan. Check out the seven rye whiskies you should be using in your Manhattan. The Manhattan is a classic cocktail best made with rye whiskey. Melissa Carroll, bar manager at Fisk & Co. in Chicago. Here’s a list of the best whiskey cocktails that’s a true history lesson…so you can count your drinking as learning, too!These classic cocktails span the ages: starting in 1688, through the 1800’s to the Prohibition Era and today. Got a great bottle of whiskey? Funneled into the U.S. from Canada, rye whiskey is known for carrying devoted drinkers through the drought of Prohibition. Plenty of barrel on the whiskey, yet the honeysuckle, black pepper, almond, and rye notes come soaring through the cocktail. It’s made with a mashbill of 51 percent rye (called “barely legal”) along with Old Overholt and Sazerac, so it tends to be sweeter and more accessible than ryes which made almost entirely from rye and tend to be extremely spicy. Rye’s flavor runs a wide range from spice and pepper, to vanilla and baked-good sweetness imparted from barrel-aging, on down to green, minty notes, that all coalesce into a complex sipper whose strong flavor stands up well against mixers. Best Rye Whiskey for Cocktails: Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond Straight Rye If you drink rye, you’ve probably had some Rittenhouse. But sometimes rye, and rye whiskey cocktails, don’t get the credit they deserve. Let’s make a cocktail! There are many, many ways to enjoy whiskey season. Here are 53 of our favorite whiskey cocktail recipes, including bourbon drinks, rye drinks, Scotch cocktails, and more. Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker ... spicy whiskey, rye is where it’s at.