Reese’s Manhattan – A Peanut Butter Chocolate Cocktail

Last Updated on December 1, 2021 by Heather Wibbels

I came up with the perfect cocktail for any of you that love Reese’s cups – a Peanut Butter Chocolate Cocktail that’s easy and fast. You know I love Ballotin Whiskey, and I wanted to see how it played with spicy rye and some amaro. The amaro makes it more complex and adult, but it also pulls out more of the peanut butter flavor. This one will be batched and available for consumption all weekend.

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Ballotin’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Whiskey

I occasionally work with Ballotin to develop cocktails so I have bottles around to tinker with. But this isn’t a sponsored post; I just love this Peanut Butter Chocolate Whiskey product and this cocktail.

To me, this whiskey was one that if I was feeling lazy and wanted a sweet pour that tastes like peanut butter chocolate cups, I would put this on ice. In fact, when I handed my honey a glass to taste he just kept it.

It is a sweet whiskey – it’s supposed to be – but the flavor combination here isn’t overwhelming – it’s a balance of nut and chocolate in a sweet liquor. This will be amazing added to hot chocolate, coffee, cream drinks, or even in my usual old fashioned cocktails.

But in this cocktail, as I added more bitter elements, the nut and chocolate just exploded. I actually tasted more of the peanut butter and chocolate when I was drinking it in the cocktail than just sipping it neat. Bitters balance out sweet flavors and in this case, they drew out the taste of the peanuts.

Why You Should Rethink Flavored Whiskey

For those of us deep into the woods with whiskey, flavored whiskey is a bad term. Derogatory, even. But, for the masses, flavored whiskies are a good thing – a way to introduce more people to whiskey.

Evan Williams cinnamon whiskey was the very first whiskey my husband ever drank neat. I converted him through that and old fashioned to a neat bourbon drinker. Now I have to hide the good stuff.

But back to flavored whiskies. Bourbon enthusiasts and whiskey snobs tend to hate them because they love amber bourbon straight from the bottle with nothing added. I am one of those people that love bourbon neat.

The problem for whiskey geeks is that flavoring added to bourbon overpowers the inherent flavor of the whiskey they’re drinking. And that’s something they hold in reverence.

I’d argue for whiskey drinkers to stop thinking about flavored whiskies as something you’d sip neat. Start thinking about them as a cocktail ingredient. They’re like any liqueur or flavored spirit you might add to a cocktail.

The fact that they have whiskey at their base makes them seem more compatible with whiskey drinks, but in fact, I’ve used them with great success with tequila, rum, and gin drinks as a stand-in for other flavored liquors.

So, to my whiskey enthusiasts, I’m not saying you should drink it neat, but you might want to add it to an old fashioned, julep, sour, manhattan, smash, sazerac, boulevardier, etc.  Flavored whiskies are made to be mixed.

How to Make a Peanut Butter Chocolate Manhattan

This cocktail isn’t for the delicate. This is a high-proof cocktail with a great kick to it. It’s so tasty you will want to drink more than one, but you’ll need to be careful. You’ve been warned.

As a peanut butter chocolate cocktail, this drink, with amaro and bitters, is classy. Is it fun, something to delight the child in you? Yes, but it’s also a fun exploration of the combination of rye’s pepperiness with the sweet peanut butter chocolate whiskey and the bitter amaro.

Add the Ballotin Peanut Butter Whiskey, rye whiskey, amaro, and bitters to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir for about 30 seconds, until the outside of the mixing glass is very cold. Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a dark chocolate-covered peanut butter cup or two. 

TIP: If you try to garnish through the top of Reese’s peanut butter chocolate cups, you may crack them. It was easier for me when I went through the peanut butter cup horizontally rather than vertically.

How to Batch this Reese’s Cocktail for a Night in

Do you need a “Mix Once Drink All Weekend Cocktail?” I’m here for you. This will make 8.

• 1.5 cups Ballotin Peanut Butter Chocolate
• 1 cup rye whiskey
• ¾ cup Averna Amaro
• 12 dashes chocolate bitters
• ½ c water

Add all the ingredients above to an empty bottle or pitcher with a lid. Store in the fridge until well chilled. Before serving, chill for 30 min in the freezer if you think about it. Serve in chilled coupe glasses garnished with some chocolate peanut butter cups.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Manhattan

Heather Wibbels

Be careful, these are dangerous. This peanut butter chocolate cocktail combines Ballotin’s Peanut Butter Chocolate whiskey with rye and a bit of amaro. Top it off with some chocolate bitters and it’s a sweet, nutty, chocolatey cocktail. But with the amaro and the bitters, it’s balanced while still giving you the one-two punch of a bite of a Reese’s cup. 

5 from 6 votes

Print Recipe

Course Drinks

Cuisine rye cocktail

Servings 1

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1.5 oz Ballotin Peanut Butter Chocolate Whiskey
• 1 oz Old Forester Rye whiskey
• 3/4 oz Averna Amaro
• 3 dashes chocolate bitters
• Garnish: chocolate peanut butter cups

Instructions

 

• Combine peanut butter chocolate whiskey, rye whiskey, amaro and bitters in a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir for 30 seconds and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with chocolate peanut butter cups.

Keyword amaro, apple bitters, chocolate, peanut butter, Reese’s, rye

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!