Rye's pepper and spice fold into Bénédictine's honeyed, herbal warmth, with Angostura tying the two together — an Old Fashioned with the liqueur doing the sugar's work and bringing a quiet chorus of herbs along with it. Stirred cold and served up with an expressed lemon twist, it drinks rich and silky, the citrus oil lifting the nose before a long, spiced finish that makes it an elegant after-dinner sipper.
Garnish: Lemon Peel
Stirred · Coupe · Up
add
Combine the rye whiskey, Benedictine, and Angostura bitters in a mixing glass with ice.
stir
Stir until well chilled and properly diluted, about 20-30 seconds.
strain
Strain into a chilled coupe, served up.
express
Express a lemon twist over the surface to release the oils.
garnish
Garnish with the lemon twist.
No inventor or originating bar is on record for the Monte Carlo; it reads as a convergent idea, whiskey and Bénédictine meeting in the Manhattan mould, rather than anyone's signature creation. Its earliest known appearance in print is in Bill Kelly's The Roving Bartender of 1946, with David Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks following two years later, and both early versions lean harder on the Bénédictine than many modern specs do. It is a separate drink from the older Monte Carlo Punch, and it has never been named an IBA official cocktail.