Negroni

Negroni (cocktail)

IBA Official Cocktail
Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Gin Vermouth Campari
Served	On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish	orange peel
Standard drinkware	Old Fashioned glass
IBA specified ingredients*	30ml (one part) gin 30ml (one part) sweet red vermouth 30ml (one part) campari
Preparation	Stir into glass over ice, garnish and serve.
* Negroni (cocktail) recipe at International Bartenders Association

The Negroni cocktail is made of one part gin, one part vermouth rosso (red, semi-sweet), and one part bitters, traditionally Campari. It is considered an apéritif.

History

While the drink's origins are unknown, the most widely reported account is that it was invented in Florence, Italy in 1919, at Caffè Casoni, ex Caffè Giacosa, now called Caffè Cavalli. Count Camillo Negroni invented it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water. The bartender also added an orange garnish rather than the typical lemon garnish of the Americano to signify that it was a different drink.^[1][2][3][4] After the success of the cocktail, the Negroni Family founded Negroni Distillerie in Treviso, Italy, and produced a ready-made version of the drink, sold as Antico Negroni 1919. One of the earliest reports of the drink came from Orson Welles in correspondence with the Coshocton Tribune while working in Rome on Cagliostro in 1947, where he described a new drink called the Negroni, "The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other." ^[5]According to the Corsican newspaper Nice Matin Corse of 1980, Pascal Olivier Count de Negroni is among those whom it is believed invented the drink.^[6][7]

Variations

As with the Martini cocktail, the trend in recent years has been to use a larger proportion of gin, mainly because the quality of the spirit is a lot better than it used to be, meaning there is less need to dilute the gin to make it more palatable. Most bars today will serve the drink with double the quantity of gin.

A recent trend is to treat the Negroni as a template, involving a base spirit, a bitters and a vermouth. Bars such as Amor y Amargo in New York, Mauro's Negroni Club in Munich, Germany, and Ohla in Barcelona, Spain among others, do this.

The 'Negroni sbagliato' ("wrong Negroni" in Italian) uses sparkling wine (e.g., prosecco) instead of gin. 'Negroski' is a recipe with vodka again as substitute for gin. Punt e Mes Negroni instead replaces standard red vermouth with a specific, distinctively more bitter-tasting brand called Punt e Mes. The 'Cin Cyn' uses Cynar instead of Campari. Pinkish Negroni: with pinkish wine (instead gin). A "Raultini" is a variation using Aperol instead of Campari, giving its distinctive orange color, lighter alcohol content, and a bit of sweetness.

See also

The Wikibook Bartending has a page on the topic of Negroni

• List of cocktails
• (Italian)Origine e curiosità del cocktail IBA Negroni

References