The secret to the perfect Negroni
Simone Sanna, bartender at Bar 1806 Melbourne, demostrates how to construct this classic Italian cocktail.
Bitter. Refreshing. Italian. No, we're not talking about driving the Amalfi Coast in the dead of winter with the top down. We're talking about Italy's most famous cocktail: the Negroni.
A melding of Campari, gin and sweet red Vermouth, the Negroni has been refreshing palates and animating conversation for near on 100 years. With its distinctive red colour and potent reputation, it's the sort of cocktail that simultaneously commands respect and sets the scene for a little light-hearted revelry. Love or hate it, you will always remember your first Negroni.
If you're yet to welcome this invigorating tipple into your life, you're in luck. From June 5 to 11, bars and restaurants across the world will celebrate Negroni Week: seven days of deifying the delights of the Negroni and all the variations born of creative cocktail bartenders.
Launched in 2013, Negroni Week – presented by the maker of the cocktail's hero ingredient, Campari – allows bars and restaurants to not only educate and enlighten patrons to the virtues of the Negroni, but also support local charities. Each venue makes a donation to their nominated charity upon registering, and can make further donations with each Negroni served. It's a nice way to contribute to the community at the same time as you support your local free house.
Humble beginnings
Around 1919, Count Camillo Negroni entered Bar Cosoni, in Florence, and sauntered up to the bar. Weary from a day of entertaining and marvelling at the wondrous beauty of the Duomo, he requested bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to beef up his favourite sundowner, the Americano (Campari, vermouth and soda water), by adding a jigger of gin. With the addition of an orange peel garnish, the Negroni was born.
Aside from the garnish, a Negroni is all spirit – literally and metaphorically. If you're keen to mix one at home, simply build equal parts Campari, gin and sweet red (rosso) Vermouth over ice, in an old fashioned glass; stir like a madman and garnish with a slice of orange peel. Saluti!
For the uninitiated, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the dominant flavours of a Negroni; the sweet bitterness of the Campari cut ever-so-delicately with Vermouth, followed by a botanical sucker punch of gin in the tail. Like your first sip of a peaty Scotch whisky or a particularly heady stout, it's a complex love that will grow on you.
Tipple trivia
If you enjoy the art of impressive small talk, get a load of these Negroni facts to wow everyone at your next dinner party.
1. The key ingredient in a Negroni – the aperitif, Campari – derives its dominant, bitter flavour from the citrus fruit, chinotto.
2. The Negroni was one of Orson Welles' favourite cocktails: "The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other."
3. If you're not keen on the botanicals and herbs found in most gins, substitute American whiskey instead. You've now mixed yourself a Boulevardier.
4. Until 2006, Campari was coloured using carmine dye, which is derived from the crushed scales of cochineal insects. Incidentally, red frog lollies are still coloured using carmine.
5. Gaspere Compari, the creator of Campari, was a keen bartender well before his 15th birthday. By the age of 32, in 1860, he had developed a recipe of more than 60 ingredients to create the aperitif we now know as Campari.
6. The Negroni is considered by many bartenders, critics and writers to be a perfect cocktail.
7. Believe it or not, Count Camillo Negroni actually spent many years in the America working as a rodeo clown, during the Wild West.
8. For an oriental twist on the classic recipe, replace Vermouth with Umeshu – Japanese plum wine.
9. Nergoni mixing competitions are conducted all over the world, the most prestigious held in the 17th century castle Chateau de la Rocq, Arquennes, in the Belgian town of Seneffe.
10. A truly distinctive Negroni can be found at Portland, Oregon bar, Clyde Common, where bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler ages his personally devised Nergoni recipe in oak barrels for weeks at a time.
11. For a surprising pre-dinner snack, pair your Negroni with some hard cheese, like sharp parmesan or aged gouda.
To enjoy a perfect Negroni throughout Negroni Week, find your local participating venue here.
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