The Coconut Negroni is perfect for you if you find the classic version of this drink is too bitter. The mild, sweet flavors of the tropical fruit tune down the herbal bitterness from the Campari and turn the Italian classic into a crowd-pleaser.
The recipe for this coconut twist keeps the three original ingredients of the classic Negroni in equal measures and adds a fourth one and s delicious garnish.
Like the classic version, this recipe calls for one part Campari, one part and one part Gin. And then there's the additional key ingredient: one part Coconut Rum.
Adding another alcoholic ingredient may not sound like it could balance an already boozy cocktail.
However, Coconut Rum is actually a flavored liqueur on a Rum base with an ABV slightly above 20% and a high sugar content. As such, it does a great job counteracting the bitterness of Campari.
We use Mahiki Coconut Rum for our Negroni recipe. But you can also use Malibu, which is easier to get in most countries.
These recommendations for the three base ingredients of your Negroni remain the same as they are for the classic recipe:
My standard choices for the Gin part are Tanqueray No 10. or Sipsmith London Dry. If you want something that enhances the tropical note of the coconut, try Iron Balls - a Gin based on pineapple and coconut wine.Â
My favorite sweet Vermouth for the Negroni is Antica Formula. It is a fantastic, high-quality product from Italy that works beautifully in all sorts of mixed drinks.
Finally, the Campari. A no-brainer. The distinct bittersweet herbal Amaro as it is responsible for the iconic taste of the Negroni. And if you want to keep the original character of the cocktail, there's simply no adequate substitute for Campari.
The perfect addition to this drink is dried coconut flakes. For some cocktails, the garnish has a purely visual purpose. But that is different for the Coconut Negroni.
All you have to do is sprinkle them on top of your Negroni and let them soak up some of the liquid.
I also recommend serving the drink with a small spoon and extra flakes on the side for people to snack on the soaked coconut chips. They are delicious.
And if you want to try one more twist on this classic, I recommend trying the White Negroni made with Lillet and Suze. Or the sparkling versions - the Negroni Sbagliato or the Negroni Spritz.
Other options are the Mezcal Negroni and the Aperol Negroni - a rare riff that omits the Campari and replaces it with a sweeter Amaro.
The original drink was invented in Italy and is a boozy version of the Americano cocktail. In this mezcal twist, the smoky agave spirit blends amazingly well with Campari. In combination with vermouth, you'll get a beautifully complex drink.
Quick Facts Mezcal Negroni Cocktail
I'm a big fan of the classic Negroni cocktail, and this smoky riff is also high on my list of favorites. So use our recipe to impress your friends and make a perfect Mezcal Negroni.
The list of ingredients for our Mezcal Negroni recipe is short and sweet. You'll need quality mezcal, sweet vermouth, and Campari. Further, you need some fresh ice for chilling the drink while stirring it in a mixing glass and an orange twist to garnish this delicious cocktail:
Montelobos Espadin is my regular choice for many of the top Mezcal Cocktails as it is budget-friendly, offers great quality, a beautiful smokiness, and is super versatile. But I also have some more recommendations, especially if Montelobos is too much for your liking:
Probably the most popular choice for mixing drinks. While it may lack a bit of complexity when you sip it neat, it's a beautiful choice for a Mezcal Negroni. It also works great in other drinks, like a Mezcal Margarita.
Ilegal Mezcal produces some seriously delicious mezcals. And their Joven expression is perfect for mixing it in a Mezcal Negroni or other Mezcal cocktails. It's a well-rounded spirit with plenty of fruity notes and a slightly smoky touch. If overly smoky Mezcals are not your kind of thing, give this one a try.
For fans of smoky mezcal, Gracias a Dios Espadin is a perfect choice. Notes of apple, pear, and cinnamon are coming through.
Want to know more? Mezcal, like tequila, is a spirit made of the agave plant. But unlike tequila, a Mezcal can be made of various agave plants from many regions. If you want to know more, read
Like in the traditional recipe, a Mezcal Negroni is made using equal parts of each ingredient. One ounce each of Campari, Carpano Antica Formula, and Mezcal is all it requires.
As usual, a drink with only alcoholic ingredients is stirred, not shaken. Therefore, put all three ingredients into a mixing glass with lots of ice and stir until the drink is chilled. That means at least 20 to 25 seconds. You can also count 50 rounds.
Strain the cocktail into a rocks glass, ideally over a large ice cube. The larger and clearer the ice, the slower it will melt, and you can sip your Negroni slowly without watering down too much.Â
Then garnish it with an orange peel or a thin slice of orange. If you squeeze the orange peel slightly while holding it over your drink, it will release essential oils and make your Mezcal Negroni even better.
In Italy, a classic Negroni is a typical aperitivo cocktail. A pre-dinner drink that's supposed to prepare for your food. But a Mezcal Negroni is better served as an after-work drink.
Since the Negroni is so popular, the number of variations of this drink is ever-growing. Some versions merely replace the base liquor, while others are completely different cocktails.
The most famous ones are the White Negroni and the Negroni Sbagliato. Another contemporary twist is the Aperol Negroni. It is slightly less bitter than the classic, as Aperol is sweeter than Campari.
And there are more drinks closely tied to the Negroni, like the Boulevardier - a classic cocktail with a similar recipe but based on whiskey.
Named after Count Camillo Negroni, the Negroni is a classic cocktail and a twist on the Americano cocktail that packs more of a punch. The herbal, bitter, and sweet taste makes the Negroni a perfect drink for any season.Â
What so many gins and gin types on the market, choosing the best gin for making Negroni can be challenging. Fear not, here's a bartender-approved list of our favorite brands of gin for Negroni.Â
A traditional London Dry Gin with pronounced juniper notes, and a kick of citrus from lemon peel and grapefruit.
A classic London Dry Gin is a common choice when making a Negroni. Many bartenders prefer a juniper-forward Gin for a classic Negroni.
Partly because this is the traditional way of making it but also because juniper works brilliantly in combination with the bitter and herbal taste of Campari.
Tanqueray No. Ten is a traditional London Dry Gin, carrying a strong lemon and grapefruit note. That is achieved by adding distillates infused with grapefruit and lemon to the traditional Gin recipe.
The resulting Tanqueray 10 is a perfect option for a Gin and tonic or a Negroni. Garnish it with a grapefruit peel, and enjoy.
An extraordinary Gin from Germany. After distillation, a bit of locally produced Riesling wine is added to the spirit, resulting in an excellent flavor profile.Â
Ferdinand Saar's Gin is a rather creative take on a Dry Gin. It is made of 30 different botanicals and created in a one-step distillation process. Even more interesting, the botanicals are subject to change from year to year. The ultimate goal is to complement the wine added at the end of the production process.
As you might know, the taste of wine strongly depends on external conditions like weather or soil. The unusual herbaceous and floral notes in Ferdinand Saar Dry Gin are a great fit in a Negroni cocktail and blend well with the bitterness of Campari.
Lately, Ferdinand Saar started producing their own Vermouths - red, white, and rosé. All of them go extremely well with their Gins. Hardly surprising, I recommend making your next Negroni with Ferdinand's sweet red Vermouth and Dry Gin.
This beautifully tropical Gin is based on pineapple and coconut wine and combines Asian flavors with a hint of sweetness.
The Shape of the bottle, reminiscent of half a cannonball, isn't the only unique touch to this fine spirit. Designed and crafted by master bar designer Ashley Sutton, Iron Balls Gin is a small-batch gin with a truly distinctive taste.
It took him more than 2,000 test runs to develop the final recipe. -An intriguing mix of tropical botanicals that create an extraordinary Gin.
The base of Iron Balls Gin is a homemade pineapple and coconut wine. In addition to juniper, botanicals like lemongrass, coriander, lemon, ginger, and basil create a fruity and refreshing flavor.
This New Western Gin might be too experimental for Gin traditionalists, but I love it. In a Negroni, it works best when garnished with a dried slice of pineapple.
Roku Gin is a complex Gin that incorporates six traditional Japanese botanicals.
Japan is long known for producing excellent Whiskeys. But it isn't exactly famous for producing quality Japanese Gin. Still, Roku Gin is a beautiful creation from the Land of the Rising Sun.
More and more bars and bartenders appreciate this Roku Gin for its unique taste and versatility. Roku translates to six. And six is also the number of Japanese botanicals used to create the Gin.
Two of these botanicals are yuzu and cherry blossom flowers. Both are also quite dominant in the aroma and taste of the spirit. The smell of Roku Gin is a refreshing mix of cherry blossom and green tea. And the taste is quite traditional, with notes of yuzu and a hint of sansho pepper.
The flavors of Roku Gin blend perfectly with Campari and Vermouth, making Roku one of the most recommended Gins for a Negroni.
The Four Pillars Spiced Negroni Gin is an Australian gin making for an exciting and delicious Negroni. This gin boasts an impressive aromatic profile with robust spices, exuding intensity and richness.Â
Besides juniper berries, the infusion of West African spice grains of paradise and Indonesian cubeb pepper imparts an elevated dimension to its flavors.
Four Pillars created this gin specifically for use in a Negroni, and you can taste that in the drink. The spicy flavors work well with the bitter and sweet flavors from Campari and red vermouth.
The genesis of this gin emerged from a dialogue between Cameron Mackenzie, the distiller of Four Pillars, and Jason Williams, a renowned bartender, in 2014. Their shared goal was to conceive a gin tailor-made for the Negroni, capable of harmonizing with its bitter and vermouth elements.
A cold-distilled Gin from England with a classic flavor profile.
The taste of Oxley London Dry Gin is quite traditional and juniper-forward and works excellent in classic gin cocktails like a Negroni or Martini.
Oxley was one of the first brands that used a cold-distilled approach to create their Gin. That means they distill the Gin at a very low temperature to avoid "burning" the botanicals.
Traditional processes cook botanicals and change their flavor and aroma by doing so. Oxley distills at even lower temperatures than is standard for cold distillation, namely below the freezing point of water.
As a result, Oxley can capture aromas from botanicals that other brands simply can't. And this is also reflected in the taste of the final product. The traditional botanical selection and juniper-forward taste make it a superb choice for a classic Negroni.
Sipsmith produces some of the best Gins on the market. Their London Dry Gin is perfect in a classic Negroni.
Sipsmith is another juniper-forward and traditional Gin. But each of the London Dry Gins recommended in our list is different. Sipsmith's version is remarkably floral, with citrus notes from lemons and oranges.
In a Negroni, this particular flavor combination works exceptionally well. Garnishing with a slice of orange or an orange peel pronounces the orange notes in the Gin even more. This combination creates a sensational Negroni cocktail.
A high-proof version of the classic Elephant Gin made with unique African botanicals.
Elephant Gin is a well-designed Gin full of character. It carries notes of earthy spices, fruity citrus, and a distinct floral aroma. Unique African botanicals like buchu, baobab, and devil's claw make an unusual, earthy, and quite complex Gin that unfolds its full potential when used in a Gin and Tonic or cocktails.
And the higher-proof spirit named Elephant Strength Gin is just as good. And it's without a doubt one of the best Navy Strength Gins I tried.
The Gin is rich in taste and potent but at the same time extremely well-balanced. Used in a Negroni, Elephant Strength Gin is powerful enough to take on the intense bitter and herbal taste of the Campari. A clever interplay of flavors that's worth a try.
A classic and juniper-forward Gin with some extra freshness.
Rutte's Dry Gin is a low-key styled Dry Gin that works perfectly in a Negroni. With only eight different botanicals, there are only a few surprises. The biggest one is the fennel. It adds a herbal note to the overall fresh character of the Gin.
By the way, the Netherlands is why we even can discuss the best Gins. The Dutch spirit Genever played a vital role in the history of Gin and is seen as the starting point for modern, British-style Gin.
That also shows in the quality of many Dutch Gins. The attention to detail and finesse in Gins like Rutte Dry Gin is exceptional.
The White Negroni is a relatively new recipe and a riff on the classic equal parts gin cocktail. But the white twist on the classic aperitivo cocktail quickly gained a following.
Instead of Gin, Campari, and Sweet Vermouth, the White Negroni combines Gin, Lillet Blanc, and Suze.
And while traditional Negronis highly benefit from juniper-forward Gins, a White Negroni also works very well with less juniper-heavy Gins. So let's have a look at the best Gins for White Negronis.
A dry and earthy Gin and one of the original ingredients for making a White Negroni.
When Wayne Collins invented the White Negroni at VinExpo in 2001, he used Plymouth Gin to make the first White Negroni. If there's one Gin to use in a White Negroni, it certainly is Plymouth Gin. -Their stronger Plymouth Navy strength is better suited for a classic Negroni.
An interesting fact is that Plymouth Gin is seen as a separate category of Gin. Plymouth is the only representative of said category and is slightly drier than London Dry Gin and has an earthy character.
The number of botanicals is limited to cardamom, coriander seeds, orris roots, dried orange peels, Angelica roots, and juniper.
A light and floral Gin from the Netherlands. Perfect for a more floral version of a White Negroni.
Nolet's Silver Dry Gin is very floral and fruity. The juniper notes are almost non-existent, and that's precisely why Nolet's Silver Gin is such a great fit.
Botanicals like peach, Turkish rose, and raspberry blend well with Dry Vermouth and create a light drink. While this clearly is quite different from the original White Negroni recipe from Wayne Collins, the result is a delight.
The base of any great gin starts with carefully chosen botanicals, like juniper berries that give the piney taste. The other ingredients, for example, coriander seed, cassia bark, Angelica root, cardamom, star anise, and citrus peel add more flavors and contribute to a higher complexity.
Traditionally, classic London Dry Gins like Beefeater London Dry, Fords Gin, or Bombay Sapphire are used in a Negroni. However, experimenting with more unusual bottles like Hendrick’s Gin (with rose and cucumber) or Barr Hill Gin (with raw honey) shows that the choice of gin can highly impact the resulting drink.
Categorized into many different types, you can find thousands of brands on the market. And often, each brand offers more than just one product. It goes without saying that with such a massive selection, the flavor profiles, botanicals, and proof vary widely.Â
A light, fresh, and citrus-forward Gin will create a different outcome than a traditional London Dry Gin. Higher-proof type of Gin, like Navy Strength Gins (at 115 proof), will produce a boozier result. With a higher amount of alcohol alone, your Negroni will taste much more Gin-forward. No need to even change measurements.
The perfect gins for a negroni get the mix just right, so they match the sweet vermouth and Campari in the cocktail.Â
Invented at Caffé Cassoni in Florence, the Negroni is a twist on the Americano cocktail, using gin instead of soda water as an ingredient. Gin balances the strong and bold flavors of bitter Campari and sweet Vermouth. Garnished with the obligatory orange peel, the bittersweet Negroni cocktail is one of the most popular drinks.
There are numerous possibilities to substitute the Campari or sweet Vermouth part of this drink. However, changing the gin base is the easiest way to change the character and taste of the cocktail without taking away from the original recipe.
Even though a Negroni cocktail recipe contains only three ingredients, you are not limited to a single flavor experience. When choosing the right gin brand, your personal preferences matter the most.
Do you prefer classic juniper gins? Try Oxley London Dry Gin. Do you prefer a brighter more citrusy flavor profile? Give Tanqueray 10 a chance. And if you're looking for something new and exciting, check out Iron Balls Gin or Ferdinand Saar.
Experimenting with gin for a Negroni opens up a world of possibilities. Play around until you find the combination you like best! So, what is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.
The recipe of the Negroni Sbagliato Cocktail is a sparkly, balanced, elegant mix of Campari, sweet vermouth, and Prosecco. However, it was an accidental creation. That even shows in the name of the drink. Sbagliato is Italian for incorrect.
Quick Facts Negroni Sbagliato Cocktail
The recipe is a sparkling, unique take on a classic Italian aperitivo cocktail with an interesting history and prominent fans.
Sparkling ingredients are delicate. If shaken too strong, mixed too fast, or used too warm, the fizzy bubbles will vanish in an instant. So you should be careful and follow these tips:
First, make sure that all your ingredients are chilled. Vermouth needs to be chilled anyway. But also the Campari and, of course, the Prosecco need to be ice cold.
Second, combine Campari and sweet vermouth in a mixing glass with plenty of ice. Then pour into a glass with ice.
Third, pour the Prosecco and give the drink a quick but gentle stir before serving.
Instead of the gin, the Negroni Sbagliato calls for Italian bubbly, creating a lower-ABV version of the classic Negroni. Here is what we use for our recipe - and why:
The Negroni is a gin cocktail that has brought forth a great variety of variations, and new recipes and twists continue to come up on a regular basis. Here are some of our favorites:
Recently, in an Interview with co-star Olivia Cooke (playing Alicent Hohenturm), actress Emma D'Arcy (Prinzessin Rhaenyra Targaryen) revealed that her current favorite drink is the Negroni Sbagliato.
After that, the Prosecco-based Negroni went viral on Social Media and became a meme on TikTok. It's everywhere, and the beautiful Negroni Sbagliato -along with the classic and other riffs like the White Negroni- is gaining a whole new fanbase and some well-deserved attention.
Bar Basso, a renowned cocktail bar in Milan, is credited with inventing the Negroni Sbagliato. As the story goes, a busy bartender confused a bottle of gin with a bottle of Prosecco while making a Negroni and only realized his mistake when it was too late.
The customer, however, didn't complain. He loved what he received, and the mistake of a bartender led to a new classic recipe. Until today, Bar Basso still serves countless Negroni Sbagliatos on a daily basis. -All thanks to a small error.
The red and bittersweet cocktail soon got served all over Italy. And so it happened that the "mistaken" version originated in Milan and not in Florence like the original.
Perhaps you know that the classic Negroni itself is a riff on another drink: A bartender at Caffe Casoni in Florence created a boozy version of the Americano cocktail for a regular customer, Count Camillo Negroni. Et voilà - a new classic was born.
Pox (pronounced Posh) is still flying under the radar outside Mexico. But that should not stop you from trying it and mixing it into delicious Pox cocktails.
At this point, there are only a few known Pox cocktails. With a taste resembling a mix of whiskey and rum, it works nicely as a substitute in existing drink recipes. So, there are plenty of ways to integrate this novelty into your home bar menu.
Here's the list of our favorite cocktails with Pox. Let us know in the comments which ones you tried and how you like them.
That is a beautiful twist on a classic Negroni. Usually, I stick to using equal measures for all Negroni ingredients, but it is different with this recipe. To properly showcase the Pox, I prefer a 3:2:2 ratio.
Ingredients
1.5 oz Siglo Cero Pox
1 oz Campari
1 oz Carpano Antica Formula
Preparation
This little twist on a classic Mai-Tai is an excellent example of how Pox can work in Tiki cocktails. It replaces the white rum in the original recipe.
Ingredients
1.5 oz Pox
0.75 oz Orange Curacao
0.75 oz Lime juice
0.5 oz Orgeat
0.5 oz Dark aged rum
Preparation
The Pox Sour is a fantastic Pox cocktail. The corn syrup in the recipe picks up the slightly sweet corn taste of the Pox. Yet, if you don't have corn syrup, you can always use regular simple syrup instead.
Ingredients
1.5 oz Pox
0.75 oz Fresh lemon juice
0.75 oz corn syrup
one egg white
Preparation
This one is an original recipe from Siglo Cero Pox. I found it on their Instagram account, tried it, loved it, and it had to go on this list.
Ingredients
0.75oz Siglo Cero Pox
0.66oz (20ml) Coconut Pulp
1oz Banana smoothie
Fresh Pineapple Juice
Preparation
Here's another recipe from Siglo Cero - an intriguing mix of Pox, whiskey, and Mexican herbs.
Ingredients.
2 oz Siglo Cero Pox
0.5oz whiskey
2 tbsp Hierba yerba mate
1oz simple syrup
Preparation
I also want to include the famous "Hala Ken" Cocktail from Fifty Mils Bar in Mexico City, but I don't have their recipe and still am working on figuring out the exact measurements.
If you're up to some experimenting, it's made with:
Hoja santa is a Mexican herb that translates to "sacred leaf" and is a common ingredient in Mexican cuisine.
A good, traditional Pox has some smoky notes and a sweet corn flavor. Usually, it's served neat with a side of orange slices lightly dusted with coffee grounds plus some cacao bits.
It really is a unique liquor. Until recently, Pox was exclusively available in the Chiapas region. Thus, the people from Chiapas have by far the best knowledge about ingredients that work well with Pox.
The most popular ingredients to use with Pox among the Chiapas are
Pineapple works perfectly with rum, while citrus is a regular ingredient for many whiskey cocktails. Tamarind, in contrast, is rarely used in cocktails.
If you're new to Pox and don't know what it is, you can read more in this article about the Mayan spirit. Overall, it really is a versatile spirit and works with all sorts of ingredients.Â
More than 20 years ago, at Vinexpo 2001 in Bordeaux, London flair bartender Wayne Collins created a totally new version of the popular aperitif cocktail. His White Negroni is a French counterpart to the Italian classic, made with gin, Suze, and Lillet.
Quick Facts White Negroni
So let's see how you best make this bright version and how it came to life.
The White Negroni recipe replaces Campari and sweet vermouth, the dark and bittersweet components, with the lighter Suze and Lillet Blanc. Only the gin and the measurements remain the same - Collins decided to stick to the equal parts approach:
The number one most important thing when making a White Negroni is to chill all ingredients adequately while making sure that you don't water it down by using too much ice.
For this, you best keep all ingredients in the fridge before mixing your cocktail. When it's time for preparation, stir all ingredients in a mixing glass full of ice cubes. Stir for 20 to 25 seconds to achieve the ideal level of dilution from the melted ice.
Strain all ingredients into a rocks glass with one large, fresh, and ideally clear quality chunk of ice, and garnish your White Negorni with a lemon peel.
One more pro tip: Twist and squeeze your lemon peel while holding it over your drink before you discard it. That releases essential oils that will make your cocktail beautifully fragrant.
The White Negroni itself is already a variation of one of the most classy cocktail recipes. A dark ruby-colored traditional Negroni contains gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. Other sensational variations of the Italian aperitivo are:
But there are many more worth trying. For a more exhaustive overview, check out these Negroni variations.
As mentioned earlier, Wayne Collins invented this cocktail while attending Vinexpo in Bordeaux. He went there to partake in an international cocktail competition and was traveling with Nico Blacknell, who, back then, was director of Plymouth Gin.
The day before the contest, they roamed local liquor stores to get ingredients to create a Negroni riff. Collins wanted to showcase French ingredients and chose Suze and Lillet Blanc to substitute Campari and sweet vermouth.
The gin part obviously was covered by Plymouth Gin, which they had plenty of back at their guest house.
But the White Negroni was by no means an instant hit. It took quite some time for the aperitif Cocktail to be recognized by mixologists. Even though Collins promoted it heavily, many bars simply didn't carry Suze or Lillet Blanc. And, as it turned out, neither did they plan on doing so any time soon.
Thus, he tried to grow its popularity organically and order his creation himself - over and over again. Eventually, this paid off.
The first big success of the White Negroni was when the famous Pegu Club in NYC listed it on their menu. However, Suze was not available in the United States, so the gentian Liqueur had to be smuggled in until 2012.
2012 Pernod Ricard finally decided to legally import Suze to the US, marking the beginning of the rise of the White Negroni. It quickly became one of the most famous twists on the classic Italian cocktail.
With the help of Pegu Staff member Jim Meehan, who mentioned it in his bestseller The PDT Cocktail Book, the recipe spread even faster. When released in 2011, this book was one of the main reasons the drink finally gained enough attention.
Most likely, the Negroni recipe originated at Caffè Casoni in Florence, Italy, in 1919. A bartender working at Bar Casoni created this iconic drink in an attempt to mix a stronger version of an Americano Cocktail. The cocktail was named after the patron who ordered this boozier version - Count Camillo Negroni.
Quick facts Negroni Cocktail
The result is a strong cocktail (24% ABV) that tastes refreshingly bitter and has a rich and complex flavor profile. A drink that's celebrated for a whole week each year - the Negroni week. In contrast to the herbal and botanical flavors in the drink, the essential oils from fresh orange peel add a nice touch.
The history of the Negroni cocktail began in Florence, Italy. According to legend, Count Camilo Negroni ordered a stronger version of his favorite drink, the Americano cocktail. Bartender Fosco Scarselli did as instructed and replaced soda water with gin. Scarselli named the drink after Count Negroni to commemorate who gave him the idea.
Over the years, this story has often been doubted. Some have even tried to take credit for this invention themselves. But none of these attempts was well enough proven to finally debunk the Count Negroni tale.
And since the Negroni cocktail was first mentioned in Horace Sutton's book Footloose in Italy in 1950, it is highly unlikely that we will ever be able to say for sure what the origins of this Italian classic were.
The standard Negroni recipe consists of three ingredients. Here's a quick guide on what to look for and which products you need:
An orange peel twist is the default garnish and adds a subtle citrusy touch to the drink. In addition, some bartenders also use orange bitters to enhance the flavors in the cocktail.
If you don't have an orange at hand, just leave the drink like it is. Other citrus fruits don't work as well with the flavors of a Negroni. Diffords even names the addition of a lemon peel a "heinous crime." -We couldn't agree more.
The Negroni cocktail recipe is a perfect example of stirred cocktails. Making it is pretty straightforward. -Particularly because the recipe requires equal parts Gin, red Vermouth, and Campari.
Choosing the ideal glassware for a Negroni cocktail is a task in itself. It should be elegant, classy, and not too large. I like to serve it in either a Singel Old Fashioned glass or a Double Old Fashioned glass. This depends on the measurements I use for making the drink.
A modern phenomenon is that bartenders are increasingly using more gin in Negronis. Often they increase the gin content to 1.25 or 1.5 ounces and stick to 1 ounce for each Campari and Italian vermouth. Sometimes, however, they adjust the measurements for all three ingredients.
This is often explained by evolved palates. Increasing the gin content better keeps the dominant bittersweet taste of Campari in check. The flavor profile is more rounded and somewhat modern.
However, these nuances are only relevant for Negroni connoisseurs. If you have never tried a Negroni, start with the simple equal parts recipe. Then you can vary the amounts and ingredients to find your preferred recipe.
The easy template of this classic Italian cocktail makes it an ideal drink for experimenting. Some of these variations swap the base spirit, others add additional elements, and others again use an entirely new set of ingredients.
Here are some of the most popular Negroni riffs:
More Negroni riffs: