Why the Negroni is MY Drink

I adore Negronis. And, when it comes to travel, they’re one of the perfect cocktails.

Why? Because they’re pretty much impossible to screw up.

Of course, they can be made stunningly well. But they’re not like Martinis or Old-Fashioneds, the kind of cocktail you really need to know your stuff to do well.

Fundamentally, any bar that has gin, Campari, rosso vermouth and reasonable ice can make a Negroni – push comes to shove, you can order the individual ingredients and assemble it yourself.

Well, when I say they’re impossible to screw up, I mean they’re impossible to screw up unless you ignore the recipe. The Cave Bar in Petra managed that, which was a shame, as I was very much looking forward to enjoying a Negroni in a Nabatean tomb.

But, fundamentally, a Negroni is this: equal part of gin, Campari and rosso vermouth. Pour them over ice in a rocks glass, give it a token stir with a straw and, if you’re posh, add an orange zest twist. Done.

It’s a perfect balance of bitter with a hint of sweet, one of the classic cocktail balances, with a gorgeous jewel-like colour (some pretty pictures from the Four Seasons Florence here) and rich notes of orange and fruit.

This one’s from Glen Bar, a Japanese-style cocktail bar in Beijing.

The Negroni, in fact, has a long history. A bartender named Fosco Scarselli created it at what was then the Cafe Casoni in Florence, for a man named Camillo Negroni, shortly after the First World War.

A louche aristocrat, who spent time as a professional gambler and a cowboy, and once ran a fencing studio on Madison Avenue, Count Negroni was a hardcore drinker – Scarselli claimed he could drink as many as 40 cocktails in a day.

He asked for an Americano, a popular drink at the time – a mix of vermouth, Campari and soda, it had been known as the Milano-Torino until it became popular with American visitors, but made “po piu robusto”, or “a bit stronger”.

It’s unclear whether Scarselli substituted gin for the soda or added gin to the blend. Though the Negronis we drink today – a few drink their Negronis Martini style – rarely include soda, Negroni’s original might have had soda in it as well.

The drink took off, rapidly, with other bar-goers ordering “Negroni’s drink”. And so the drink was named – a friend wrote to Negroni in 1920 reminding him not to drink more than 20 in a day.

I couldn’t drink 20 Negronis in a day. But whether it’s in a Bangkok skyline bar, a basement bar in Soho, or our local steakhouse in Kathmandu, it’s a blast of old-school style in a glass.

And, if you’re a Bourbon fan, the various permutations of a Negroni with bourbon in lieu of gin, are worth a try as well.

Cheers!