December 6, 2015 Advent with SusieJ

Negroni

I'm not a hipster, but I drank Negronis before they were cool.

Honestly, I'm old enough that I've liked and done a lot of things before it was cool. Web? Check out the copyright dates. European chocolate? I got family in Stuttgart, home of Ritter Sport. Doctor Who? I had nightmares at 10 about the Seeds of Death.

Campari was first introduced to me as an apertif (as God and the Milanese intended), and in the Campari oranj cocktail. Decades ago, one of the more esoteric food magazines ran an article on Campari, with recipes for cocktails including the Negroni. The 1-1-1 proportions are dead simple, making it the only ratio I could remember from the article.

For years only my mixologist friends knew of it, but today it can be ordered in almost any bar. The classic version can be very medicinal, and a little sweet. People with more modern tastes will often increase the gin by half an ounce.

  • 1 oz gin
  • 1 oz Campari
  • 1 oz red Vermouth

Stir together in a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with an orange twist.

[Me very, very happily drinking a negroni on our patio; copyright 2014, Susan J. Talbutt, all rights reserved]
Me very, very happily drinking a negroni on our patio.