September 18-24th is Negroni Week, an international celebration of what is known affectionately as The King of Cocktails. If you're unfamiliar with this simple yet sophisticated classic, there's no better time to give it a try. If you're already a fan then what are you waiting for?
"Yuk!" said our friend on taking his first sip of negroni at the Muddled Christmas cocktail party. ‘It tastes like Benylin!’ and to be fair I had similar feelings the first time I tried one too.
We were at our favourite Italian restaurant and the owner, who was always trying to persuade us to try something new and preferably expensive, had decided to introduce us to the negroni. I watched as he sloshed gin, red vermouth and Campari into a mixing jug, gave it a vigorous swirl and poured it into my glass with a flourish. Did I flinch at that first sip? Quite possibly; I was a cocktail neophyte in those days and certainly hadn’t expected it to taste quite so herbal and bitter. I avoided it for a long time afterwards and it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve come to appreciate it
The genesis of the negroni is somewhat unclear. According to some, the drink came into being in Florence around about 1920 when Count Camillo Negroni, a notorious cowboy, gambler and barfly, felt his usual Americano (vermouth, Campari and soda water) wasn’t quite cutting it and asked the bartender at the Caffe Casoni to substitute gin for the soda water.
The alternative story, and the one propounded by a descendant of the Negroni family, is that the drink was invented by General Pascal Olivier de Negroni de Cardi, a Corsican by birth, who served as a cavalry officer in the Franco-Prussian War. He bases his theory partly on a letter from the general to his brother in which he said: "Incidentally, did you know that the vermouth-based cocktail that I invented in Saint Louis is a great hit at the Lunéville officers club?”
Whatever the truth about its origins, the deliciousness of the negroni is in no doubt and it was soon a fixture at aperitivo hour across Italy. By 1947 Orson Welles had tried one while filming in Rome and seemed to be quite a fan. ‘The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other,’ he told a journalist.
The negroni may taste complex but it's one of the easiest of cocktails to mix - equal parts gin, Campari and vermouth stirred over ice and garnished with an orange wheel or twist. You can even build it in the glass. I like to add a squeeze of orange juice to mine although purists might baulk at this.
For something so simple, it is bursting with complex flavours. It’s sweet and bitter at the same time and very botanical. Your choice of spirits will make a huge difference to the finished drink. I don’t think you can go wrong with the classic combination of Beafeater, Martini rosso and Campari but half the fun of the negroni lies in finding your own preferred combination of spirits.
There are dozens of variations out there like the Negroni Sbagliato which uses Prosecco instead of gin and was said to come into being when a harassed bartender made a mistake. There’s the white negroni too which swaps vermouth and Campari for Lillet Blanc and Suze but here’s a basic recipe to get you started.
Classic Negroni
25ml gin
25ml Campari
25 ml red vermouth
Stir the ingredients in a mixing jug with ice and serve in an ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with an orange wheel.
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