The great Orson Welles, when he first tried Negroni, said: “Bitter is the best thing for your liver health, and gin is the worst. Well, a compromise has been found."
Don't let the simplicity of the recipe fool you, because the origin story is very confusing.
It all begins in 1919, when a certain such Count Negroni was born, who had a reputation as a regular visitor to the Casonis Vag (later Caffe Giacosa) in Florence. On one of his visits, he asked to make his Americano a little stronger, then the bartender Fosco Scarelli decided to replace the soda with gin, and this combination became a permanent order of the count. The rest of the bar guests soon began asking for "Count Negroni's drink," and soon, simplified, it became known simply as Negroni.
Burning with discontent, the count returned to Florence when Prohibition came into force in America, banning him from his favorite cowboy-style pastime in the Wild West. He brought his favorite drink home. To distinguish it from Americano, his cocktail was garnished with an orange slice.
This story is pretty romantic, if not for one thing. Historian Hector Andres Negroni, examining their family tree, claims that such a character as Count Negroni never existed.
The true inventor of the cocktail is General Pascal Oliver de Negroni. The historian made this remark as a customer testimonial on Amazon.com to Luca Picchi's book Sulle tracce del conte, La vera storia del cocktail Negroni.
The article New Evidence Negroni was Invented in Africa - Sorry Italy, published by Drinking Cup, tells the story of General Pascal Oliver de Negroni, who fought in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. At one of the parties, he invented the "cocktail on vermouth", which was the pioneer of the Negroni cocktail.
And the earliest published recipe is in the book E1 Bar: Evolution y arte del cocktail by Jacinto Sanfeliu Brucarts in 1949. It contained the following recipe: 1/4 gin, 1/4 Italian vermouth, 1/2 Campari.
However, much earlier than various versions of Negroni appeared in print, there were cocktails that are extremely similar to Negroni, but in one they are absolutely identical. For example.
Doug Ford wrote in his Cold Glass blog: “There is a predecessor to the Negroni called Camparinete. His first publication was found in Boothby's book World Drinks and How to Mix Them. The recipe contained an ounce of gin, half an ounce of Italian vermouth and the same amount of Campari."
Or - Jim Meehan wrote in the PDT Cocktail Book that "the combination of gin, sweet vermouth and Campari appeared in French and Spanish cocktail books such as Cien Cocktails and L'Heure du Cocktail before Negroni became universal and famous."
But most captivating of all is the Campari Mixte recipe in the aforementioned L'heure du Cocktail, written in 1929, which points to equal proportions of Campari, gin and sweet vermouth with a lemon zest twist topping, which is exactly the same recipe we know from Negroni. This is the earliest drink recipe with the same ingredients and proportions as Negroni, but with a different name.
However, two years earlier, the Boulevardier cocktail was born, prepared for Erstine Gwynne by bartender Harry McElhone at his Harry's NY Wag in Paris. Its recipe was described in the book Barflies and Cocktails in 1927. Gwynne was an American émigré, socialite, the nephew of a railroad tycoon and, most importantly in our history, the editor of The Boulevardier newspaper that coined the cocktail's name. Boulevardier recipe: 1, 5 parts bourbon, 1 part sweet vermouth, 1 part Campari, which is very similar to Negroni with one difference: gin is replaced by bourbon.
To add to the confusion: George Kappeler in the Dundorado cocktail published in Modern American Drinks in Chicago sees a Negroni link in the recipe. Dundorado Cocktail Ingredients: 1.5 oz Gin Tom, 1.5 oz Italian Vermouth and 2 Calisaya Dash Bitters. The last ingredient is nothing more than a bitter based on cinchona bark, but slightly less sweet than Campari.
Now let's figure out the recipe. The cocktail has a luminous red hue. He manages to be both complex and incredibly simple. The widest range of flavors creates a wonderful aperitif, popular all over the world and is a tribute to etiquette during the aperitif hour in Milan.
“The composition of a cocktail can include one of a thousand variations of various gins and any sweet vermouth, the variations of which are quite numerous today. But if you want to recreate the real Negroni, then the Campari component remains unchanged,”notes Gaz Regan.
And further: "You can create a variation on this cocktail using any other amaro, but without Campari it just won't be Negroni."
Confirmation of this can be found in Luca Picchi's book Negroni Cocktail: “Do not forget that during the second half of the 19th century, other equally noteworthy bitters were presented on the market, namely Gamondi, Moroni, Martini, Bonomelli. But none of them, with a certain commercial reputation, have been able to withstand the entrepreneurial strength of Campari."
Most formulations indicate an equal ratio of parts of the components that make up Negroni. Gary Regan in 2003 in The Joy of Mixology states that "you shouldn't experiment with proportions, because balance is paramount and the use of equal parts is absolutely necessary to achieve the perfect taste."
However, in 2012, Gary became Gaz and stated that "you can hit me in the arms if you don't get a good drink without keeping equal parts ratio."
The correct preparation method is washing.
Negroni is not at all suited to the fuss of alcohol in a shaker. It is preferable to pour the ingredients on ice and wash in the serving glass.
But you can also follow the example of Gaz Regan and just do the wash with your finger in the glass (however, not when serving anyone).
The decoration of Negroni is a saw cut of an orange peel or an orange slice. The use of lemon zest is considered a felony.
The number of variations of this cocktail will be enough for a separate article. By changing one of the components, you can get a completely different drink. Be it Tegroni or Pisconi, where gin is replaced by tequila and pisco. Or complement the classic recipe with some nuance, for example, Fernet Branca dash in the Inferno cocktail.
