Ciao, amici dei cocktail. Today we’re
looking at the history of the Negroni. And maybe I’ll accuse you of
being lazy by always making it with equal parts of its three ingredients.
We’ll start before the Negroni was even created, with two of its predecessors,
move on to Negroni’s creation, and we’ll look at where it sits today.
As the Italians would proudly say, Numero Uno! But let’s start at the
beginning. It’s Cocktail Time. Negroni cocktail wouldn’t
exist if it wasn’t for one man, and his last name wasn’t Negroni, but Campari.
In 1860 Gaspare Campari created a red bitter liqueur, now famous across the world thanks to
the marketing skills of his son, Davide Campari. According to Difford’s Guide, Gaspare was
inspired by a cordial he knew from Holland, so he first called it Bitter all' uso d'Hollanda.
Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like Campari, right? Wait until the end of the episode
for another fun fact about Campari. Anyway, probably not long after Gaspare opened
his first cafe in Milano somebody mixed his popular liqueur with another pride of Italy,
Vermouth di Torino. And the Milano-Torino, or Mi-To was born. Let’s make it.
The drink couldn’t be simpler, which I think might be a necessity for
living la dolce vita. Combine equal parts of our ingredients, I’m using 1.5 oz or 45
ml. Representing Milano is of course Campari, and for sweet vermouth I’m not using this antique
bottle of Martini e Rossi, but Antica Formula. This is supposed to be the closest recipe
to the original vermouth created in 1786 by Antonio Benedetto Carpano, a famous liquorist
from Turin. Add ice and stir to chill and dilute then garnish with an orange wedge. Che bello!
This drink was said to be popular with Americans, who would have a specific way
of enjoying their cocktails. They liked a splash of soda
water in their Milano-Torinos, thus giving birth to the Americano,
which is Italian for “the American way”. It’s worth noting that some sources claim soda
was already added to the original Mi-To cocktail, but it was then renamed to the Americano
because it was so popular among Americans. Another fan of the Americano
cocktail was none other than 007. While his Vesper Martini order may
be more famous, the Americano is the first drink ordered by James Bond in Casino
Royale, Ian Fleming’s inaugural Bond novel. Anyway, let’s make the Americano then
try it alongside the Milano-Torino. Some sources also claim the Americano was named
in honor of the Italian boxer Primo Carnera, who moved to the US and won his first
seventeen bouts there by knockout, earning the nickname Americano in his homeland.
But that wasn’t until the 1930’s, long after cafes in Milan were adding soda to the
equal parts mix of Campari and Sweet vermouth. Bond preferred Perrier, because in his words
expensive soda water was the cheapest way to improve a poor drink. We’re making a great drink
to begin with, so homemade will be more than fine. And for garnish, a lemon peel with the
essential oils expressed over the drink. E questo è il modo Americano.
Let’s first try the Mi-To. A bittersweet cocktail that sits a bit further on the sweet side
than I’d prefer. Herbs and spices are upfront, with bitterness and orange nicely present as
well. It has obvious roots of the Negroni. On to the Americano. Soda water brings
it more balance without losing too much on the side of the herbs and spices. Sipping
this in the heart of Milan during the summer is something well worth the travel to get there.
Chances are both of these drinks were invented at Campari’s bar in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele,
overlooking Milan’s famous Piazza del Duomo. “Camparino in Galleria” reopened
in 2012 at the same location So if you’re a fan of Negroni or any cocktails
made with Campari, you owe it to yourself to go and try it there. You won’t regret it.
But the story of the Negroni takes us to the year 1919 in Florence, Tuscany.
According to the cocktail lore, that's where count Camillo Negroni, a regular at Caffè
Casoni, asked the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to make his Americano a little stronger.
As stated by Fosco himself, he only added a few drops of gin, but the Count loved it
and would always order “the usual” after that. Soon after, the curious guests would also ask for
“un americano nello stile del conte Negroni.” Somewhere along the line gin completely
replaced the soda water to become an equal parts cocktail known simply as The Negroni.
But if you’ve seen any episodes of Old vs New you’ll know it’s never that simple when
it comes to the history of cocktails. One section of the Negroni family claims that
there was no Count Camillo Negroni, but it was General Pascal Olivier Comte de Negroni, who
invented the Negroni Cocktail, in Senegal. According to some he created
it for his wedding in 1857, but with Gaspare creating his bitter in
1860, General Pascal might have enjoyed a drink he christened the Negroni, but it
wasn’t the mix of gin, campari and vermouth. So the story with Camillo, Fosco and Caffè Casoni
is what is accepted by most cocktail historians. and Campari’s marketing team.
In 1947 Orson Welles described what makes this Italian icon work -
The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other.
In recent years it has even knocked down the Old Fashioned as the world’s most popular
cocktail according to Drinks International. And raised a lot of money
through Negroni week and charity. So let’s make the Negroni.
We’re again making it directly in the glass, as is often tradition in Italian bars and cafes.
The simplicity of a 3-ingredient equal parts cocktail with a beautiful red color has made
the Negroni a true icon that transcends the cocktail world. And you should be pretty safe in
assuming that anywhere you see the three iconic bottles on the backbar you’ll have a bartender
who can mix together 1 oz or 30 ml of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, respectively. If
he’ll grab the latter from the fridge is often a different story, but let’s not get into that.
Fosco Scarselli was also said to have swapped the lemon peel garnish from the American
to an orange peel in the Count’s Negroni, so that’s the norm to this day. Saluti.
[b-roll tasting Negroni] Orange on the aroma, with the spirit-forward bittersweet balance on the
palate is the Negroni I fell in love with. There’s always room for improvement, but gin,
Campari and vermouth are all playing their role in harmony. World’s number 1 for a reason. The Negroni has rightfully inspired many variations,
starting a whole Negroni Family Tree, with cocktail royalty like the Boulevardier
and some trending newcomers, like the Oaxacan Negroni or the Negroni Bianco.
And of course, this year's trending hit, the Negroni Sbagliato. … with prosecco in it. But there’s also the eternal quest to balance the
drink completely based on the ingredients used. In the book Gin: The Manual,
Dave Broom actually lists the ratios to use for over 120 gins covered in these pages.
I’m using Canaima gin, a Venezuelan gin made with 10 sustainably sourced botanicals
from the Amazon rainforest, as well as one botanical from the distillery's
region and eight traditional gin botanicals. I’ll pair it with 9 di Dante Inferno
Sweet Vermouth and of course Campari. And to make it the Cocktail Time way,
a little saline solution as well. So this won’t be an equal
parts drink, but based on what I think is the perfect balance of the three.
So if you’re using different ingredients you can use this as a template, compare it with the equal
parts version and go from there. I’m starting with 1 oz or 30 ml of Canaima gin into a chilled mixing
glass. This will give it a hint of tropical notes. Follow that with 1.25 oz or 37,5 mL of Vermouth
9diDandte Inferno. The bright red color will make it even more stunning than the classic. And
this time, just 0.75 or 22,5 mL of Campari. Our vermouth will add enough of the orange notes
to fill in for the Campari. And like mentioned, 2 drops of 20% saline solution, to highlight the
flavors of all three main players. And that’s what it’s all about - maximizing
the broad selection of spirits, vermouths and bitters we have at our disposal nowadays.
Once properly chilled, strain it over a clear ice block and garnish with an orange peel coin.
Perfection. It’s of course unmistakably a Negroni, from aroma
to taste. But it’s smoother and richer, with the perfect balance of sweetness
and bitterness. Notes of ripe cherries, with tropical and floral notes make this
an excellent, elegant and elevated Negroni. This one’s for all the trying to
make the best possible drink. For themselves, their friends, or their
customers. Cheers, Friends of Cocktails. If you’re still watching you’ve
made it to the bottom of the glass. Drop a tumbler glass emoji in the comments so
I’ll know you stuck all the way to the end. And here’s a little fun fact I promised
before - did you know that Campari’s bright red color came from carmine -
Originally, the bright red color was derived from a dye made from the scales
of cochineal insects. These little bugs are dried and crushed into a bright red powder. Don’t worry, though, if you’re
against ingesting bugs — Campari stopped using carmine a long time ago. In 2006. But other than that the recipe is said
to have remained basically the same since 1860. Quite a run, if you ask me.
OK, that’s it for today. Until next time,
arrivederci e saluti. Ciao.
