Suze - good for yous. It smells like dirt. Welcome back, friends - it's Anders. Today we are making a White Negroni. It's a modern classic, and it's a riff on the Negroni.
Also we are coming up on Negroni Week, and I've already done the Negroni.
I haven't done the White Negroni, so that's why we're doing this. So if you're like looking around for different
Negroni variations, try this one. It's full of flavor. This one will punch you in the face. If you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button for more sips, tips, and recipes.
And let's go make the White Negroni. To the bar. [intro music] Wayne Collins is credited for creating this drink in 2001
in Bordeaux, France. Although he wasn't from France. He was a London bartender,
but he was traveling to France with his friend. I'm gonna say friend. I don't know that they were friends, but colleague.
This guy named Nick Blacknell, who was the director of Plymouth Gin at the time.
Now they were going to Bordeaux, France for a liquor exhibition and a cocktail competition.
And they were staying in a small village in a guest house. It's a nice sunny afternoon, and they decide they want a Negroni.
Which is a great cocktail on a sunny afternoon. So they make their way down to the
local liquor store to buy the supplies. Now those of you who are familiar with the Negroni
know that it is a gin cocktail - which they already had with the Plymouth Gin - but it's also made with Italian ingredients
like Campari, which is an herbal bitter liqueur, and sweet vermouth. But they decided they
wanted to make this drink with French ingredients. So instead of sweet vermouth they went with
Lillet Blanc, which is another fortified wine, and instead of Campari they went with Suze,
which is an apéritif liqueur that has an earthy bitter finish. So with those ingredients they went back
to their guesthouse and made these Negronis. Only they weren't Negronis. So they had to come up with
a different name, so they called it a White Negroni. And that was pretty much it. The drink kind of died there.
But somehow down the road this cocktail was introduced to Audrey Saunders who was a New York bartender,
and in 2005 opened the famous Pegu Club. And she put the White Negroni on the menu.
The only thing is Suze was not imported into the United States at the time, so she had to smuggle bottles in
just to keep this cocktail going. I guess you could say she was kind of a bootlegger.
That's kinda cool. And it was all for the greater good because in 2012 demand for Suze was so high that
they began importing it into the United States. I like to think it's all because of this cocktail. Now the booze. For this cocktail, we'll need gin, Suze, and Lillet Blanc. The gin I'm using is Plymouth Gin,
the Suze is Suze, and the Lillet Blanc is Lillet Blanc. Plymouth - this is the original gin in the cocktail.
Now I've tried it with other gins and it works really well. Honestly, whatever gin you like
you should use in this one. The Suze, this is pretty important in the White Negroni.
It's a bitter liqueur, it's very earthy, it's very vegetal, and this is going to be the main flavor profile. Suze - good for yous. As for the Lillet Blanc, this is the fortified wine. It offers a little bit of sweetness in the drink,
and it really rounds it out nicely. I have made White Negronis with dry vermouth,
blanc vermouth, and dry sherry, and they all work. So you don't have to run out and get a bottle of Lillet Blanc.
You can use all those other things I just mentioned. But I've got the Lillet Blanc,
so I'm going to use it. I'm going to be true to the original here. Actually I'm not going to be true to the original.
My ratios will be a little different. Let's build. We're gonna stir this drink because
it's all spirit - no citrus. So get your mixing glass. And into the mixing glass we're
gonna do an ounce and a half of gin, three quarters of an ounce of the Suze, and three quarters of an ounce of Lillet Blanc. So the original cocktail would have been all equal parts, which is kind of the classic Negroni ratios.
I like to go a little heavier on the gin. Actually in my standard Negronis I like to go
heavy on the gin as well because there's big flavors. Specifically the Suze, and if you go equal parts,
I find that it overpowers the gin. I'm going I'm going two parts gin, one part the other two.
Now you can add ice and stir. You don't need to stir it forever because I'm gonna serve this actually on a
big cube, but you could serve it on the rocks. And because we're gonna serve it on ice, you don't
have to overly dilute it. Let's say 20 seconds. This whole table's shaking when I do this. Stop. Grab a low ball glass, grab your giant cube of ice,
and we can strain the cocktail right into the glass. I'm going to do grapefruit zest right on top.
The grapefruit is part of the original. Hit the sides. You could either discard this or turn it into a garnish,
so I'm going to do a garnish. I feel like I always discard it. I don't want you guys to think that I am an old curmudgeon.
Oh - although now I wish I didn't have this garnish. Actually, it's beautiful.
Ladies and gentlemen, the White Negroni. Cheers! Mmm Big flavor - wants to dry your mouth out.
This would be great right before a meal. Yeah, bitterness on the sides. Now I'm gonna bring Az on because - Okay. by popular demand - Okay. You have to try the White Negroni. Okay. Hi, everybody. Alright here goes. Yep. That's alright! Yeah? Yeah! Alright! That's alright! I have this belief that people either love it or hate it, and that's because of the the gentian liquor - the Suze.
I was thinking maybe this would be a cocktail you hated. Here's what I think.
I really love Negroni's. I think Campari is great. I love Campari, but Campari is like the sweet -
it's sweet and bitter. The Suze however is a little bit more challenging to me. Campari can be polarizing, and a lot of people says it's because its too bitter. But I think you're right, Campari
actually does have a sweetness up front. Yeah. That I don't get so much with the Suze. You know when you mow the lawn -
which I never do because we live in an apartment, but if we had a lawn we would mow it,
and then you know the little grass cuttings? You know the bits? I think if you ground
that up with a whole bunch of dandelions, and then turn that into a liqueur, it would taste like this. This makes me salivate more than a Negroni does. So that's why I feel like now I'm ready for food.
I think it's really nice. I think so too. It's actually kind of nice.
It's kind of refreshing. Yeah. Yeah - I am enjoying it. Well anywho I hope that you enjoyed
seeing my face. I don't really know if you like that or not, but somebody said that they want
to see more of my face. Not just one, other people have said - Well here and there. Like, subscribe, share this video with a friend. We'll see you next time. See you next time. Cheers! Farewell. It smells like dirt. It does. It tastes like dirt too. I actually really like it.
Yeah, it's like the roots of all of the - Oh! 🎵 Ahh ha ha ha ha 🎵 🎵 wow 🎵 [music fades]
