While you can make countless experiments with the evergreen Negroni, the classic cocktail recipe is one you can never go wrong with.
If you’re celebrating Negroni Week 2022 (just like us), this is probably about the right moment to step up your home bar — and riff a negroni yourself! We’ve been through the classic origin story of the negroni — penned down by Italian author Luca Picchi’s recollection of Count Camillo Negroni, and his desire for a drink stiffer than the standard Americano. This little moment of invention at a bar in Italy’s Florence, now dating back by nearly a century, made the bitter negroni the darling cocktail of many a blurry evening.
But, the negroni isn’t just a heady mix. It is one of the best cocktails to spend an evening over after a hard day crunching numbers in the office. It is refreshing, and at the same time, a spirit-lifter (well, quite literally). As if apt for the concoction, the negroni doesn’t need you to push for a wide collection of hard-to-find, fancy ingredients. Nor do you need to go through an elaborate process to create the perfect negroni.
Picking the right gin
However, what you do need is to have the perfect gin to create the right negroni. The gin is a spirit that inherently beckons you to create a varied range of cocktails from. Starting with modern, experimental and often floral takes on old-school cocktails such as the classic, safe haven drink — the gimlet, once you start experimenting with gin at home, you’ll soon realise that the drink you whip up can wildly vary depending on the gin that you use for it.
Naturally, over time, we all develop the taste for a favourite gin — be it from the old-school classics such as the good old Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray, to a more modern but incredibly robust Monkey 47 and Terai, among a wide variety.
Ingredients for a homemade Negroni
Once you’ve selected your favourite gin, the next step is to get sweet vermouth — the gorgeously ruby-hued Martini Rosso, and the Italian bitter liquor, Campari. At the average store across India, the Martini Rosso should cost you around ₹1,500, while the Campari should cost about ₹3,000. Each new batch of Campari and sweet vermouth should last you for about 30 negronis, which in turn gives you a runway of at least four months for a litre of Campari and Martini Rosso.
Recipe
To create the perfect classic Negroni —
- Take a glass, and fill it with crushed ice.
- Using a peg measure, pour out 30ml of Campari, Martini Rosso (this is what gives the classic negroni its gorgeous hue), and the gin that you prefer.
- If your palate is on the sweeter end, some of the modern botanical gins, with added floral hints, would be good to pair. Classic pairings could feature the old-school London dry gins, such as Bombay Sapphire or Beefeater.
- Once poured into the glass with crushed ice, stir the mix quickly and briefly.
- Take an old-fashioned glass, and place a single, large cube of ice (or two cubes, if you cannot manage a single large one) in it.
- Using a strainer, pour out the mix into the old-fashioned glass.
- Twist and add a peel of orange atop the ice cube, and voila! You have your perfect, homegrown negroni at hand.
Read more.
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