Negroni Cocktail

Recipe: Negroni Cocktail (serves one)

• 1 oz. gin
• 1 oz. Campari
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth
• clementine wheel or orange twist

Shake gin, Campari, and vermouth vigorously with ice. Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a clementine wheel or orange twist.

The Negroni is our favorite gin-based cocktail. It’s bitter with some sweet notes, and it’s a refreshing drink to have before dinner. It can also be served on the rocks and topped with 2-3 oz. club soda, but we like it straight up. Credit for inventing it goes to Count Camillo Negroni, who created it around 1919 by adding gin to the Americano. For a time, the Negroni Distillery produced a pre-bottled version of the drink.

If you like gin and are in the LA area, the Flintridge Proper in La Cañada Flintridge is a great place to go. They have a huge selection of gin, and even have barrel-aged Negronis — which we’re in the process of making ourselves (stay tuned for a later post).

Each ingredient in the Negroni is actually delicious by itself on the rocks.

The gin.  We love Aviation gin.  It’s very smooth, with clear but not overwhelming floral and herbal flavors. Maybe sometime we’ll visit their distillery in Portland (edit: we visited!).

The Campari.  Campari is a bright red, bitter orange aperitif. We’ve also tried making a Negroni with Aperol, another bitter Italian liqueur, but it’s sweeter and less complex.  We prefer Campari.

The vermouth.  We like to use Carpano Antica in all our cocktails calling for sweet vermouth.

For a whiskey version, try The Boulevardier.