How to Make the Perfect Negroni,
The Negroni is a three-ingredient cocktail made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. And according to Joshua Scheid, bar manager for Rex at the Royal Philadelphia, the recipe works great as is, but it's also easy to modify and make at home.
There are some keys to getting it right.
First, as with any recipe, you need to start with quality ingredients.
The Negroni is a three-ingredient cocktail made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.
Gin
The world of gin is vast, with various botanicals and spices, but the traditional type of gin used in a Negroni is London Dry, known for its pine flavor profile."Because the other ingredients, especially the Campari, are bombastic, I think you need a strong presence of juniper to make the gin stand out," said Sean Umstead, co-owner of Kingfisher in Durham, NC. "So for me, Beefeater or Tanqueray are the ones that really shine at Negroni."
Of course everything is a matter of taste. Scheid, for example, prefers to use American gins. “I think they tend to be a bit more adventurous with botanicals.And whenever I can, I like to use local things, both in my home bar and behind the bar I work at," he said. For the Philadelphia-based cocktail pro, that's Bluecoat Gin, but wherever you are, a local gin adds a sense of place to the cocktail.
Campari
This is uncompromising, no Negroni without Campari. The bright red Italian liqueur is an aperitif made from a blend of spices and herbs and gives the Negroni its bitterness.
“It's the bright orange grapefruit, the bitter component that gives the drink that .… quench your thirst,” Umstead said. While Campari is generally thought of as a snack, Umstead believes it can be enjoyed anytime: It's tart and sweet, and it's moister than other snacks.
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