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What is a negroni?

Three ingredients, equal parts, no apologies: gin, Campari, and sweet (rosso) vermouth. Stirred over ice, served in a rocks glass, finished with orange. It is bitter, sweet, strong and ruby-red all at once — the definitive aperitivo, and one of the very few cocktails that has never needed improving.

A one-minute history

Florence, around 1919. As the favourite telling goes, Count Camillo Negroni — an Italian aristocrat with form as a rodeo cowboy and riverboat gambler in America — asked bartender Fosco Scarselli at the Caffè Casoni to stiffen his usual Americano by swapping the soda water for gin. Other regulars began ordering “one of Count Negroni's drinks”, and the name stuck.

Like all great cocktail origin stories it is cheerfully contested — rival Negronis have been proposed, and the paperwork is thin. What is not contested: a century later it became the most fashionable drink in the world, and it still tastes like Florence at golden hour.

Making the perfect negroni

• 🥃 Glass — a heavy-bottomed rocks glass (old fashioned/tumbler). A negroni in a highball is an Americano in disguise; in a martini glass it's a cry for help.
• 🧊 Ice — one big, clear cube beats a scoop of wet pebbles. Big ice melts slowly, keeping the drink cold without drowning it.
• 🍊 Garnish — a fresh orange slice or a wide strip of peel, expressed over the surface. Dried wheels are tolerated; sad ones are scored accordingly.
• 👅 Taste — balance is everything. No ingredient should win. A good vermouth matters more than an expensive gin.
• 🎨 Colour — deep sunset red, glowing when the light comes through it. If it looks like weak squash, something has gone wrong.

Spotted the pattern? Those are exactly the five things you score on RMN.

Further reading