Negronis From the Archives, Day 4: Create Your Own Negroni
A custom-made Negroni-esque, and why the Negroni is the ultimate home bar cocktail.
For our final installment of Negronis from the archives, we’re going all the way back to September 2021, and the first newsletter I wrote about Negroni Week.
For that edition, I created a custom Negroni variation, which I simply dubbed “Negroni-esque.” It was a simple combination of gin, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, and Carpano Botanic Bitter, a bitter liqueur from the same company that makes Carpano Antica Formula vermouth. The ratio was not quite equal parts — 4:3:3, with the gin taking the bigger slot.
The point was to demonstrate how easy it is to create your own riff on the Negroni, how flexible the format can be, and how many delicious variations there are to be found simply by combing strong, sweet, and bittersweet in equal parts or something reasonably close.
That combination of ease, depth, and versatility makes the Negroni, and all its cousins, an essential part of the home bartender’s toolkit.
Sure, it’s fun and fascinating to make six-ingredient cocktails using a bunch of homemade ingredients and multi-day infusions. I’m kind of a sucker for an elaborate cocktail with a slightly fussy preparation method. I really, really enjoy juicing pineapples, and I think everyone should do it.1 I’ve been aging a small batch of eggnog for the better part of a year. I am not insane, I promise.
But I also have a day job and a busy schedule. Sometimes, I come home at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday and don’t really want to think too hard about what cocktail to make — but I also want something complex and interesting, and perhaps even something I haven’t had before.
That’s when I make a Negroni, or a well-known Negroni variation, or some three-ingredient bittersweet number I just whipped up on the spot — something, well, Negroni-esque.
That’s the beauty and the utility of the Negroni format: You can produce a vast array of complex, satisfying, pleasingly balanced drinks just by stirring together a few common ingredients in an easy-to-remember ratio.
When you’re making drinks at home, ease, simplicity, time, and availability are of primary importance. And there’s no cocktail that better serves these imperatives than the Negroni. The ease of creation, modification, and substitution — along with the fact that most Negronis rely on readily available ingredients that require no advance prep beyond a trip to the store — makes the Negroni the ultimate cocktail for the home bar.
So as Negroni Week comes to a close, I’ll reprint the recipe for the Negroni-esque. I tried it again this week for the first time since I wrote that newsletter two years ago. And you know what? It’s still pretty tasty.
But I’ll also encourage you all to experiment with your own variations, your own substitutions, your own ratios and techniques. Don’t just make a Negroni — make your own Negroni-esque.
Negroni-esque
¾ ounce Carpano Botanic Bitter
¾ ounce Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth
1 ounce dry gin, such as Beefeater
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass.
Add ice, then stir until chilled.
Strain into a rocks glass over a large piece of ice.
Garnish with a strip of orange peel.
Large Dogs, Enjoying Grass
Try it! Juicing a pineapple will take much less time than you think!
We have a pretty limited home bar, but as long as we had Campari and vermouth I found lots of different boozes would work as the third part. Nice to get some validation from an expert, and also ideas for slightly tweaking the ratios from three thirds.