One Last Negroni

Apple brandy, Cynar, and fruity Peychaud’s bitters come together in a richly satisfying slow-sipper.

Negronis are forever. But Negroni Week? Well, it’s almost over.

We’re going to close out with one of my favorite lesser-known Negroni riffs.

When you think about Negroni variations, you probably think about Negroni-class drinks that swap out the gin for a different base spirit.

There’s the Boulevardier (a Negroni with whiskey), the Kingston Negroni (a Negroni with dark, high-proof Jamaican rum), and the Mezcal Negroni (a Negroni with, you guessed it, mezcal). 

Even Negroni-esque cocktails that further modify the template tend to be classified by reference to their base ingredient: The Midnight Marauder is a species of Mezcal Negroni—an evolutionary offshoot of an evolutionary offshoot. 

These cocktails are all classics or minor classics, popular enough to be served in bars all over the country for years upon years. Even in cocktails, there’s survival of the fittest, or at least the tastiest. 

But this taxonomy only barely covers the basics. The Negroni format is so flexible, so forgiving, so amenable to improvisation and experimentation that nearly any basic distilled spirit can be transformed into a Negroni-esque drink. All you have to do is add fortified wine/vermouth and bitter liqueuer/amaro. 

The simplicity and versatility of the format is why I consider the Negroni the ultimate home bar cocktail. It takes very little time, effort, or specialized knowledge to produce a very satisfying, very complex drink. 

Start with a spirit. Add sweet and bittersweet in roughly equal proportions. It works (almost) every time. 

So for our final Negroni Week Negroni, I want to draw your attention to one of my low-key favorite Negroni variations, a riff that puts apple brandy in the base spirit slot for a fruity, rich, delectable cocktail.

It’s an unusual choice in many ways: I’m not sure ever seen an apple brandy Negroni of any kind on a bar menu, and I’ve certainly never seen this particular drink in the wild. (The only other apple brandy Negroni I can think of off he top of my head is the one I put together earlier this year, with Benedictine.)

This week’s cocktail has been written up a few times, but it is not a minor classic or of a genus that is already in wide circulation. This is not a drink that even encyclopedic bartenders will know off the top of their head. 

But in my humble opinion, it very much should be.

This is one of the great, lesser-known, underappreciated Negroni-esque cocktails, a drink that deserves wider acclaim and appreciation. And it’s incredibly — almost deceptively — easy to make. 

It helps, of course, that it uses Cynar. (Put it in everything! Seriously! Everything!) 

A Darker, Richer More Manhattan-y Negroni

Regular readers already know how much I enjoy both apple brandy and Cynar, and how well they go together.