Negroni: 100 years of the concoction removes just that an Italian count invented

Vermouth, gin and Campari in equal parts. The snack time, against all odds, has also become the time of Negroni, an eternal cocktail that is birthday . In 2019 we celebrate a century of this scarlet drink that has had a thousand lives and is more alive than ever.

It used to happen that the apothecary was passed to the bar. As with so many other drinks, the original Negroni had a medicinal origin . The first mixological laboratories basically had a restorative purpose. Vermouth and Campari are flavored drinks, sister cousins, although one has a wine base and the other is distilled. Both are among the first to transform the almost pharmaceutical concept of the appetizer into something hedonistic .

"At the beginning they drink alone or with water but the human being gets bored quickly and wants new things, that is, he wants to mix them and add others," explains François Monti, a Belgian journalist specializing in the history of vermouth, about that big bang. Madrid sheds light on the current golden age of the cocktail . «As with the kitchen, which does not settle for putting a piece of grilled meat but adds sauce or parsley, in bars or in cafés in Europe people began to look for ways to make a drink that was already fun too common ».

It is difficult to drink the perfect Negroni, I have taken some that for me are unsurpassed and there are also many mediocre

The Campari was served with soda. Gradually the ice is entering the market, and at the beginning of the 20th century in Italy they begin to shake the drink to make the so-called Campari Shakerato. "Much more palatable, fresher and less bitter," according to Monti.

Vermouth, meanwhile, is offered in American fashion, what today in Spain, especially in the north, comes to be called prepared vermouth and, again in Italy, cradle of snack drinks, is transformed in the American: vermouth more bitter . "The Italians did not understand that that meant narrowness: for them bitter was the Campari and this is how you get to the American," says Monti. «These are the evolutions of the service modes of these drinks».

The process culminates with the alleged invention of the Negroni in a cafe in Florence in 1919 . Or, according to other versions, in 1920. The bartender Fosco Scarselli produced the original mix. But the ideologist was Count Camillo Negroni , who asked to add an American (vermouth, Campari and soda) to add a splash of gin to strengthen it.

Discarded is another version that would place the birth in Senegal many decades earlier. "The story comes from a slightly impolite and a little crazy uncle," says François Monti. «A Frenchman named Negroni who decided that his grandfather had invented the drink. There is no documentation. He says he has been teaching it for years, but he has never done it.

The true mystery is whether the Negroni, as we know it, was really invented where it is said and on the date that is now celebrated. A reasonable doubt is sown by the fact that we have to wait until 1947 to find the first recipe: «That is, 28 years to publish the first recipe when there are very recipes in the cocktail books of the 20s and 30s similar or the same but with other names », qualifies Monti.

Meanwhile, Luca Picchi, another hound of the Negroni, has in his possession personal letters of the count dated in 1920 in which he warns someone not to drink too many of his Negronis. It looks like a legit track.

During the first third of the twentieth century, cocktails with Campari that resemble the Negroni abound. This has its development in the context of the rise of fascism and the consequent autarchy in Italy that imposed a taste for local products such as vermouth and bitter. After World War II, he returns strongly as a perfect toast of the dolce vita (Audrey Hepburn was able to feed on Negronis during the filming of Holidays in Rome ) in the form of the so-called Negroni Sbagliato, in which the gin is replaced by champagne. And in the last 10 or 15 years it is defined again as an emblematic cocktail of the rebirth of the cocktail bar.

I request it 'on the rocks'. It is a very hard drink, because it needs a powerful alcoholic content. And when you cool it in a mixing glass, you're watering it

The current good health of Negroni extends its traditional consumption schedule and multiplies the variants . Javier de las Muelas, owner of Dry Martini, shows his reservations: «I have been on the road for half a dozen of the best bars in London and the problem is that a lot of bartenders , or self-qualified as a mixologist, want to add their personal seal. They cool the Negroni in a mixing glass too much, although I request it on the rocks . It is a very hard drink, because it needs a powerful alcoholic content. And when you refresh it so much you are watering it ».

But the Negroni has its experimental margin. At a time marked by creativity, it is a cocktail chosen for admitting multiple versions. "The brand says there is no Negroni without Campari," explains François Monti. «It is true that surely the first time it was prepared was done with Campari, which has a very special character, but there are other similar products on the market. Before, Campari had no competition, but now you can use other ingredients and get good results ».

Recipes always evolve. If we believe the version described by Luca Picchi in his book Sulle tracce del conte. The vera storia of the Negroni cocktail (2000), the first had a fourth ingredient: soda. When the American took it, instead of being replaced by gin, it remained in a small proportion. « If that is true, what we call today the classic Negroni recipe is not the original . You have to consider classic cocktails as concepts, ”he says.

In the case of Negroni, the traditional recipe has a very marked flavor profile, a clear taste identity that makes it easy to know if what you are drinking belongs to your family. «If this profile is not recognizable in the twist, it is that you have already gone too far», ditch Monti, in favor of being flexible with the recipes while respecting that conceptual framework. « It is difficult to drink the perfect Negroni, I have taken some that for me are insurmountable and there are also many mediocre ones . But to do something very bad, you have to love. Normally a Negroni will always satisfy you ».

In that balance of a cocktail that admits game to the limit of common sense, Monti highlights the Boulevardier, a cousin of the Negroni that is made with bourbon and not with gin. Very different but with the same genes. «Like when you try a chocolate Negroni , with chocolate cream and bitter . It leaves the classic Negroni but is a Negroni. Or the White Negroni , who is 15 years old and who goes around the formula using French ingredients: instead of vermouth, Llilet, and instead of Campari, Suze. Bitter liquor has a very different profile, in addition to color, but when you drink it you understand why they call it White Negroni ».

The first recipe of the Boulevardier is published in 1927, 20 years before that of the Negroni although it is supposedly a version. "It never fails, it's a perfect snack," says Monti, who also mentions Kingston Negroni , a twist that changes bourbon for Jamaican rum. «I like this line, the distillates aged in oak add an extra dimension to the cocktail. I love the classic Negroni with gin, but those notes are very interesting. Banana Negroni is made with rum and with a few drops of banana liquor. It seems very weird but it works. Banana in my Negroni? When you drink it, you say: it is a Negroni ».

Not to fail, Monti goes to Salmon Guru, the author's cocktail bar of Diego Cabrera in Madrid, where in addition to the classic, an aged Negroni is served in a flask. "Its formula is unbeatable," he says. From Barcelona, ​​he remembers Boadas: «If you take a Negroni there, you will never go out pissed off». And, further away, from the Atelier de Gran Canaria, at the Bohemia Suites hotel. «It is one of the best bars in Spain. The bartender is the Italian Raimondo Palomba who, although he makes creative drinks, sticks the traditional Negroni with the added luxury of Maspalomas views ».

Spain had Buñuel, exquisite drinker and inventor of his own version: Buñueloni

Not even in places like Deldiego or Balmoral, the Negroni was never a best seller like the Dry Martini or the Gin Fizz. Even the half combination triumphed more as an aperitif cocktail. But Spain had Buñuel, an exquisite drinker and inventor of his own version: Buñueloni . "If Americans always pull Hemingway, we can pull Buñuel," Monti notes. His formula: Carpano, Cinzano dulce and, his favorite gin, Beefeater. The Campari replaced it with dry vermouth.

In this new golden age, the Negroni is the great beneficiary. «A decade ago the Italians drank it and a handful of aware. It was a complicated cocktail. An Englishman said very vulgarly that Campari is like sodomy, you have to try it three times to start picking it up , ”recalls the Belgian journalist who, like Aperol Spritz, predicts a future as a daytime drink and in harmony with the food.

The Negroni hooks. From the beginning it hits, but it becomes easy to drink when rounded in the glass with a dilution that opens the flavors. And it has an unbeatable domestic outlet, thanks to the ease of its equal parts formula with hand ingredients.

Has it all. He is the new old king.

Recipe by ... Diego Cabrera

• 30 ml of gin
• 30 ml of red vermouth
• 30 cl of Campari
• It is scented with orange peel
• Served with ice and a slice of orange in a wide glass

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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