An equal-parts meeting of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, the Negroni is the archetypal bitter aperitivo — ruby-red, brisk, and built straight over ice with a swath of orange. Campari's bittersweet bite, the vermouth's dark, spiced sweetness and the gin's juniper backbone hold one another in check, drinking like an Americano given real weight with gin where the soda would be.
Garnish: Orange Wheel
Stirred · Rocks · On the Rocks
build
Fill a chilled rocks glass with ice.
add
Pour the gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth directly into the glass.
stir
Stir gently to chill and combine.
garnish
Garnish with an orange slice (a wide orange peel is a common alternative).
The most repeated story places its birth in Florence around 1919–20, where Count Camillo Negroni is said to have had Fosco Scarselli, behind the bar at Caffè Casoni, swap the soda in his Americano for gin. That tale has its doubters: cocktail historian David Wondrich has questioned whether Camillo was truly a count, and the Negroni family puts forward a different ancestor, General Pascal Olivier de Negroni. With no single inventor on record, the drink has settled into a genericized classic, its equal-parts build now fixed in the IBA's official specification.