Bracing and citrus-bitter yet light enough to drink before a meal, this is equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth stretched with a splash of soda over ice, ruby-red and cold in the glass. The Campari brings a bright bitter-orange edge, the vermouth rounds it with dark, winey sweetness, and the fizz lifts everything into something long and easy — the template the Negroni was built on, with soda where the gin would go.
Garnish: Orange Wheel, Lemon Peel
built · Rocks · On the Rocks
build
Fill an old fashioned glass with ice cubes.
add
Pour the Campari and sweet vermouth directly over the ice.
top
Add a splash of soda water to lengthen the drink.
stir
Stir gently to combine.
garnish
Garnish with a half orange slice and an expressed lemon twist.
Legend roots it in the Milano-Torino, a mix of Campari and sweet vermouth in equal measure that was poured at Gaspare Campari's Caffè Campari in Milan during the 1860s. As the story goes, American visitors liked to stretch that bitter blend with soda water, and the drink came to bear their name rather than that of any inventor — no one person is credited with creating it. It later became the pattern for the Negroni, which trades the soda for gin, and the IBA now counts it among its "Unforgettables".