THE NEGRONI DIARIES
Three bartenders, three cities, three takes on the world's most debated cocktail
The Negroni is about harmony — not equality.
The Negroni is a cocktail that starts arguments. Equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth — the formula is sacred, and any deviation is heresy. Or is it?
We asked three bartenders from three continents to make their definitive version. The only rule: the drink must be recognisably a Negroni. Everything else was up for interpretation.
In New York, Sofia Martinez reaches for Patron Reposado instead of gin. 'The oak and vanilla from the reposado give the Campari something to lean on,' she explains, stirring the drink over a single large ice cube. 'It's richer, warmer — a winter Negroni.'
In London, a bartender at Connaught Bar takes a different approach. He keeps the gin but replaces the sweet vermouth with a house-made agave-and-gentian amaro. 'The agave brings a thread of Mexico into an Italian classic,' he says. 'It shouldn't work, but it does.'
In Tokyo, the approach is predictably precise. The proportions are adjusted to 30ml/25ml/20ml in favour of the gin, and the drink is stirred exactly 42 times. A single orange peel is expressed over the surface, twisted once, and placed in the glass at a precise angle. 'The Negroni is about harmony,' the bartender says. 'Not equality.'
Three drinks. Three philosophies. One cocktail that, after nearly a century, still has more to say.
Related Content
