And that makes this week, September 12-18, one of our favorite weeks of the year because it’s International Negroni Week! It’s an excellent opportunity to celebrate one of the world’s classic (and a personal favorite of ours) cocktails – the Negroni – seven nights a week.
Negroni Week was founded in 2013 by the Portland, Oregon based “liquid culture” magazine Imbibe in partnership with Campari America. The past ten years has seen it expand to more than 6,000 participating bars and restaurants around the world.
In the beginning…..The Negroni’s origins are not known with certainty. So, while there is no documented historical account, most cocktailians agree that it was first mixed in Florence, Italy, in 1919, at the Caffè Casoni on the Via de’ Tornabouni. when Count Camillo Negroni concocted it by asking the bartender to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water. The bartender also added an orange garnish rather than the typical lemon garnish of the Americano to signify that it was a different drink.
One of the earliest reports of the drink came from Orson Welles in correspondence while working in Rome in 1947, where he described a new drink called the Negroni, "The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other."
The classic Negroni is made with equal parts Gin, Campari and Sweet Vermouth.
The ingredients should be stirred (not shaken…) in a mixing glass with ice, then strained into a chilled cocktail glass, or ice-filled double rocks glass, and garnished with an orange twist.
Today, there are so many variations on the original that the Negroni has become more than a drink, it’s become a category. To name just a few: the Boulevardier substitutes whiskey in place of gin; the Dutch Negroni uses Jenever for the gin; the Negroscan uses traditional Norwegian akvavit instead of gin; the Queen’s Negroni replaces the Campari with Pimm’s; the Tegroni replaces the gin with tequila.
But for us, the classic Negroni cocktail is unbeatable, an exercise in simplicity, sophistication and restraint. In its three simple ingredients it communicates so much about the Italian point of view: bitter yet sweet, simple yet complex, traditional yet adaptable. It offers a level of Italian chic that’s on par with Italian exports like Prada, Versace and Armani. (Appropriately, the birth-site of the original Negroni in Florence, Italy is now occupied by a Giorgio Armani boutique).
Negroni week, in addition to celebrating the cocktail, has raised over $3 million for charities over the past ten years. https://imbibemagazine.com/negroni-week-2022/
This year Negroni week is supporting Slow Food, an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. Founded in Italy in 1986, Slow Food has grown to over 100,000 members with branches in over 160 countries. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It promotes local small businesses and sustainable foods with the focuse on food quality, rather than quantity.
So this week, join us in raising a toast to an old and trusted friend – the Negroni.
Here is a link where you can find a venue that’s participating in Negroni Week https://www.negroniweek.com/find/
Cheers!
Man am I thirsty….