This history behind this classic cocktail is somewhat contentious but the most believable history of how Negroni came about is from 1919 in Firenze, Italy. Camillo Negroni walked into the bar Caffé Casoni one night and asked the bartender Fosco Scarselli for an Americano (Campari, Red vermouth, Soda, Lemon), but wanted the bartender to replace the soda with gin. Scarselli made the cocktail of Negroni’s request and added orangecrest instead of lemon cest to decorate the drink, to signal that this was another cocktail than an Americano.

The iconic actor/director Orson Welles, probably most known for his acting in Citizen Kane, was working in Rome in 1947, when he enjoyed his first Negroni and stated: ”The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other.”

Enough reading for now, treat yourself with an exquisite Negroni!

The Negroni