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DRINKS
Either way, count us in
It’s September, time to start transitioning
from the spritzers and
other light quaffers you’ve used to
tame these last hot months.
Time, in other words, to consider
the Negroni, the enduring aperitivo
that requires nothing more than
an ounce each of gin, sweet red
vermouth and Campari. Pour them
over ice, stir, add a twist of orange
peel and basta.
Refreshing and sophisticated, it’s a
feint toward the heartier drinks of
the coming cooler months, when
whiskey and rye take the fore.
But it’s no slouch, either. The Negroni
was Bond’s choice when he
didn’t want a martini. And it’s the
most honest of cocktails, cocktailista
Nina Caplan notes in the
New Statesman, made from a trio
of ingredients that don’t try to hide
sweeteners and exotic syrups.
“The Negroni fools no one,” she
points out, “it’s easy to make and
contains nothing but booze.”
Our kind of drink. But the Negroni’s
simplicity belies its complex
backstory, in which the heirs
of competing noblemen – one
an itinerant Italian, the other a
Corsican-born French army general
– claim the Negroni as their own.
Almost to the point of blows. One
side, in fact, has advocated dueling.
The most popular telling of the
story centers on Florence-born
Count Camillo Negroni, a bit of a
tramp who spent much of his youth
in America, as a cowboy, riverboat
gambler and sometime fencing
instructor.
Then it was on to London for a few
years and, in 1905, finally home to
Florence and a less-adventurous life
that centered on his favorite bar,
the Café Casoni. His regular drink
was the Americano, a refreshing
but not particularly potent mix of
Campari, soda water and sweet
vermouth so named because it was
popular with American tourists.
One night in 1919, the legend goes,
the Count asked bartender Fosco
Scarselli to substitute gin for the
soda water, and the sturdier drink
quickly caught on with the locals.
Later that year, the Negroni family
began selling the pre-mixed cocktail
by the bottle – it’s still available
from Negroni Antica Distilleria –
and the Negroni became an Italian
staple.
The cocktail didn’t come to widespread
American attention until
1947, when Orson Welles, in Italy
for the filming of “Black Magic,”
sent home glowing reports to
drinkers who were beginning to
tire of post-Prohibition martinis
and Manhattans.
“The bitters are excellent for your
liver, the gin is bad for you,” he reported.
“They balance each other.”
Fun story, right? But it is vigorously
disputed by a pair of Puerto
Rican-born brothers, Héctor and
Noel Negroni, who claim a distant
and long-deceased relative, General
Pascal-Olivier de Negroni, also a
count, invented the drink in 1860.
Born in Corsica in 1829, this Count
Negroni joined the French army at
the age of 18 and was a decorated
cavalryman – including the Legion
of Honor – during the Franco
Prussian War. He served almost
45 years before retiring to a small
town in Normandy, where he died
in 1913.
The brothers maintain that the
general, a fourth cousin, invented
the drink while serving in West
Africa. They’ve led a vigorous and
emotionally charged campaign
on social media to supplant the
Camillo story and have banged
heads repeatedly with the editors of
Wikipedia.
At this point, if you’re smart, you’re
saying pass the gin and let the
Negronis fight it out as they will.
Good idea, but one that begs this
question: Which gin?
Glad you asked. Tanqueray is a
decided favorite, as is Hendricks,
Martin Miller’s Reformed London
Dry and Plymouth Navy Strength.
On the vermouth front, you want
Cocchi Vermouth di Torino if you
can afford it.
And Campari. Beware the bartender
who would slip you a Negroni
made with Aperol or Gran Classico.
Both legitimate bitters on their
own, certainly, but not for use in a
Negroni.
Purists look for long-shelved bottles
of Campari that get their red from
traditional carmine dye, derived
from crushed cochineal beetles that
impart a flavor they say artificial
coloring, in use since 2006, cannot
match.
You need not be quite so fastidious.
Settle on a gin, grab the Cocchi
and Campari and enjoy the waning
days of summer like a nobleman.
But do so responsibly. Anthony
Bourdain once took down his
entire production crew by serving
Negronis made faithfully with the
classic three ingredients. But using
a bottle of each.
The drink, he warns, will “hit you
like a freight train after four or
five.”
– JOHN KOMINICKI