Celebrating Negroni Week with The Divine Cocktailer - The Haute Life

I’m kicking off Negroni Week (June 4th – June 10th) with a quick history lesson on the classic cocktail, and then a couple of different options.

Count Camillo Negroni

Gin, the most common main ingredient of a Negroni, is 100% Italian. Italian monks on the Salerno Coast invented the spirit in the 11th century by adding ginepro (or juniper as we know it) and other botanicals to alcohol. And that was the birth of gin. Although used as a failed medical remedy, soon, it would become the inspiration for the classic Negroni cocktail.

Popular culture has the first Negroni being poured in Caffe Casoni in Florence, Italy around 1919. Count Camillo Negroni needed something a little stiffer than his usual favorite cocktail, the Americano. So, he requested bartender, Forsco Scarselli, to swap Gin for the traditional soda water. Scarselli took the garnish into his own hands and used orange instead of the Americano’s regular lemon garnish. The drink was a hit and soon everyone was requesting a “Negroni.”

The count may have picked up his love for gin during his travels as a youth. Besides America, Negroni also lived in London, where gin was quite the thing.

The count and his family recognized the cocktail was becoming a superstar. Capitalizing on the success, they founded the Negroni Distillery in 1919, in Treviso, Italy, and created a pre-made Negroni called the Antico Negroni. You can still visit the distillery today, although it is under different ownership.

Now, back to the cocktails! I’ve created two, so you have options for your own Negroni celebration!