LCBO Food & Drink Autumn 2023

PLAYING FAVOURITES

The Classic Disarmingly simple to make, a Negroni calls for equal parts gin, Campari and sweet red Italian vermouth stirred and served on the rocks with an orange twist as the garnish. In our Early Summer 2015 issue, we suggest using an orange wheel and squeezing the juice into the drink. The perfect balance of botanical, bitter and sweet is what makes this cocktail so intriguing.

The Negroni Equally delightful as an aperitif or a nightcap, Italy’s greatest cocktail has rocketed to stardom in the last 15 years.

Find the recipe at LCBO.com/fdautumn23

THE TWISTS

You can play with the pro portions (upping the ratio of gin is the most common variation) or lengthen the drink with a splash of soda. But the most popular way to tinker with the taste is to specify different gins or ver mouths (the Campari and the orange garnish remain inviolate). Using Hendrick’s Gin ( LCBO 637504, $55.25 ) brings hints of rose petal and cucumber to the party, while Bruichladdich The Botanist Islay Dry Gin ( LCBO 358192, $59.20 ) em phasizes more herbal notes. A slightly drier vermouth such as Dolin Vermouth De Chambery Rouge AOC ( LCBO 370841, $18.55 ) can also have a small but signif icant impact. Barrel-aged Negronis are a recent, very welcome phenomenon.

CLOSE KIN

What if you took a Negroni but switched bour bon for the gin? Why, you’d have a Boulevardier, another superb cocktail, invented by American mag azine proprietor Erskine Gwynne in Paris in 1927, and therefore beloved by many a journalist. Or what if you used Prosecco instead of gin? That’s called a Negroni Sbagliato (a “Mistaken Negroni”), though it sounds more like a variation on an Americano.

One afternoon in 1919, Count Camillo Luigi Manfredo Maria Negroni walked into the Caffè Casoni in Florence, Italy, and ordered an Americano, that popular and refreshing cocktail made from equal amounts of Campari and sweet red vermouth, finished with soda water and an orange twist. “But,” he said to the bartender, a man named Fosco Scarselli, “replace the soda water with gin.” And the Negroni was born. The Count was an interesting man. Born in 1868, he spent 20 years of his life as a cowboy and rodeo clown in the U.S. and Alberta, earning a reputation as a gambler and party animal. He returned to Florence in 1905 and died in 1934. HISTORY

52 FOOD & DRINK AUTUMN 2023