Негрони: История и рецепт классического коктейля

Cocktail made of gin, vermouth, and Campari
the surname

The negroni is a cocktail, made of equal parts gin, vermouth rosso (red, semi sweet), and Campari, generally served on the rocks, and commonly garnished with an orange slice or orange peel. It is considered an apéritif. The drink has been documented in Italy since the late 1940s, and became popular in the 1950s, but the origin is uncertain, and early recipes differ somewhat from the modern standard. The basic recipe – an equal parts cocktail of these three ingredients – is first recorded in French cocktail books of the late 1920s, alongside many similar drinks; in Italy a long drink of equal parts vermouth and Campari (but no gin), topped with soda and served over ice, has existed since the 1800s under the names Milano–Torino or Americano. There are claims of Italian drinks by the name "Negroni" containing gin from 1919, though these differ significantly from the modern drink; see for details.

The IBA recipe for the negroni specifies that it be built over ice in an old fashioned or rocks glass and garnished with a slice of orange, similar to an old fashioned or spritz (short, minus the soda). Common variations include using an orange peel (or lemon peel) in place of an orange slice (especially outside of Italy), stirring then pouring over ice, and sometimes stirring and serving straight up.

The drink's origins are not known with certainty, and one must distinguish the modern recipe (an equal parts cocktail of gin, vermouth rosso, and Campari, served over ice) from the name "negroni". See surveys and Difford. To summarize, the documentary evidence is consistent with the drink originating as a short, American style cocktail in 1920s France, like its well documented contemporary, the old pal (and similar cocktails such as the boulevardier), and was most popular in the 1930s and early 1940s as a 2:1:1 drink, served up, called the Campariete. In the late 1940s the short drink then acquired the name negroni from a separate, similar long Italian style drink of vermouth and soda, with small amounts of Campari and gin, served over ice; or from a variant of the Milano–Torino or Americano, equal parts vermouth and Campari, with a small amount of gin, plus soda, served over ice. By the mid 1950s the preferred name was "negroni" and the preferred ratio was 1:1:1, served over ice but without soda.

The name "Negroni" is an Italian/Corsican surname, and the drink is presumably named after some person of this name. Numerous persons claim to have invented the cocktail or to have had it named after them, though these lack contemporary sources. The most widely reported account is that it was first mixed in Florence, Italy, in 1919, at Caffè Casoni (now Caffè Giacosa), on Via de' Tornabuoni, by bartender Fosco Scarselli, for his customer Count Camillo Negroni; see The commonly held origin story is that it was concocted by a member of the Negroni family asking the bartender to strengthen 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. Cocktail historian David Wondrich researched Camillo Negroni, whose status as a count is questionable, but whose grandfather, Luigi Negroni, was indeed a count. An implausible story is that it was invented by Pascal Olivier de Negroni, Count de Negroni in 1857 in Senegal; this has been circulated by his descendants, and is impossible, as Campari did not exist until 1860. A Corse Matin Sunday Edition article from 1980 says he invented the drink around 1914; which is again impossible, as he died in 1913. An unrelated person, Cavaliere (Knight) Guglielmo Negroni, founded Negroni Distillerie in Treviso, Italy in 1919, and produced a red amaro, now sold as Old 1919 (Antico Negroni 1919). There is no evidence that this is related to the modern Campari based cocktail.

Andrew Willett believes that this drink originated in San Francisco, where Campari was first imported to the United States (presumably due to the Italian American population in North Beach, San Francisco), between 1904 (when Campari began to be mass produced) and 1920 (when Prohibition started) as a modification of the martini, replacing orange bitters with Campari. Like the martini, this drink consists of Italian ingredients (vermouth, Campari) mixed with gin in an American style cocktail. He finds an Italian origin implausible, as at the time the spirits based cocktails popular in the United States were not made in Italy; they were considered American style, as seen in the American Bar (London, 1893), Harry's New York Bar (Paris, 1911), and Harry's Bar (Venice, 1931).