Legend has it that this cocktail was invented in 1919 at the Casoni Bar in Florence by a bartender called Fosco Scarselli for Count Camillo Negroni who had just returned from America. It is said that the count asked the bartender to strengthen his favourite cocktail, the Americano by replacing the soda with gin. Apparently, the orange garnish rather than the lemon one was added by Scarselli. Thus, a Negroni was born!
However, the descendants of the Negroni family out of the US and Corsica have disputed this claim by stating that there was no Count Camillo Negroni in their family tree. According to them, the cocktail was created by a Corsican General Pascal Olivier Comte de Negroni. Pascal Negroni was a cavalry officer and a decorated veteran of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. In a letter that Pascal wrote to his brother, he stated that he had introduced the Lunéville Officer’s club, Senegal to his signature “vermouth-based cocktail” While this is no proof of it being the Negroni as we know today, recounts by a pharmacist and a barmaid in Senegal, mention stories passed down from uncles and grandmothers, about a French Army captain as the creator of the Negroni cocktail. Then there is the fact that Campari, a key player in the Negroni cocktail was not invented till 1860, probably halfway through Pascal’s tenure in Senegal. Also, another question to ask is, how did it end up in Italy?
An Italian bartender Luca Picchi has done an in-depth research for his book Sulle Tracce del Conte: La Vera Storia del Cocktail “Negroni” (‘On the Trail of the Count: The True Story of the Negroni Cocktail’) and it turns out that a Count Camillo Negroni did indeed exist.
So, it seems that at the beginning of the 20th Century, there were 2 Count Negronis – one Italian and one French! Which one is the creator of the cocktail, is still a mystery at large!
“The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other.” – Orson Welles while shooting a movie in Rome in 1947.
The Negroni at this point never really became a popular drink. In fact, it wasn’t until after the war, that the Americans visiting Rome started bringing this cocktail back home. The Negroni started symbolising sophisticated drinking. The Cocktail Renaissance of the 1990s, when bartenders rediscovered balanced and skilfully crafted cocktails, is what woke this glorious cocktail from its quiet slumber. It has become the new chic drink of this decade and no self-respecting cocktail menu can do without it!
This is one cocktail that either you love it or hate it and as a celebration of one of the world’s greatest cocktail, The Negroni Week was launched in 2013.
NEGRONI
INGREDIENTS
DIRECTIONS
