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A negroni is an Italian cocktail, made of equal parts gin, vermouth rosso (red, semi-sweet), and Campari, generally served with ice, 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; early recipes were either these three ingredients served straight up (in a cocktail glass or coupe, no ice), or were served long (over ice with soda). The modern recipe of equal parts served short (over ice, without soda) is not recorded until the 1950s or 1960s.
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.
Common variations include using an orange peel (or lemon peel) in place of an orange slice (especially outside Italy), stirring then pouring over ice, and sometimes stirring and serving straight up.
This differs from the modern IBA recipe in a few respects: it is shaken, not built, and it is garnished with a lemon twist, not an orange slice. These variations make it closer to a standard American-style cocktail than an Italian-style drink.
A similar recipe of 2:1:1 gin, vermouth, and Campari is attested from the Parisian book as the "Camparinete", where it is credited to Albert of the Hôtel Chatam (Chatham hotel), and specifies Cora brand vermouth and a lemon zest. The same book credits Albert of the Chatham bar with the Rose, though that is attested years earlier by another bartender at the same bar, so it is not clear if Albert originated this variant of the drink, or simply represented the bar in this collection.
This drink is listed in numerous American, French, and Spanish cocktail books of the 1930s and 1940s, including (shaken, twist lemon peel over), , and Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide (1947). History and story behind the Negroni cocktail ", Simon Difford credits the drink to Albert of Chatam, Paris, and specifies that it be shaken, and served up (in a coupe). In , this 1:1:2 cocktail is referred to as “Negroni-Cocktail”, and is given as:
Notably, Brucart refers to the same recipe as "Campariete" in 1943 and "Negroni" in 1949, attaching a new name to an existing drink.
There is no known recipe for a "negroni" or an equal-parts drink of gin, vermouth, and Campari in Italian cocktail books before the 1940s. For example, the encyclopedic contains 1,000 recipes, including several with Campari (two versions of the Milano–Torino and a dozen versions of the Americano), but no negroni or gin/vermouth/Campari drink.
The earliest known recipe for a "negroni" in an Italian text is in , where it is given as:
This differs from the modern recipe in being a long drink, served with seltzer, rather than a short drink; and being garnished with an orange peel, rather than an orange slice. It is similar to the modern drink (and differs from the earlier French recipes) in being built and served with ice, rather than being shaken or stirred and served up.
The same text includes a variant, "Asmara o Negroni" (Asmara or Negroni), referencing the city of Asmara, the (by then former) capital of Italian Eritrea, with recipe closer to a martini, just with Campari as the bitter (and orange twist instead of lemon twist):
An equal-parts cocktail called "Negroni" is attested in the British text , where the recipe is given as:
This is almost identical to the "Campari Mixte" (1929), except that it is stirred, not shaken. It still differs from the modern negroni in being stirred, not built; implicitly served up, not on the rocks; and garnished with a lemon twist, not an orange slice.
One of the earliest reports of a drink by the name "Negroni" came from Orson Welles in correspondence with the Coshocton Tribune while working in Rome on Cagliostro in 1947, where he described a new drink called the Negroni, "The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other."; Coshocton Tribune, 17 December 1947
Later, more detailed descriptions are given in Horace Sutton, Footloose in Italy (1950), and Rupert Croft-Cooke, Tangerine House (1956, p. 108), which gives the description:
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. The year 1919 may be a confusion with the amaro today sold as Old 1919 (Antico Negroni 1919); see below.
The descendants of Pascal Olivier de Negroni, Count de Negroni have claimed that he invented the drink in 1857 in Senegal; this has been circulated by his descendants, however, 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, though the prominent "1919" may be why that year is given as the origin of the classic cocktail.
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