How to make the perfect Negroni... and other recipes for a twist on the classic cocktail

31 January 2025, 10:36

By Emma Gritt

@emmagritt

Love an Aperol Spritz? Try a Negroni. It's a darker, more intense spritz that has been a favourite in top hotels and cocktail bars for a century.

The classic Negroni is now 100 years old - and it's no surprise.

Traditionally made with equal measures of gin, Campari and Vermouth, this sippable serve is classed as an apéritif, but people all over the world enjoy this famous cocktail whenever it takes their fancy.

According to the experts at Wilde Toast, the drink’s origins lie in Italy.

The legend tells of a mysterious Florentine, Count Camillo Negroni, who in 1919 happened across the recipe for the Negroni cocktail.

He asked for an Americano, whose ingredients are very similar to the Negroni cocktail. Its ingredients are Campari, sweet vermouth and soda water (you can find a recipe for this further down the page).

The story goes that Count Camillo asked his usual bartender at the Cassoni Café on the Via de’Tornabuoni to stiffen his Americano by replacing the soda with gin.

The bartender, Fosco Scarselli, also took it upon himself to replace the lemon with orange, and the Negroni was born.

Soon people were ordering a “Negroni”… and they continue to do so until the present day.

If you fancy taking on this bitter and refreshing cocktail, check out these recipes below.

Classic Negroni

Ingredients:

25ml Gin
25ml Campari
25ml Sweet Vermouth

Method:

Fill a rocks glass with ice and add all ingredients. Stir five times to enable dilution. Garnish with a dehydrated orange wheel.

Sailor's Negroni

Ingredients:

1 oz Campari
1 oz Vermouth
0.5 oz Coffee Liqueur
0.5 oz Mezcal

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with fresh ice to chill. Strain over fresh ice, then garnish with a lemon slice and serve.

Americano

The Americano was created in the 1860s at Gaspare’s Campari’s bar in Milan, Italy, but is best known as what James Bond orders in the novel Casino Royale.

Ingredients:

45ml Campari
45ml Sweet Vermouth
Top Soda

Method:

Combine all ingredients, strain over fresh ice and garnish with an orange wedge.

Aperol Spritz

A beautifully simple and refreshing cocktail, create the perfect Aperol Spritz at home with the 50:50 recipe.

Fill a large wine glass with ice

Combine Prosecco followed by Aperol in equal parts

Add a dash of soda

Garnish with a fresh orange slice

Nut Negroni

Ingredients:

35ml Your favourite Orange Gin

35ml Your favourite Red Vermouth

35ml Your favourite Bitter Aperitif

Dash Chocolate Bitters

A Dehydrated Orange Wheel and Ferrero Rocher

Method:

Stir all liquid ingredients together in a glass with a large ice cube and then pour into a separate glass containing a new large ice cube. Garnish with the dehydrated orange wheel and Ferrero Rocher.

Rhubarb Negroni

Ingredients: 

25ml Slingsby Rhubarb gin

25ml Sweet Red Vermouth

15ml Campari

10ml Aperol
 

Method:

Stir down ingredients with ice in a short glass and garnish with an orange wedge and a pink grapefruit twist.

Other exciting twists to try...

The White Negroni – British Mixologist Wayne Collins created this spin on a Negroni, replacing Vermouth and Campari with Lillet Blanc and Suze.

Boulevardier – The same basics of the cocktail, but you simply replace Gin with Whisky. 

Agavoni – As per the Boulevardier, the same basics of the cocktail occur, but you replace the Gin with Tequila.