Negroni Recipe
Negroni Ingredients
1 oz / 30 ml gin
1 oz / 30 ml Campari
1 oz / 30 ml sweet vermouth
Orange peel, for garnish
How to make a Negroni
Add the gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth to a mixing glass with ice and stir for about 20 seconds, until cold. Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass, one big cube if you have it. Express an orange peel over the top and drop it in.
Enjoy Negroni Week!
The Negroni has a clean origin story for a classic this old: in 1919, Count Camillo Negroni asked Fosco Scarselli, the bartender at Caffè Casoni in Florence, to strengthen his usual Americano by swapping the soda water for gin. The orange peel replaced the lemon while they were at it. Cocktail historian David Wondrich has poked at the story and found the Count's title shaky, though his grandfather Luigi was the real thing. A century later it is still the most enduring bitter, equal-parts cocktail in the world: Campari, sweet vermouth, and gin, stirred and served over ice with an orange peel.
Negroni Week is the drink's annual holiday. Imbibe magazine started it in 2013 with Campari behind it, bars sign up to serve Negronis for a week and give part of the take to charity, and it has raised more than $5 million so far. In 2026 it runs September 21 through 27 and the money goes to Slow Food. Back in 2021 I spent the week ordering Negronis at three very different bars, a casino brewpub, a chain Italian restaurant, and Brother Wolf in Knoxville, an aperitivo bar that does almost nothing but Negroni riffs. That video is the one on this page.
Negroni variations I make
The Negroni is a template as much as a drink. Swap one part and it becomes something else:
- Old Pal: rye for the gin, dry vermouth for the sweet
- Bitter Mai Tai: Campari takes over a tiki drink
- THC Negroni Sbagliato: Artet in for the Campari, sparkling rosé in for the gin, and a much lower proof
- Coffee Negroni: Mr Black coffee liqueur takes over most of the vermouth's job
- Purple Negroni: a White Negroni made with Empress gin and Luxardo Bitter Bianco
- Lamborgotti Fasterossa: the Bitter Bianco Negroni spritz I named after a Simpsons car, topped with orange soda
- Cereal Negroni: Fruity Pebbles vodka in for the gin, Bitter Bianco in for the Campari
Every one of them, plus the full Negroni variations roundup, is on my Negroni playlist on YouTube.
What gin should I use in a Negroni?
A London dry with some backbone. The Campari and vermouth are loud, and a soft gin disappears. In the 2021 video I used Giniferous from PostModern Spirits here in Knoxville.
What is the right Negroni ratio?
Equal parts is the classic and the place to start. If it drinks too sweet for you, go 1.5 oz gin to 1 oz each of Campari and vermouth. Plenty of bars pour it that way.
Do you stir or shake a Negroni?
Stir. Everything in the glass is spirit or wine, and shaking only clouds it and knocks the texture around.
Rocks or up?
Over ice with an orange peel is the classic serve. Up in a chilled coupe works too, especially with the gin-forward ratio.
