The Negroni

Some things just go together -- and the obvious accompaniment to food is drink. Welcome to Booze52, in which we explore all manner of libations that do much more than just wash down a meal.

Today: The best before-dinner drink ever invented, plain and simple.

Here’s a thing you may not know about cocktails: historically speaking, most of the fun ingredients that get mixed into our favorite drinks -- at least when these drinks were born -- were intended to mask the taste of cheap booze.

Thanks to a little thing called a top shelf, we don’t have to do that anymore, but with the Negroni, we were never allowed to do anyway. Here's why: it’s a storied drink layered completely with alcoholic ingredients. It has nothing to hide behind, and when made right, it shows.

When General Pascal Olivier Count de Negroni (yes, he was real!) walked into a Florence bar back in the 1920s, he ordered an Americano with some important changes. “No soda—gin instead,” he said. He was a bright man. Bitter and herbal from Campari, warm from the gin, and smooth from the vermouth, this is one of the best before-dinner drinks ever invented, plain and simple.

Negroni

1 ounce smooth gin (I like Tanqueray and Plymouth)
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
Ice
Orange peel (for garnish)

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Have your own Negroni tips? Tell us about them below!