Negroni Week

A beautiful French oak barrel in The National Café is where our Negroni has taken residency. Infusing for 4-6 weeks produces beautiful flavours of vanilla and oak, which gives the cocktail a sweet undertone perfect for this intense and delicious drink.

Negroni is called so because of its namesake, General Pascal Olivier De Negroni. It was first mixed in Florence, Italy, in 1919, at Caffè Casoni (formerly Caffè Giacosa), located on Via de’ Tornabuoni and now called Caffè Roberto Cavalli (We’re a fan of his too! #shoesandbooze). Negroni concocted the drink by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the Americano, by adding gin rather than the usual soda water. The bartender also added an orange peel garnish rather than the typical lemon of the Americano to signify that it was a different drink.  After the success of the cocktail, the Negroni Family founded Negroni Distillery in Treviso, Italy, and produced a ready-made version of the drink, sold as Antico Negroni 1919. One of the earliest reports of the drink came from Orson Welles 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.”

So you heard the famous dead author! It’s good for you, hurrah! Let’s all celebrate Negroni week and our new found health!Negroni Week begins on the 5th June and you can find our barrel aged Negronis being served at The National Café, so come and see us and we’ll toast to the General who made all this possible.

An Order From The General

• 25ml Antica Formula
• 25ml Beefeater Gin
• 25ml Campari

Stirred down over ice in a cut glass tumbler, with an orange peel to serve.

Cheers!