Negroni

noun

Ne·​gro·​ni ni-ˈgrō-nē 

variants or less commonly negroni

plural Negronis also negronis

: a cocktail consisting of equal parts gin, Campari, and usually sweet vermouth

A Negroni is always stirred and always garnished with an orange peel.

—Jason Wilson

It took some time into the tasting before the panel found a Negroni they truly endorsed. Some were too thin or weak; they didn't have that bracing botanical punch one looks for in the drink …

—Robert Simonson

My husband … likes a cocktail hour before dining. At home, this means he whips up negronis or Manhattans for us, and we sit sipping our drinks and nibbling cheese.

—Ann Hood

Examples of Negroni in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Then last spring the Sparkling Range came out, a series of five fizzy cocktails that included classic and white versions of the Negroni Sbagliato, a Spritz, a Paloma, and a French 75. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 4 Nov. 2024

The Autumn Negroni isn’t in Maloney’s book or the bar’s website. —Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 2 Nov. 2024

The result is a clean, dry, and crisp spirit that’s perfect for cocktails like the Martini, Gin & Tonic, or Negroni. —Emily Price, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024

This one’s for those who love the complexities of a Negroni but want something a little different. —Lela London, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

probably after Count Camillo (or Cammillo) Negroni †1934, Italian nobleman for whom the drink was allegedly first mixed

Note: This etymology follows the story forcefully promoted by the Italian barman Luca Picchi in the book Negroni cocktail: Una leggenda italiana (Florence/Milan: Giunti, 2015), published also in an English edition. According to Picchi, the drink was created between 1917 and 1920 by Fosco Scarselli, the barman at the Caffè Casoni in Florence, when Camillo Negroni asked for an Americano (a mixture of sweet vermouth and Campari) with something stronger added; Scarselli responded by mixing into the drink a small amount of gin. When Negroni continued to ask for the drink, it drew the curiosity of others in the bar, and the Count Negroni-style Americano was dubbed the Negroni. Picchi's documentation for this tale appears to be an interview with Scarselli published in the November 25, 1962, edition of the Italian magazine Gente. He has, however, what may be a conclusive piece of evidence supporting an early date for Negroni: in a letter to Count Negroni dated October 13, 1920, Francis Harper, a London antiques dealer, suggests that he "not take more than 20 Negroni's in one day!" His book includes a clearly legible illustration of the letter (p. 85). References to the cocktail in print are few before the 1950's. A recipe for it in Spanish and English, under the name "Negrone," appears in Floridita Cock-tails (1939), a booklet given out as a souvenir by Constantino Ribalaigua's bar El Floridita in Havana, Cuba. The cocktail next turns up in an Italian compilation of recipes, Cocktails Portfolio (1947), by the barman Amedeo Gandiglio, published in Turin in 1947. In December, 1947, the Hollywood gossip columnist Erskine Johnson mentions it in his nationally syndicated newspaper column: "Orson Welles, working in 'Cagliostro' in Rome, writes that he's discovered a new drink there—Negronis. It's made of gin, Italian vermouth and Campari bitters." Note that the Industria Liquori G. Negroni, a manufacturer of liqueurs founded by Gugliemo Negroni in Treviso in 1919, has no connection with the cocktail other than coincidence of name, which it has undoubtedly traded on. And the descendants of a Corsica-born French general, Pascal-Olivier, Comte de Negroni (1829-1913) claim that their ancestor introduced the Negroni in Senegal in 1855-65—a story that has several serious improbabilities.

First Known Use

1947, in the meaning defined above