Negroni

Novice

A Negroni is 30ml each of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with an orange peel expressed over the top. About 2.4 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s; the IBA builds the drink in the glass and garnishes it with half an orange slice. Difford’s Guide gives the most widely reported account: Florence in 1919, at the Casoni Bar, where the bartender Fosco Scarselli is said to have replaced the soda in Count Camillo Negroni’s Americano with gin. The Oxford Companion has the drink named in a surviving letter of October 1920 and then absent under that name until 1947. A French book of 1929 by Alimbau and Milhorat, in the Internet Archive’s scan, gives equal parts of the three as the Campari Mixte. Each third has a job. Gin gives strength and juniper, the red bitter gives bitterness and orange, and the vermouth gives body and sugar. With no juice or soda in the glass, a tired vermouth shows at once.

StirredHigh-ABVSpirit-ForwardBitterAperitifAfter-DinnerClassic

Glassware: Rocks Glass

Garnish: Orange peel

Ingredients

Serves

Gin

30ml

A London Dry at 40% ABV with clear juniper. A soft, floral gin vanishes under the bitter; a gin bottled at 47% ABV would make a firmer drink, about 2.6 UK units by our arithmetic.

Campari

30ml

At 25% ABV on LWC’s UK listing, the bitter orange that defines the drink. Other red bitters make other drinks, and Aperol, at 11% by its maker’s FAQ, lighter and sweeter, makes a much softer one.

Sweet vermouth

30ml

A rich Italian style at about 16% ABV, our working figure; we keep it in the fridge once open and use it within a month. It is a third of the drink, so a stale bottle is the first thing you taste.

Instructions

Fill a rocks glass with large cubed ice.

Add the gin, Campari and sweet vermouth to a mixing glass.

Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.

Strain over the fresh ice in the rocks glass.

Express a wide strip of orange peel over the surface and rest it in the glass.

Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification, stirred in a mixing glass and strained over fresh ice with an orange peel, where the IBA builds it in the glass with half an orange slice). Last checked 10 October 2026.

Expert Tip

Stir it in a mixing glass rather than in the serving glass. The drink comes out colder and more evenly diluted, and the fresh ice it lands on has not been worn down by the stir. Building it in the glass, as the IBA does, is quicker and still makes a good Negroni. We store the opened vermouth cold and use it up inside a month. It is a third of the drink, and an oxidised bottle turns the whole glass flat and medicinal. Use large, cold, dry cubes in the rocks glass. Small or wet ice melts fast and leaves a thin, warm drink by the halfway point.

The story

Behind the Negroni

Flavour Profile

BitterCitrusHerbalSweetAromatic

An Origin Without Records

The story told most often, as Difford’s Guide tells it, places the drink at the Casoni Bar in Florence in 1919. Camillo Negroni, a regular, is said to have asked the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, for more kick in his Americano, and Scarselli to have switched the soda water for gin.

Little from the time supports it. The Oxford Companion, in an entry by David Wondrich, has the drink named in a surviving letter of October 1920 and then absent under that name until 1947, when Rome adopted it, and Difford’s Guide records a rival claim, from a member of the Negroni family, that the true inventor was General Pascal Oliver, Comte de Negroni. The firmer evidence is in print. The Internet Archive’s scan of Alimbau and Milhorat’s recipes for 1929 gives a Campari Mixte of equal thirds Campari, gin and Italian vermouth, shaken and served with lemon zest, and Difford’s Guide finds the earliest printed Negroni recipe in a Spanish book of 1949.

Three Equal Parts

Gin brings strength and juniper and keeps the drink dry. Campari brings bitterness and orange peel. Sweet vermouth brings body, wine and sugar, and rounds the bitter so the bitterness lands as flavour rather than as a jolt.

Push one up and the drink tips. More gin makes it hot and thin, more of the red bitter harsh, more vermouth soft and sticky. At equal measures each one holds the other two in check.

The Vermouth Decides It

Sweet vermouth is an aromatised wine, and it starts to fade once the bottle is open. We keep ours in the fridge for about a month; on a warm shelf it goes flat within weeks. At a third of the drink, with no citrus or soda to cover it, that shows in the first sip.

The Negroni and Its Relatives

The Negroni beside our Mezcal Negroni, Boulevardier, Old Pal and Americano

Negroni

Spirit: 30ml gin
Campari: 30ml
Vermouth: 30ml sweet
Served: Over ice
UK units: About 2.4

Mezcal Negroni

Spirit: 30ml mezcal
Campari: 30ml
Vermouth: 30ml sweet
Served: Over ice
UK units: About 2.4

Boulevardier

Spirit: 45ml bourbon
Campari: 30ml
Vermouth: 30ml sweet
Served: Over ice
UK units: About 3.0

Old Pal

Spirit: 45ml rye
Campari: 22.5ml
Vermouth: 22.5ml dry
Served: Up
UK units: About 2.8

Americano

Spirit: None
Campari: 30ml
Vermouth: 30ml sweet, with 75ml soda
Served: Long, over ice
UK units: About 1.2

Drink	Spirit	Campari	Vermouth	Served	UK units
Negroni	30ml gin	30ml	30ml sweet	Over ice	About 2.4
Mezcal Negroni	30ml mezcal	30ml	30ml sweet	Over ice	About 2.4
Boulevardier	45ml bourbon	30ml	30ml sweet	Over ice	About 3.0
Old Pal	45ml rye	22.5ml	22.5ml dry	Up	About 2.8
Americano	None	30ml	30ml sweet, with 75ml soda	Long, over ice	About 1.2

How to Serve It

Over large, fresh cubes in a rocks glass, with orange peel expressed over the surface and rested in the drink, so the oil meets the nose before each sip. It is an aperitif by habit, and it holds through a slow evening as long as the ice is big enough to keep it cold.

With bourbon in place of the gin, a Boulevardier; with mezcal, a Mezcal Negroni; lengthened with soda and no gin, an Americano.

Make it

Make it at home

The Spirit

Gin

Gin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, juniper must lead the taste, the floor is 37.5% ABV, and the route the flavour takes sets the grade: plain gin, distilled gin or London gin. Our recipes count it at 40%, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.

Learn more

Master the Techniques

How to stir a cocktailin Shaken or stirred? When to shake or stir a cocktail

Go further

More to explore

Frequently Asked Questions

What is in a Negroni?

30ml each of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with an orange peel. The IBA uses the same measures, built and stirred in the glass and garnished with half an orange slice.

Is a Negroni shaken or stirred?

Stirred. Everything in it is spirit or wine, with no juice to aerate, so shaking only clouds the drink and leaves froth on top. Stir for 20 to 30 seconds in a mixing glass, or build it over ice and stir gently in the serving glass as the IBA does.

Who invented the Negroni?

Nobody can say for certain. Difford’s Guide tells the common account: Fosco Scarselli at the Casoni Bar in Florence in 1919, mixing for Count Camillo Negroni. The Oxford Companion has the name in a letter of October 1920, then not again until 1947. Alimbau and Milhorat’s book for 1929 has the same three in equal thirds as the Campari Mixte.

Can I make a Negroni with bourbon?

With bourbon it becomes a Boulevardier. Ours uses 45ml of bourbon to 30ml each of Campari and sweet vermouth, the IBA’s measures, because bourbon at equal parts can turn heavy against a rich vermouth. It comes to about 3.0 UK units.

How does it differ from an Americano?

The Americano is Campari and sweet vermouth lengthened with soda in a highball, at about 1.2 UK units. The Negroni puts gin where the soda was and is served short, which doubles the strength and moves the bitterness to the front.

Why does my Negroni taste medicinal?

Usually the vermouth. It is a wine and it oxidises, and at a third of the glass a tired bottle is plain to taste. We keep ours in the fridge, use it within a month, and buy a smaller bottle if a large one lingers.

Orange slice or orange peel?

Either. The IBA garnishes with half an orange slice, which adds a little juice and sweetness as it sits in the drink. An expressed peel puts orange oil on the surface without the juice, which keeps the drink drier. We use the peel.

How strong is a Negroni?

About 2.4 UK units: 1.2 from 30ml of gin at our working figure of 40% ABV, 0.75 from 30ml of Campari at 25%, the strength LWC lists in the UK, and about 0.5 from 30ml of sweet vermouth at our working figure of 16%. UK units are ABV times millilitres divided by 1,000; the Chief Medical Officers’ guideline is no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days.

Sources.

Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.

The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (David Wondrich), “Negroni” (secondary source: named in a surviving letter of October 1920; not found again under that name until 1947; adopted in Rome as a postwar signature drink; Parisian gin, Italian vermouth and Campari drinks such as the Camparinete in the 1920s and 1930s).
Difford’s Guide, “The history of the Negroni” (secondary source: Milano-Torino said to date from the 1860s at Gaspare Campari’s café; Casoni 1919 account; Gaz Regan on the chain from Milano-Torino to Americano to Negroni).
LWC, “Campari 70cl” (UK wholesaler listing: Alcohol By Volume 25%).
Aperol, “Frequently Asked Questions” (producer’s FAQ: Aperol has an alcohol content of 11%).
MM Alimbau and Milhorat (1929), Internet Archive, “Recettes de cocktails pour 1929” (primary source, read 19 Oct in the Vintage Cocktail Books collection (OCR rough): Campari Mixte: in a shaker with ice, one third Campari, one third gin, one third Italian vermouth, well mixed, served with a lemon zest).