Old Friend
The Old Friend is gin and Campari with the bitterness turned down and the fruit turned up: fresh grapefruit juice does what a Negroni asks the drinker to accept, and an elderflower whisper rounds off what is left. It is generally attributed to Jim Meehan, the bartender behind PDT, who built it around 2012. The proportions are his style: precise, small, and unwilling to round anything to a convenient number. twenty-two and a half millilitres of grapefruit is not an accident, and neither is the seven and a half of elderflower. What it does well is introduce people to Campari. A Negroni asks for a taste already acquired; this one arrives blush pink, floral at the edges and bitter only underneath, and converts more drinkers than any amount of arguing. Shaken and served up, it is bitter enough to count as an aperitif and gentle enough to hand to someone who says they do not like bitter drinks.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lemon Twist
Ingredients
45ml
A London Dry with visible juniper. The Campari and the grapefruit are both loud, and a soft contemporary gin gets lost between them rather than holding the middle.
15ml
Fifteen millilitres rather than the Negroni's thirty. It is seasoning the grapefruit here rather than leading, and at full measure it flattens the fruit and the blossom together.
7.5ml
The smallest useful measure. Seven and a half millilitres rounds the grapefruit's bitter edge; double it and the blossom takes the drink over entirely.
22.5ml
Squeezed to order. Ruby gives colour and sweetness, white gives a drier, sharper drink. Bottled juice tastes cooked and there is nothing in a four-ingredient glass to cover it.
Instructions
Add the gin, Campari, elderflower liqueur and grapefruit juice to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 12 seconds.
Double strain into a chilled coupe.
Express a lemon twist over the surface and drop it in.
Expert Tip
Squeeze the grapefruit. Bottled juice is flat and slightly cooked, and in a drink where the fruit is one of only four things in the glass there is nowhere for that to hide. A ruby grapefruit gives you the colour as well as the sweetness; a white one makes a sharper, more austere drink that some people prefer. Keep the elderflower at seven and a half millilitres. It is there to round the grapefruit's bitter edge, not to perfume the glass. At fifteen the blossom takes over and the drink starts tasting of the liqueur rather than of gin and fruit, which is the most common way this one goes wrong. Double strain it. Grapefruit throws pulp, and pulp in a coupe reads as carelessness.
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The drink is generally attributed to Jim Meehan, who opened PDT in New York in 2007 and spent the following decade writing the specs that a good deal of the industry now works from. This one dates from around 2012 and was built for a restaurant bar rather than for PDT itself.
The exact-measure style is the giveaway. twenty-two and a half millilitres of grapefruit and seven and a half of elderflower are not numbers anyone reaches by eye, and they have not been rounded for convenience in the retelling either. Somebody tasted their way to them.
Why the Grapefruit Is the Point
Campari and grapefruit are already related. A lot of Campari's bitterness reads as pith and a lot of its sweetness reads as peel, which is why the Jasmine can put Campari and lemon together and produce something most drinkers swear is grapefruit.
The Old Friend takes the opposite route and pours the fruit itself. That changes the job Campari has to do. Instead of supplying the whole bitter register, it seasons a fruit that is already bitter, which is why fifteen millilitres is enough where a Negroni needs thirty. The result is recognisably a Campari drink without ever being a demanding one.
The Elderflower's Seven and a Half Millilitres
Elderflower liqueur is sweet, and at any generous measure it dominates. Here it is doing a specific and small job: taking the hard edge off grapefruit's bitterness in the same way a barspoon of sugar would, but with a floral note attached that softens the Campari at the same time.
Get it wrong and you notice immediately. At fifteen millilitres the drink smells like elderflower and tastes like a garden. At seven and a half you cannot name it, and the drink is better for that.
How It Compares to a Negroni
Both are gin and Campari, and there the resemblance stops. A Negroni is stirred, undiluted by juice, and built to be bracing. The Old Friend is shaken, has a third of its volume in fresh fruit, and is built to be easy.
That makes it useful in a way the Negroni is not. It is the drink to pour for someone who has decided they do not like bitter things, because the bitterness arrives underneath the grapefruit rather than in front of it.
How to Serve It
Shake hard for twelve seconds, double strain into a chilled coupe and express a lemon twist over the top. Lemon rather than grapefruit: there is already plenty of grapefruit in the glass, and the lemon oil gives the nose something the palate is not about to repeat.
Serve it cold, before food, and early in the evening, when the grapefruit still has something to do besides sweeten.
The Spirit
GinA flavour requirement rather than a method. The law asks only that juniper be the predominant taste and that the spirit reach 37.5%, which leaves everything else on the botanical bill to the distiller and permits a gin that was never redistilled at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Old Friend cocktail?
Gin, Campari, elderflower liqueur and fresh grapefruit juice, shaken and served up in a coupe with a lemon twist. It is a modern aperitif built around grapefruit, with Campari seasoning the fruit rather than leading the drink.
Who created the Old Friend?
It is generally attributed to Jim Meehan, the bartender behind PDT in New York, who built it around 2012. The precise measures are characteristic of his specs, which tend to be tasted to the millilitre rather than rounded off.
Can I use less elderflower, or none?
Less is a legitimate choice and none is a different drink. The liqueur is rounding the grapefruit’s bitterness rather than sweetening the whole thing, so without it you need a barspoon of sugar syrup or the drink turns austere.
How does it compare to a Jasmine?
The Jasmine has no grapefruit in it at all: Campari and lemon between them create the impression of one. The Old Friend pours real grapefruit and lets the Campari season it. Same flavour arrived at from opposite directions, and both are worth making.
Master the Techniques
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits
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