Rosemary negroni

Name: Rosemary negroni
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: Serves 10
Cuisine: Italian recipes
Ingredients: 250ml dry gin (I like Tanqueray); 250ml sweet vermouth; 250ml Campari; ¼ tsp fine sea salt; 1 rosemary sprig, plus extra to serve; Orange peel twists to serve

Portion size: Serves 10
Hands-on time 5 min, plus 1-2 days infusing
Difficulty: easy

Tom Shingler

Head of food, delicious.

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Negroni is one of the best cocktails to bottle, as it gives the three aromatic elements time to mingle and mellow. A short infusion of rosemary brings out the herbaceous notes of the vermouth and Campari without upsetting the perfect bittersweet balance that makes this one of the finest cocktails in the world.

Serve this tipple at your Christmas shindig, alongside some fabulous festive nibbles.

Before you start

This bottled cocktail will keep indefinitely in the fridge or freezer.

There is a wide range of vermouths out there, each of which will give your negroni a different flavour profile. You could splurge on a bottle of Carpano Antica Formula, which is generally regarded as the best for negronis, but my favourite (and it’s much cheaper!) is Punt e Mes, which has a deeper brown colour and a more bittersweet herbaceous flavour. It works perfectly with the rosemary.

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Ingredients

250ml dry gin (I like Tanqueray)
250ml sweet vermouth
250ml Campari
¼ tsp fine sea salt
1 rosemary sprig, plus extra to serve
Orange peel twists to serve

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Method

Mix the gin, vermouth, Campari and salt in a large bottle, jug or freezerproof container. Add the rosemary sprig, then cover and leave to infuse for 24 hours.
Give it a taste; if you want a stronger rosemary flavour leave it another day (any longer than that and I find it tends to be overpowering). Discard the rosemary, then decant into bottles for gifts or keep in the freezer for serving.
To serve, give the bottle a good shake or stir the mixture if it’s in a jug. Pour the negroni into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and an orange twist, rubbing the orange peel around the rim of the glass beforehand.
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Nutrition

117kcals Calories
0g Fat
0g Protein
4.5g (4.5g sugars) Carbs
0g Fibre
0.1g Salt

Quick wins & tips

Head of food Tom Shingler’s bottled cocktail tips

Most – but not all – cocktails can be mixed in advance. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Take it with a pinch of salt You’ll notice a tiny amount of salt in this cocktail recipe. It’s a trick I picked up from a master mixologist a few years ago that I swear by. Just like in food, salt opens up the palate to make your cocktail taste more of itself (without tasting salty). It’s a subtle yet effortless improvement – and a neat talking point.

Enjoy the water feature Cocktails are shaken or served with plenty of ice not only to cool them down, but also to dilute the mixture with a little water. This tempers the harshness of the alcohol, allowing you to taste the cocktail more. If you’re pre-mixing cocktails designed to be served in glasses without ice, you need to add some water to account for the dilution.

Stay chilled Pre-mixed cocktails can be kept in the freezer, meaning you can make them ahead of time and they’ll be perfectly chilled at all times. Alcohol doesn’t freeze, but if you have a higher concentration of non-alcoholic liquids in your cocktail (fruit juices or water to account for dilution, for example), they can become a little slushy. Don’t fret – a good shake of the container or bottle will break up the slush and remix the cocktail in an instant, ready to pour.

Master the golden ratio The beauty of cocktails is that they’re easily scaled up – you just need to keep the ratios the same. This recipe makes enough for 10 drinks, but for bigger gatherings the recipe be doubled, tripled, quadrupled or more.