Coffee Negroni
As with any simple drink—and this is a deceptively simple one—the choice of which gin and which vermouth is very much part of the fun, as well as the ratios in which you intend to blend them. But let’s give coffee pride of place here; this is a coffee negroni, after all. Ultimately, in this drink we found coffee’s home not in the spirits but in the ice: first stirring the drink with an ice cube made of Honduras La Cueva by Partners Coffee Roasters and then by serving the drink with another coffee cube, which will slowly dilute and subtly impart smart coffee flavors with each sip. In this way, the addition of brewed coffee is allowed to mingle with the expressive gin and plays gracefully with the orange garnish, the classic finishing flourish to traditional negroni construction.
The final element of the negroni’s robust worldwide popularity is its relative ease of construction; nearly anyone can make a version of this drink at home, which is much to its benefit.
Step 1 of this recipe (making coffee ice cubes) is where some purists might start howling—“Won’t that ruin the coffee?”—a topic upon which there is widely differing information online. The short answer is that for our purposes in cocktail creation, the end result is only ruinous if one coffee negroni turns into three or four. Just be quick with the cube-to-shaker train of action, avoid storing coffee cubes in the fridge for weeks, and make a fresh batch a night or two before you intend to stir up your negroni. Please also avoid the temptation to garnish this drink with coffee beans, which are a lovely addition to some but not all coffee cocktails.
Note: We’ve tweaked the classic 1:1:1 negroni ratio with an eye toward the role our diluted coffee cubes will play. A soft touch with the vermouth is agreeable to this drink.
This recipe was excerpted from ‘But First, Coffee' by Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen. Buy the full book on Amazon.
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What you’ll need
Chemex Coffee Maker
$49 At Amazon
Ice Cube Trays
$20 $17 At Amazon
Lowball Glasses
$33 $22 At Amazon
Ingredients
Makes 1 cocktail
Step 1
Pour the coffee into square rocks molds (any old ice cube mold will do, but square is best) and place in the freezer.
Step 2
When the coffee ice cubes are frozen (3 hours should do it, depending on your freezer), combine the gin, vermouth, and Campari in a shaker or pitcher with a single coffee cube. Stir 13 times clockwise in accordance with Japanese craft cocktail tradition.
Step 3
Add another coffee ice cube to a lowball glass, then pour the gin mixture over it. Garnish with an orange peel and drink while considering the next steps of your evening.
A note on gin: Germany’s gin distilling scene is hot, and Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin by Black Forest Distillers has become quite popular among bartenders. It is a notably savory gin, offsetting traditional gin aromatics like citrus peel and juniper with botanicals like cinnamon, cloves, licorice, and sage. This depth and complexity play quite well with coffee.
A note on vermouth: Italy’s Punt e Mes is a household name in the bar world, hailing from Torino. Our use of it here is a nod to the Fergroni, our personal favorite negroni variation, as perfected by Fergus Henderson and the bar team at London’s St. John restaurants.
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