• 1.5 oz Blackpool Spiced Rum
• 0.75 oz Campari
• 1.5 oz Pineapple juice
• 0.5 oz Lime juice
• 0.5 oz Simple syrup
Black Bird
Big-Batch Negroni
Free up your party time by bottling up these Negronis in advance of your next party. Once bottled and properly sealed, these will keep for about one month.
• 2 cups gin
• 2 cups Campari
• 2 cups sweet vermouth
• 2 cups water
Combine ingredients in a large pitcher. Stir, pour into small bottles, seal, label and refrigerate or stash in ice.
Blood Orange Negroni
INGREDIENTS:
1 oz London dry gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth
3 oz freshly squeezed blood orange
2 cups of cubed ice
METHOD:
Add all ingredients to a blender, leaving the cubed ice until last. Put the lid on and blend on the lowest setting. Slowly increase the speed until the desired texture is reached. Pour into double Old Fashioned glasses. Garnish with a fresh rosemary and a straw, or maybe even a spoon. Serves 2.
The Great Wild North
This recipe by Max Borrowman, bar manager at Juniper Kitchen + Bar, was inspired by Canada’s rare foraged botanicals, while the gold flakes evoke memories of B.C.’s 1850s and ’60s gold rushes.
INGREDIENTS:
• 1.5 oz (45 mL) Ungava gin
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) Campari
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) lemon juice
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) egg white
• 0.33 oz (10 mL) simple syrup
• 2 dashes spruce tip tincture (see note)
• 1 oz (30 mL) rhubarb compote (see note)
Coa Swizzle
The coa is a specialized hoe used to harvest agave. Here it’s also the inspiration for Luke McInnes’ tequila-based variation on a Caribbean-style swizzle, now on the menu at Blue Water Café.
• 1 oz (30 mL) blanco tequila
• 1 oz (30 mL) watermelon-infused Lillet Blanc (see note)
• 0.25 oz (7 mL) Campari
• 0.25 oz (7 mL) agave syrup
• 1 oz (30 mL) lime juice
• 3 dashes black peppercorn tincture (see note)
Stir—or swizzle—all the ingredients together in a highball glass, then fill the glass with crushed ice. Garnish with a sprig of mint. Serves 1.
Watermelon Negroni
This refreshing summertime recipe from Josh Pape at Wildebeest balances the bitterness of Campari with a splash of simple syrup, which keeps the texture consistent. It’s designed for one portion; if you’re serving more, just multiply the ingredients by the number of servings. But remember, you’ll also need about 1 cup (250 mL) ice per serving, so make sure everything fits into your blender.
• 0.75 oz (20 mL) Beefeater gin
• 0.75 oz (20 mL) Campari
• 0.75 oz (20 mL) Cinzano Rosso
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) simple syrup (see note)
• 3 x 1.5-inch (3 cm) cubes of watermelon
Place ½ cup (125 mL) cracked ice into the blender with the watermelon and simple syrup. Blend until smooth.
Add the other ingredients and another ½ cup (125 mL) of ice. Blend for 45 seconds and pour into a fancy glass (or a plastic cup).
Garnish with a slice of watermelon. Serves 1.
—By Josh Pape
Slush fun with frozen cocktails
Who hasn’t wasted a hot summer afternoon knocking back frozen margaritas on a sunny patio somewhere? It’s almost a rite of passage. But it isn’t, generally speaking, a quality drinking experience.
Or at least it didn’t used to be.
The Last Word: A Classic Negroni
“The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other.”
—Orson Welles writing from Rome in 1947 on the relative merits of the Negroni in a missive to the Ohio-based Coshocton Tribune.
Bittersweet symphony
The latest twist in the tale of the Negroni
For a drink so simple, the Negroni is one impressively complicated cocktail.
It contains only three ingredients—equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and Campari—but those three ingredients comprise a world of flavours and aromas: bitter, sweet, citrus, floral, herbal, spicy, medicinal. It has a sexy backstory, except that it isn’t true.
A classic Negroni
When only the original will do.
• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• 1 oz Campari
Place all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with an orange twist.