Kingston Negroni

Jamaican rum takes gin's place in this Negroni riff, bringing tropical esters and signature funk to Campari and sweet vermouth's classic bitter-sweet framework.

The Kingston Negroni is a rum-based reinterpretation of the classic Negroni that substitutes Jamaican pot-still rum for the traditional gin, named for Kingston, the capital of Jamaica and the center of its rum industry. The Negroni was created in Florence around 1919 when Count Camillo Negroni asked bartender Fosco Scarselli at Caffè Casoni to replace the soda water in his Americano with gin. Jamaica's rum tradition is one of the most historically significant in the Caribbean: the island has been producing rum since the 1650s, and Jamaican pot-still rum — made from molasses fermented with dunder (spent lees from previous distillations) in open wooden fermentation vessels, then distilled in copper pot stills — is distinguished by its exceptionally high ester content, which produces the intensely fruity, funky aromatic character that makes Jamaican rum unlike any other rum style. The specific esters most associated with Jamaican rum include ethyl butyrate, isoamyl acetate, and various higher esters that provide overripe banana, tropical fruit, and dried stone fruit aromatics. In the Kingston Negroni format, these aromatics interact with Campari's bitter citrus in a way that is more tropical and aromatic than gin's botanical brightness, creating a version of the drink with greater depth and more fruit complexity.