Scotch Negroni

Swap gin for Scotch and the Negroni becomes something smokier and more complex -- Campari's bitterness now plays against whisky's character.

The Scotch Negroni substitutes Scotch whisky for the gin in the classic Negroni formula — Campari, sweet vermouth, and spirit in equal parts — created in Florence around 1919 when Count Camillo Negroni asked bartender Fosco Scarselli at Caffè Casoni to replace his Americano's soda water with gin. The substitution of Scotch for gin transforms the Negroni's fundamental character more completely than almost any other spirit swap: gin's botanical freshness was the original foil for Campari's bitter citrus, and replacing it with Scotch's warm grain complexity and optional peat smoke creates a drink whose two primary elements — bitter citrus and grain warmth — interact without gin's mediating botanical bridge. The result is sometimes described as a Scotch Boulevardier, though strictly the Boulevardier is a rye or bourbon cocktail and a Scotch substitution produces a preparation with distinct character from either. Campari, created by Gaspare Campari in Milan in 1860 and now one of the world's most recognized aperitivo brands, contributes its specific combination of bitter citrus peel, rhubarb, and aromatic herbs in a way that engages differently with Scotch's maltiness than with gin's botanical structure.