Vermouth, built
Campari & Tonic
Barline 1h,t,Ho
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 1/2 oz Campari
- top with Tonic water
Build in the glass over ice, then lift once with a barspoon.
Highball, iced, orange twist.
Taste
An ounce and a half of Campari, then tonic to the top of an iced highball. Two bitters meet, gentian and orange peel from the Campari and quinine from the tonic, and the tonic's sugar carries both. Red, dry, and cold. The orange twist sits on the Campari's own orange.
History
Gaspare Campari made his bitter in Novara in 1860 and the family sold it in Milan from the 1860s on, where it went into soda for the Campari Soda and into vermouth for the Americano. Cutting a bitter liqueur with tonic instead of soda is the Italian aperitivo habit that Punch describes alongside Spain's fortified wines and tonic: the quinine adds a second bitterness and the sugar rounds the first. This menu pours an ounce and a half of Campari and tops with tonic over ice, orange twist.
Same shape, other bottles
The Highball family, with the bottle that changed.
- Gin & Tonicwith gin
- Sherry & Tonicwith sherry
- Vermouth & Tonicwith sweet vermouth
- Vodka & Tonicwith vodka
- Americanosoda water for tonic water
- Fernet and Gingerginger beer for tonic water
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.