Mezcal Negroni

Taste

Equal ounces of mezcal, Campari, and sweet vermouth, over ice. Smoke and roasted agave stand where juniper does in the original, and the smoke is the loudest thing in the glass until the ice opens it up. Campari and mezcal are bitter in different directions, and holding those two apart is most of what the vermouth is for. Rocks with ice, orange twist.

History

There is no single author. Phil Ward, who opened the agave bar Mayahuel in New York in 2009, is the name most often attached to it and takes no credit himself, saying only that pouring one was obvious in the bar's early days. Joaquín Simó remembers first drinking one in the early days of Death & Co, after Ward had taken to mezcal, and later built his own variations at Pouring Ribbons. Lynnette Marrero puts the arrival around 2009 and calls it entirely organic, something that happened while a lot of bartenders were working through amari and mezcal at the same time. An ounce each of mezcal, Campari, and sweet vermouth, stirred and served over ice with an orange twist.

• Punch, How the Mezcal Negroni Became a Menu Mainstay

Same shape, other bottles

The Negroni family, with the bottle that changed.

• Cin-Cyngin and Cynar for mezcal and Campari
• Kingston Negroniaged rum for mezcal
• Negronigin for mezcal
• Old Palrye and dry vermouth for mezcal and sweet vermouth
• Brazilian Negronicachaça for mezcal
• Boulevardierbourbon for mezcal