Negroni — Equal parts. Three ingredients. No skill required. Yet

Equal parts. Three ingredients. No skill required. Yet most bartenders still screw this up by shaking it into foam when it should be silky smooth.

Ingredients

• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz Campari
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• Garnish: an orange peel

Method

This is where most people go wrong. Grab a mixing glass and fill it with ice. Add your gin first, then the Campari, then the sweet vermouth. Now stir for thirty seconds until it’s ice cold. The Negroni should always be stirred, never shaken. Shaking aerates the drink and makes it cloudy when you want it crystal clear and silky. Stirring chills and dilutes without changing the texture. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube.

Serve

Now express that orange peel over the top by holding it skin-side down and giving it a firm squeeze — you’ll see the oils spray across the surface. Drop the peel right into the glass.

Pro Tip

Your vermouth matters more than your gin here. Cheap vermouth tastes like cough syrup and will ruin the drink. Spend the extra five dollars on Carpano Antica or Cocchi di Torino. And keep that vermouth in the fridge once it’s open — it’s wine, and it goes bad. A month-old bottle of warm vermouth is why most home Negronis taste bitter instead of balanced.