The Spirits #115: The Rosita

~ The King of Negroni Variants ~

45ml tequila
15ml Italian vermouth
15ml French vermouth
15ml Campari
Dash Angostura bitters

Add the liquids to the glass, throw in a large berg of ice and stir ever-so-tenderly. Garnish with an orange zest twist - or grapefruit, should your bent run to C. × a. f. aurantium.

Some Rosita notes:

1. A Negroni with a tequila base, ladies and gentleman! Reposado tequila is best here but silver is good too.

2. An abbreviated post today, I’m afraid, as I’ve been rather mired in other writing projects and also my house falling down. But I’m planning a seasonal special next week which should hopefully make up for it.

3. I believe it was Gaz Regan who invented this Negroni variation in the 1990s, slightly tweaking the classic 1:1:1 formula as he did. He upped the base spirit; he split the vermouth between French and Italian (dry and sweet); and he threw in a dash of Angostura bitters to the mix. Clever Gaz - it works.

3. The combination of agave and bitterness is an excellent one; indeed, I’d say the Rosita is my favourite of the Negroni variants. It withstands a bit of experimentation, too. Mezcal works in place of tequila, for example; Aperol, Suze, Cynar, Khoosh, etc, are all pleasant in place of the Campari; and a dash of a little something else can turns this into something really special. A scant 5ml of Ancho Reyes, say, or the merest hint of kummel?

4. I have somehow never quite got round to doing a straight Negroni on here . But you might be interested in a) the Charlie Pie, a French proto-Negroni; b) the Boulevardier, the bourbon Negroni; c) the Watermelon Negroni; d) the Americano, a sort of Negroni-lite; and e) the Mulled Negroni, which I expect to be served when you finally get round to hosting your Christmas party.

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🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑‍🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
⚗️ My bottle recommendations are here.
📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here. 
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.

🏥 And here is a list of trusted charities who are helping people in Gaza. I have given to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. Please consider helping if you can; my hunch is that money probably does more good than outrage. There are 800,000 children in Gaza. According to UNICEF, 420 children have been killed or injured each day since the Israeli siege began, with one child killed every 10 minutes. The deliberate targeting of innocent children by Hamas and the IDF (as much as they claim it is simply unavoidable) is to me an incomprehensible evil.

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CABINET POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

🌿Green Chartreuse
🍒 Maraschino
🍑 Apricot Brandy
🍫 Crème de Cacao
🌷Cynar
🏝️ Falernum
🌵 Mezcal
🐂 Sherry
🧡 Aperol
🍌 Crème de Banane
🐻 Kümmel
🕊️ Bénédictine
🦅Fernet-Branca
❄️Brancamenta
🐿️Amaretto

Coming soon: Suze

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WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING

There’s a slightly mad piece of mine on ART DUPES - or why no one really cares if your art is forged any more - in this week’s ES Magazine. Not online at the time of going to press but I will link when I can.

And you should not miss my re-edited interview with the incredible feminist surrealist, Penelope Slinger, if you like LSD, group sex and falconry. (The Spirits)

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NEXT WEEK: HOW to HOST a COCKTAIL PARTY 🥳