Best Italian cocktails

Best Italian cocktails

cocktail 8 300x170 - Best Italian cocktails

We’re feeling festive, and in the mood for making an Italian cocktail. There’s nothing like a sip of pleasantly bitter Campari.

When it comes to Italian cocktails, it doesn’t get much more classic than the negroni. The drink, first created for Count Camillo Negroni in 1919 at Florence’s Café Casoni, is simply a mixture of equal parts Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth. The resulting drink is bitter, a little sweet, and a stunning shade of pink.

From this simple base can come a universe of variations. Swapping out the gin for sparkling wine, which first happened at Bar Basso in Milan in 1968, create a negroni sbaliagto, or “bungled negroni.” To make a Boulevardier, the gin is replaced with bourbon.

Bitter Campari 218x300 - Best Italian cocktails

Further modification of the negroni template produces even more drinks. The Contessa the Campari and sweet vermouth for Aperol and dry vermouth, while the amber negroni replaces those ingredients with Braulioa and Lillet.

Another classic Italian cocktail is the bellini, a mix of peach puree and sparkling wine. We like to intensify the peach flavor by adding peach brandy. For an autumnal variation, mix prosecco with a mulled cider syrup and fig vodka.

If you want something refreshing, try sgroppino—a slushy combination of lemon sorbet, vodka, and prosecco that is common in Italy as a palate cleanser, a dessert, or a pre-dinner drink. Whisking the ingredients together creates a chilly, frothy libation.

Here are ten of the best Italian cocktails:

1. Americano
Category: Pre-dinner
Ingredients: 5/10 Vermouth rosso, 5/10 Bitter Campari, Soda Water
Preparation: Stir directly in an Old fashioned ice filled glass, top it up with soda water and garnish with a slice of orange.

2. Negroni
Category: Pre-dinner
Ingredients: 1/3 Vermouth rosso, 1/3 Bitter Campari, 1/3 Dry Gin.
Preparation: Served on the rocks, you need to use a medium tumbler or a old fashioned glass, stir the ingredients directly in your glass and garnish with a half slice of orange and lemon peel.

3. Cardinale
Category: Pre-dinner
Ingredients: 5/10 Gin, 3/10 Vermouth dry, 2/10 Bitter Campari
Preparation: Also Cardinale fancies the Old fashioned ice filled glass, chilled. Stir and serve.

4. Bellini
Category: All-day
Ingredients: 3/10 Nettare di pesca (peach juice), 7/10 Spumante Brut (Prosecco is traditional)
Preparation: Build it directly in a Champagne flute, pouring peach juice first and then Spumante Brut. No decorations unless you feeling very creative.

5. Rossini
Category: All-day
Ingredients: 3/10 Nettare di fragole (strawberry juice), 7/10 Spumante Brut
Preparation: It is a variation of the Bellini. Same preparation. Should you feel like experimenting further variations, we suggest you to try as well Mimosa (orange + brut), il Tiziano (“strawberry grapes” + Brut) ed il Puccini (mandarin + Brut)

6. Gin and It
Category: Pre-meal
Ingredients: 3/10 Vermouth rosso, 7/10 Gin
Preparation: Pour the ingredients in a mixing glass and serve in a cocktail cup with a red cherry.

7. Aperol Spritz
Category: Pre-meal
Ingredients: Aperol 2/10, Prosecco 8/10, Seltzer
Preparation: Fill a tumbler or a red wine glass with ice, pour Aperol, Prosecco and top it with Soda water. Garnish with a slice of orange.

8. Martini Cocktail

Category: Aperitivo
Ingredients: 8/10 Gin, 2/10 Vermouth dry.
Preparation: This is a tricky one, Martini lovers get a bit emotional about the way they want it, bartenders sometimes can’t keep up with them.. Anyway the original recipe says you have to pour in an ice filled mixing glass gin and vermouth dry, stir well and serve in a chilled cocktail glass. Please don’t forget a green olive and lemon peel. There are many variations of this cocktail, here you can find some of them: Perfect Martini, Sweet Martini, Smoky Martini, Dirty Martini, Vodka Martini, Gibson, Martinez.

9. Angelo Azzurro
Category: After dinner (very…)
Ingredients: 6/10 Gin, 3/10 Triple Sec o Cointrau, 1/10 Blue Curacao
Preparation: Pour the ingredients in shaker, shake well and serve in a ice filled or a cocktail cup. No garnish needed.

10. God Father
Category: After dinner
Ingredients: 3/10 Amaretto di Saronno, 7/10 Scotch Whisky
Preparation: Pour the ingredients in a ice filled Old fashioned glass and stir well. From the States we got the female version of it, God Mother (3/10 Amaretto di Saronno, 7/10 Vodka)

 

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