Wayne Collins, Bordeaux, 2001.
| 1½ oz · 45 ml | GIN | 40 % |
| 1 oz · 30 ml | SUZE | 20 % |
| 1 oz · 30 ml | LILLET BLANC | 17 % |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 3.5 oz mixed with ice, 0.97 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Stirred: +15 % of the pre-batch, +0.52 oz of water |
| Served | 3.5 + 0.52 = 4.02 oz in the glass |
| Strength | 0.97 ÷ 4.02 = 24.1 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.97 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 23 g · about 158 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM GIN
The pine note in juniper berries, and the reason gin tastes like a forest. Co-distilled with the spirit during production. Found in actual pine trees, rosemary, basil, and a good London Dry. The "Christmas tree" smell of gin and the smell of a forest floor share a single molecule.
ALSO IN Negroni · Martini · Gimlet · Gin & Tonic · Aviation · Corpse Reviver #2 · French 75 · Bramble
FROM SUZE
The bitter from gentian root, used across Campari, Aperol, sweet vermouth, Angostura, and most amari. Bitter compounds activate TAS2R taste receptors that evolved to detect plant alkaloids. The same machinery that makes broccoli taste bad to children also makes a Negroni taste like an adult ordered it.
ALSO IN Negroni · Manhattan · Paper Plane · Boulevardier · Sazerac · Naked & Famous · Last Word · Vieux Carré
FROM LILLET BLANC · the bitter in tonic
The cinchona-bark alkaloid that defines tonic water, bitter enough that a few milligrams per liter is all the recipe needs. Used as the original anti-malarial before synthetic replacements; gin & tonic exists because British colonial officers in 19th-century India needed a daily quinine vehicle, and gin made the tonic less unpalatable. Modern tonic carries a fraction of the historical dose.
ALSO IN Gin & Tonic · Greyhound · Paloma
Gin, Suze and Lillet Blanc. It is the Negroni with all-colorless components: Suze's gentian root provides the bitterness (the Campari analog), and Lillet Blanc's quinine-fortified wine takes the sweet vermouth role. Gentiopicroside is the load-bearing molecule.
Wayne Collins created the White Negroni in 2001 at Vinexpo in Bordeaux, France, the night before a cocktail competition. Wanting a Negroni without the Italian bottles, he built one from French ones with Plymouth Gin's Nick Blacknell, who named it. Suze, a French gentian aperitivo, gave him the bitter; Lillet Blanc handled the sweet vermouth role. The drink remained obscure until the 2010s Negroni boom rediscovered it. Now standard on any cocktail bar with a Suze pour.
