Mezcal Negroni
ClassicThe Negroni pulled through a campfire. Equal parts, all smoke.
Everything you love about a Negroni, wreathed in smoke. Mezcal's roasted-agave char and minerality sit where the gin used to be, deepening Campari's bitter orange and rhubarb and giving the sweet vermouth's herbs a savory, almost smoldering edge. Long, dry, and quietly intense.
Ingredients
- 1 oz Mezcal
- 1 oz Campari
- 1 oz Sweet Vermouth
- Orange peel · optional garnish
Method
- 1
Add the mezcal, Campari, and sweet vermouth to a mixing glass with ice.
- 2
Stir until well-chilled, about 20-30 seconds.
- 3
Strain over one large cube in a chilled rocks glass.
- 4
Express an orange peel over the surface and drop it in.
The Story
As the craft-cocktail world rediscovered mezcal in the 2010s, the Negroni was one of the first classics bartenders reached for. The template is famously forgiving: hold the Campari and sweet vermouth steady, change the base spirit, and the drink reinvents itself. Trading gin's juniper for mezcal's smoke needs no other adjustment, which is exactly why the swap spread from bar to bar without any single claim of authorship. It has since become the most popular of the modern base-swapped Negronis.
Recipe card
The whole recipe in one shareable image.
