Cocktail of the Week

This week’s cocktail is the mezcal negroni.

The negroni is a classic cocktail usually made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. This version substitutes mezcal for gin. Follow the recipe this week and try it yourself. This is a good week to try it. Monday of this week would be a good day of this week to make it and try it. You will want to have it approximately 1400 or so more times. Hopefully no more times after that.

Ingredients

1 oz. mezcal 

1 oz. Campari 

1 oz. sweet vermouth 

Orange slice (garnish) 

Mezcal is made from the agave plant. It is made from the heart of the agave, the piña. Most of it is made in Oaxaca, a state in the south of Mexico. It is made by Mexicans, about whom you will be hearing a lot in the next four years, most of it lies. Mezcal has a pronounced smoky flavor because of the roasting of the piña, but, like gin, it is made with fruit and herbs and so is complicated, like people when not being described by racists. People are sometimes confused about mezcal because it sounds like mescaline, but it is not a psychedelic. You may be disappointed by this at some point in the coming four years of mezcal negroni consumption.

Campari is from Italy, where they also had fascism. The modern version of vermouth also comes from Italy, though the name is a French corruption of the German word for wormwood, an original ingredient, so the flavor profile offers accents of a different national authoritarianism as well as hints of complying in advance.

The orange originally comes from China. The less said about this, the better.

Directions

The classic negroni is said to have been born shortly after the end of the first world war, in Florence, when a Count Negroni (honest!) wanted his bartender to make the vermouth, Campari, and soda cocktail he was drinking stronger. Gin was added. The name of the cocktail he had been drinking? An Americano. Do with that what you will.

Modern gin, interestingly, came from Holland and became the national booze of England in the late 17th century, as the Glorious Revolution brought to the throne William of Orange, who hailed from The Hague and was born Prince of Orange after his father died a week before his birth. After a few mezcal negronis, you will be tempted to draw parallels to and maybe even adopt “of Orange” as a nickname for a prominent contemporary figure. Resist the urge. Those nicknames aren’t funny.

Oh yeah, directions.

Fill a mixing glass with ice.

Add all ingredients (except for garnish) and stir.

Strain into a rocks glass over ice.

Garnish with half orange slice.

As a cocktail, the mezcal negroni is simple to make, but it boasts a complicated combination of flavors. There is bitterness, smokiness, and sweetness. It drinks easily for such a strongly flavored drink, which can be problematic as it is all alcohol and no mixer. But come Monday, you will be glad you added this cocktail to your roster, as it captures the country being on fire and your bitterness about what we’ve come to. The sweetness is yours to try to find. L’chaim!