I’ve been told it’s Negroni Week? I mean, I know it’s Negroni Week, I had a killer one last night at Kona’s Street Market (go San Franciscans, go!) that somehow involved Appleton Estate Rum, Campari, an unnamed amaro, cashew, banana, and falernum, and still ended up feeling very…Negroni like? That is the magic of the Negroni. It’s a time-honored formula, and yet a durable agent of experimentation nonetheless.
There is a school of thought that it is heresy to mess with the 1:1:1 formula of Negronis. And there is something to this. After all, it is hard to beat. There’s a reason to stick to it. It’s a drink that’s hard to screw up unless you have ancient vermouth or something like that. Campari, a vermouth, a gin, and endless permutations. There are a lot of different vermouths out there, and plenty of gins to work with. But the backbone is Campari, and there’s no reason for me not to pull out my (almost gone!) bottle. I guess I’ve been making a lot of Negronis over the past few months when I haven’t been making tiki drinks :)
But how do we imbue a Negroni with a little bit of the spirit of this project, a little tropical flair if you will. And how do we do what this is all about, breaking rules and coming up with our own interpretations? Well in that case we turn to another Kevin Diedrich creation from the gone for now (but soon to be returning) Pacific Cocktail Haven: the Leeward Negroni
I’d been itching to make some pandan syrup just to play with at home, and while New Mah Way did not have any super fresh looking pandan, they did have pandan leaves. So I did what any reasonable person would do, I purchased some, chopped up a few leaves, soaked it in a 1:1 solution of very hot water and sugar, and strained in the next day to yield a syrup. I did not make a cordial because…I don’t need a bottle of Everclear, thank you very much.
No coconut washed spirits here (but…soon?), so I can’t quite make a Leeward Negroni anyway. But that’s boring. Let’s play with it in a slightly different way, and use another tropical flavor I make a lot of use of in my kitchen, pineapple. That starts pushing it in a bit of a Jungle Bird direction. But I’m okay with that as Jungle Birds are amazing and you should drink more of them. Here is where I settled on take 1:
.5 oz pineapple
.5 oz pandan syrup
1.25 oz gin (used Terroir this time)
1 oz vermouth (Cocchi Vermouth di Torino for me)
.75 oz Campari
Take all your ingredients, put them in your trusty mixing glass, add a few cubes, and give it a good long stir. Strain into a rocks glass if you are having it up, or a double rocks glass if you want it over ice like I chose to. I would normally use on big cube but they were in short supply in my freezer, so small cubes it is.
As first attempts go, it’s not bad, though I’m not getting as much of the pineapple as I thought I might. I dialed down the Campari to try and let some of the other flavors through since it’s strong and doesn’t always play nice with others. The pandan is definitely coming through, and goes well with the Cocchi and Campari. It may be the pineapple is just not that necessary here. Some coconut washed gin would be a key addition, so that may be a future iteration of this drink.
Enjoy Negroni Week, folks! Next week I’ve got some other fun stuff on tap and if I get around to washing some gin and rum with coconut, we can have some real fun. Or maybe just play with the Coco Lopez. We shall see!
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for something every week or two (if we are being honest), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
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