Negroni

Then Negroni is one of those drinks that enjoyed some popularity back in the Mad Men days and is now becoming popular again thanks to "boutique" Gin labels which are doing a good job tricking hipsters to shell out too much money for Vodka that they dumped an herb garden into and let sit for a week (seriously you can make your own Gin at home, it's not hard).

But if you're going to live life as a secret agent or want to drink something dark colored that isn't whiskey based (or something retarded like vodka and diet coke), then this is worth it.

A standard Negroni contains Gin, Campari, and sweet Vermouth.  You will not be getting the standard Negroni how-to here.  Instead you will be getting our take on it, which is decidedly more bitter and angry than a normal Negroni.  We will still be using Gin, but as for the rest:

Campari --> Fernet Branca.
Vermouth --> Punt e Mes. (sorry Dolin, you're too hipster).





We recommend keeping all these ingredients chilled.  The Gin can live in the freezer, but keep the Fernet Branca and Punt e Mes in the refrigerator.  Punt e Mes will actually freeze solid, and Fernet Branca doesn't like being that cold because it mutes the flavor too much.







We are not saying top-shelf gin isn't worth it, but we're saying that combined with the heavy hitting aromas and flavors that the other ingredients are going to bring to this, you are going to lose the subtleties that make a good gin good.  We certainly do own a bottle of Brooklyn Gin, which is really good, but putting it in this would be a waste and we prefer to enjoy it neat.  Top level Gin (even the London stuff) can have some fragile botanical qualities that you would obliterate in this recipe.  Since good Gin costs, why would you use it in something in which you'd never get the full gin-ness of it?  











The ratio we use here is a straight up 2.5 ounces of Gin (2 shots) and 1.25 ounces of the other two ingredients (that's a shot of each). 




You can even add a dash of orange bitters if you want to shake things up even more. We garnished with a lemon peel, but the orange peel is traditional.  If you really want to get crazy, you can garnish with a stick of licorice root.  

These are smooth, they go down easy and before you know it you've killed a fifth of Gin before you friends show up.  As you know our little slideshows usually include a cautionary tale involving the loss of pants and such.  However, as you can see, we are outdoors for this one, and the loyal staff of Pinky Mixology had already lost about a pint of blood due to some very aggressive mosquito activity. Knowing that these little biting bitches would probably die form ingesting our blood which had alcohol levels high enough to need a catalytic converter was very little comfort, and we ducked for cover.

Next time:

SODAS

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Manhattan

The Manhattan. Nothing says roaring 20's like this rye whiskey based glass full of awesome. Invented over a century ago in the 18whoknowswhatsit's, it splendor in a glass. Despite its injection into the douche-bag universe of wanna-be Mad Men idiot hipsters, and being the last vestige of a few old racist grandparents out there who still listen to The Rat Pack on am radio, this is still a drink that should be ok to be seen in public with. But on the occasion that you wish to have 1 (or 7) at home, and hopefully share them with friends, here is how to make sure you pull it off correctly.



Time for grown up drinking boys and girls.





Recommended Rye Whiskeys include Manhattan Rye from Tuthilltown Spirits (pictured above), also (ri)1 rye which has been taken over by Jim Beam, and if you're on a budget there's the slightly less expensive Bulleit and the even cheaper Wild Turkey which is probably the most widely available.



What you see is 2 shot glasses full with a little bit of overflow. Normally you'd keep the glass chilled, but to avoid condensation which would block the view here, so we're gonna not do that. Remember kids; Don't do what Donny Don't does.



Now it goes without saying that a cheap vermouth like Cinzano, or Martini & Rossi is more or less gonna ruin this. Dolin is the standard go-to for a good Manhattan. Although Punt e Mes is not really a "true" rosso Vermouth and thus the end result is not a "true" Manhattan, it's actually our preferred additive here at Pinky Mixology when making these (it's even awesome by itself). So don't get that wrong, according to our personal tastes, we love nothing better than Punt e Mes, but we are making a true Manhattan here, so we'll be using a true vermouth.  We're not gonna say which one because we don't want to get anyone in trouble.



The problem is that good Vermouth costs a bit more and usually doesn't come in a small bottle.  We understand that not everyone out there is going to be prepared to have so much vermouth around.  So you can be stuck with a high quality bottle of Vermouth which you've opened and now the rest of it is fast on its way to getting old and going bad (yes it is very possible for Vermouth to go bad, but you can use this opportunity to turn yourself into a Vermouth fan). The cheap crap comes in small bottles... but it's cheap crap more suited for cooking shrimp than drinking. So if you know a bar-tender at a place that has a high turnover of the good stuff, then maybe they'll pour some off for you to-go. (Or you can get some out by ordering a glass of it and sneaking it out in a sports bottle or something).





You NEVER shake a Manhattan. If you are someplace and they do this, then just get up and leave immediately. You never shake any drink with clear ingredients and this goes for martinis too (though you can slosh them a bit harder than a Manhattan). There's a reason that 007 had to stipulate "shaken, not stirred" in the movies, and that's because no one in their right mind who knew what they were doing would ever ask for that (it was a way for a spy to identify himself to his handler w/o telling the whole room who he was).



Seriously, I don't know why they put these cherries in there. I never eat them, but they instantly identify what you're drinking.



That's not photoshop, that's actually the color of how it looks.  Cool right?

Seriously, the only thing that's gonna happen if you fill a cocktail glass to the very top is that some of the drink will spill, stemmed glass or not, just leave a little room. You can go make another if you're that desperate for more booze.

The Manhattan.

Next time:
Yo mama.