Craft Distillers Are Putting Bugs in Your Negroni
Campari may have changed its formula, but for others, there’s only one true way to get that classic red.
That vibrant red color in your Negroni? It may be from crushed-up bugs. We’d have mentioned this earlier in Negroni Week, but it’s rather like when you initially eat escargot: Better to taste how delicious they are before learning that they’re land snails.
First, the drink itself. The Negroni is an iconic Italian apéritif: equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari, served on the rocks and garnished with an orange peel. It was created in 1919 for Count Camillo Negroni at Café Casoni in Florence. The bartender was trying to heed the count’s request for a little more oomph in his Americano (sweet vermouth, Campari, soda): Scarselli simply replaced the recipe’s club soda with gin; thus was born the Negroni.