The Golden Rule For Diluting Your Negronis

Negroni cocktails, with their vivid orange-red color, resemble the sunset in their place of origin, Florence, Italy. Meant to be enjoyed before dinner as an aperitif, the drink was invented in the first part of the 20^th century by a bartender named Fosco Scarselli. One of his patrons, Count Camillo Negroni, asked Scarselli to change his usual order one day. The Count was fond of Americanos — the cocktail, not the coffee — but wanted something more potent. This bartender didn't mess around. He replaced the soda water with gin, and the Negroni was born.

The recipe for Negronis includes nothing but alcohol; there are no mixers. A classic Negroni contains equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari, which gives the cocktail its signature reddish-orange color. This mixture of liquors packs a punch, so experts advise diluting the drink, especially if you want to enjoy more than one. But how do you do that without losing the distinct, slightly bitter flavors for which the Negroni is known?

Food & Wine has some rules for making the perfect Negroni, one of which is how to correctly dilute the potent alcoholic beverage. They recommend using giant slow-melting 2-inch square ice cubes (justify the Amazon purchase by using them to make blocks of freezer stock in 1/4 cup quantities) to properly dilute the high-test cocktail. The larger cubes don't melt as quickly as regular ice cubes allowing you to enjoy the drink's flavors as the ice slowly melts and cools your drink to the perfect temperature.

The gin experts at Beefeater say a rookie mistake when making a Negroni is shaking it instead of stirring it. Stirring the drink allows you to perfectly dilute, while shaking incorporates too much air into the mix.

Don't forget a juicy slice of orange for the rim of the glass. Twist the orange to release the oils from the rind into the drink. The oils will stay at the top, so you can enjoy a fresh orange aroma with every sip (per Martha Stewart).

The Guardian believes that the Negroni cocktail embodies the Italian essence known as sprezzatura. Sprezzatura suggests glamour and elegance achieved without looking like you tried too hard — think Ryan Gosling or Lady Gaga in "House of Gucci." The Negroni — beautiful, colorful, delicious, cosmopolitan — but effortlessly made with equal measures of ingredients is sprezzatura in liquid form.

Impress your friends with your new-found knowledge of the classic cocktail by celebrating Negroni Week with a party to recognize the Negroni's fascinating origins. Cocktails & Bars has ideas for making them in large quantities, enough to please a crowd.

Take your celebration up a notch by serving your guests appetizers that pay homage to the birthplace of the Negroni. Uncomplicated dishes like bruschetta or eggplant caponata look beautiful and taste delicious but come together with very little work — sprezzatura at its finest. When you're celebrating, don't forget to raise a glass to Fosco Scarselli and Count Negroni, the men who started it all.