Tony's Negronis

 Those who know me understand that my range of passion lays not only with photography. Among my key loves is also the art of the libation.

 Cocktail making enjoyed it's world-wide heyday in the early 1900's, but died off quickly in American during prohibition. America has had difficulty recovering from the stunt in it's growth. While the world was developing caipirinhas, toddys and slings, we remained stuck in the dark ages knocking back whiskey-colas and watered down cranberry and vodaks that are drink lost staples still today.

 Proud, modern day revolutionaries armed with bar-backs and a general disregard for flavorless vodka and overly sugared colas have been working to populate our iPhone cocktail app with innovative drinks using spirits infused with herbs and vegetables that are relocated to our neighborhood specialty co-op importers. As with the surgence of wine aficianados and and sweet white wine lovers, equal attention is now being paid to the 80 proof spirit.

 I have turned my vocational attention to photography as of late, but my desire to share my libidinal knowledge still yearns. Enjoy my intermitten booze-soaked posts that will be following, and please allow me to begin sharing my knowledge on the topic of my favourite drink: the Negroni.

NEGRONI

Often credited as being the first cocktail, the recipe for the drink, then called the Antico Negroni didn't actually appear until 1919. In 1947, it began appearing in English cocktail guides.

1 part gin

1 part sweet vermouth

1 part Campari

Served appropriately up or on the rocks, this is certainly a pucker-inducing bitter cocktail that doe snot lack flavor.

While Gin and Vermouth are fairly common, even seasoned drinkers that I meet say Camp-a-what? To enlighten, Campari is an Italian apertif (20-28% alcohol by volume and country) that is also classified as a bitter (see angostura). 

Among it's sixty herbal ingredients is the compound Carmine, from which Campari derives it's color. Carmine is produced by drying the cochineal insect and boiling the carass to extract the carminic acid which is combined with cream of tartar. Before you recoil in fear and discust and deprive yourself of what is truly one of the most satisfying cocktails ever invented, the same carmine is also used in ice cream, yougurt, candy eye shadow, lipstick, and, when combined with cinnabar to give color to red velvet cake.

Variation on the drink include the addition of 1 part orange juice (Negroni Zimbabwe), the substitution of vodka for gin (Negroski) and the substitution of sparkling wine for gin (Negroni Sbagliato).