rossi negroni

3/4 oz Beefeater Gin
3/4 oz Blood Orange Cordial
3/4 oz Campari
1/2 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass containing 3 ice cubes. Garnish with an orange twist.

On Thursday, Andrea was away on a business trip, so I decided to get dinner at Bergamot. For my first drink, bartender Paul Manzelli mentioned that he had a blood orange cordial that he had recently been tinkering with. The cordial was created by bartender Greg Rossi from Dalí across the street, and Greg brought over an extra bottle for Bergamot a few nights before. The night that he brought it over, he and Paul had developed a few drinks including a Negroni variation using it to complement the drink's traditional ingredients.
The drink Paul dubbed the Rossi Negroni started with an orange aroma from the twist and cordial. The sip was a tangy Aperol-like orange flavor that was chased by an intriguing orangy bitter combination. Moreover, the Campari note that blended with the cordial on the swallow remained unmasked as a lingering aftertaste. The blood orange flavor definitely softened this drink with the fruit and sugar notes as well as the decreased volumes of the other ingredients as compared to the original.