In 1919, when Colonel Count Camillo Negroni asked his bartender to swap the soda in his Americano for a splash of gin, a legend was born. Three spirited co-conspirators — 30 ml Campari, 30 ml gin, and 30 ml sweet vermouth — came together to create a drink that made “bitter” taste better. The amber-hued aperitif from Milan soon became more than a cocktail — it became an attitude, one stirred, never shaken.

Historically, the Negroni was the third in a lineage — after the Milano-Torino (Campari and vermouth) in 1860 and the Americano (Campari, vermouth, and soda) in 1870. From it later flowed the Boulevardier (Campari, vermouth, and bourbon) and the Rosita, where tequila took bourbon’s place. And in the 1980s, one happy accident — swapping gin for prosecco — gave us the effervescent Negroni Sbagliato.