Florence, a city of art and history, is not only the cradle of the Renaissance, but also the birthplace, at the dawn of the 20th century, of one of the most famous and beloved cocktails in the world: the Negroni. Its story is rooted in an elegant Florentine café and features a charismatic figure with bold taste: Count Camillo Negroni.
In the early 1900s, Count Negroni was a regular at Caffè Casoni, a lively establishment located on Via de’ Tornabuoni in the heart of Florence (today known as Caffè Giacosa). A worldly man with an adventurous past that had taken him as far as America, the Count often ordered his Americano — a popular cocktail at the time made with Campari, sweet vermouth, and soda water.
However, Count Negroni, a man of strong tastes and little fondness for moderation, desired a drink with higher alcohol content and a bolder character. Tired of the usual Americano, one day he asked the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to “strengthen” his drink by replacing the soda water with a more robust ingredient: gin.
Thus, for the first time, a new balance of flavors was created: the bitterness of Campari, the aromatic sweetness of vermouth, and the sharp dryness of gin merged into an unexpectedly harmonious blend. The cocktail was an immediate success among the café’s other patrons, who began ordering it “in the style of Count Negroni.”
Soon, the Count’s name became inseparably linked to this new creation. The “Negroni” quickly spread — first in Florence, then throughout Italy — winning over palates with its unique flavor and elegant simplicity. It is said that the Negroni family, proud of this alcoholic legacy, even founded a distillery to produce their own vermouth, further contributing to the spread and acclaim of the now-iconic cocktail.
By the 1950s, the Negroni had become a symbol of style overseas, aided by its popularity among celebrities. While filming in Italy, actor Orson Welles famously described the Negroni as “the perfect balance between a good bitter and a poor gin.”
Today, the Negroni is a timeless classic of international mixology, featured on cocktail menus in bars around the world. Its recipe, faithful to Count Negroni’s original intuition, continues to captivate with its perfect alchemy of ingredients and its story — rooted in the vibrant life of a Florentine nobleman and the creativity of a visionary bartender.
Clara Svanera
