Blood Orange Negroni Cocktail
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Absolutely delicious shaken cocktail with sweet, sour and bitter flavors — a rosemary-scented blood orange negroni!
On a trip to Chicago with a few of my best-est girlfriends, the most memorable dining and drinking experience for me was at a buzzy Italian spot. The food there was just the sort I’m always hungry for. That is simple, rustic Italian food with a fresh, seasonal slant.
Seriously, when everything on the menu is something you want to eat, it makes it hard to choose.
Before we got down to enjoying delicious food, we had a short wait at the very crowded bar, where I had a drink I’ve been craving ever since.
The entire cocktail selection has a flavor profile of Italian bitters, flavored with components like Campari and Amaro.
I ordered a cocktail named the Rosemary No.2, made with Campari, Aperol, fresh sour mix, egg white and a flaming rosemary sprig for a garnish.
It was a perfect combination of sweet-sour-bitter, and the lofty egg white foam on top was better than whipped cream. I was in the mood to try to recreate the drink last weekend and did a little research.
I got to work improvising and came up with a pretty close approximation, which I thought appropriate to name the Rosemary No.3.
I made the drink a Negroni by adding some gin and vermouth, muddled the rosemary rather than set it on fire, and used fresh blood orange and lemon juice with some sugar to replace the fresh sour mix they use at the bar.
However, my egg white foam wasn’t nearly as impressive as the one topping my original drink. I think my mixologist muscles need a bit more work!
I settled on whisking the egg white until thick and foamy before adding it to the shaker, and almost pulled out my cream whipper for the job, which would make more sense if I were making a batch of drinks for friends.
More Italian-inspired drink and cocktail recipes:
- Italian Greyhound Cocktail with Rosemary Sugar
- Italian Spritz Cocktail
- Strawberry Rossini Cocktail with Prosecco
- Lemon Sgroppino with Vodka and Prosecco
Blood Orange Negroni Cocktail – Rosemary No. 3
Ingredients
- 1 (30 ml) egg white (2 ounces)
- 1 sprig rosemary, plus more for garnish
- 1 thin slice blood orange , or juice-type orange
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon superfine sugar
- Juice of 1 blood orange, or juice-type orange
- 2 ounces (30 ml) Aperol or Campari
- 2 ounces (30 ml) gin
- 1 ounce (15 ml) sweet vermouth
Equipment
Instructions
Makes one drink
- Whisk the egg white in a bowl until very it turns very foamy and opaque.
- Muddle the rosemary, blood orange, lemon juice and sugar in a cocktail shaker to crush and release their fragrance.
- Add crushed ice to the shaker along with the egg white and the rest of the ingredients; cover and shake vigorously for up to 5 minutes – or as long as your arm can take.
- Strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with a rosemary sprig.
Nutrition per serving
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Bartenders are subbing out aquafaba for egg white.
This seems like a lot of liquid (and a lot of alcohol) to put into one cocktail glass. 2 ounces 80-proof gin, 2 ounces 48-proof Campari (whoa mama that’s a lot of Campari), 1 ounce ~35-proof vermouth, plus ~3 ounces blood orange juice, 1/2 ounce lemon juice, sugar, an egg white, *plus* water from melted ice during the shaking process. This is ~10 ounces of liquid, and the equivalent of 2 1/2 shots of vodka, for one drink?
By comparison, a traditional gin fizz has 2 oz gin, 3/4 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz simple syrup, maybe 1 oz seltzer, and an egg white.
It feels like this should be 2 drinks per recipe, unless you serve it in an iced tea glass, or a small bucket.
Hi Tom – This cocktail is based on one from a restaurant in Chicago (Balena, which is now closed). It’s a creative take on both a Negroni and a shaken gin fizz, as noted in the text. It’s a fun, refreshing drink that may pack a punch if you have more than one. Also, note that the ingredients in a classic negroni recipe are typically mixed in equal ratios. If this isn’t to your taste, by all means mix a drink just the way YOU like it, or pour it into two glasses to share.
We made this cocktail at a party and everyone loved it. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi, Karen. The negroni is really beautiful, it’s really enjoyable to see your picture and post, I’ll try as you told. Thanks.
Well now this is my kind of cocktail! A bit of sweet, a bit of citrus, some bitter, a touch of gin and my fave, Italian vermouth. And what positively brilliant photography. Complimenti!
Thanks, Adri! I drink wine most every day, but the bitters have become a nice thing to add to sparkling water when I don’t feel like a full-on Negroni. Although, that rarely seems to be the case. 😉
Stunning colors!