002 – The Americano

A re-imagined version of the famous Americano cocktail. Think Negroni without the Gin!

Sydney’s Covid Lockdown has inspired me to take this simple cocktail back to its roots and add a little note of my own. Here is the resulting recipe and some cocktail background.

Make your own ‘Locktail’ Americano. Here is the recipe:

METHOD — Place large cube or sphere of ice in a double-rocks glass. Add 30ml Sweet Vermouth, 30ml Campari, 3-dashes of Rhubarb Biters, half-orange slice (fresh) left in the glass, and oil from lemon-rind slice (squeezed), stir and add 30ml of soda water or more to desired dilution. Garnish with lemon rind.

HISTORICAL NOTES – The ‘Americano’ is another inclusion in the International Bartenders Association (IBA) classic ‘Unforgettables’ list that is limited to 33-cocktails. Created in the 1860’s by Gaspare Campari in his bar, Caffè Campari, the drink was based on an earlier Italian drink know as the ‘Milano-Torino’ with Gaspare’s addition of his own bitters and soda water. Although later eclipsed by James Bond’s penchant for Martini “shaken not stirred’, in the first book ‘Casino Royale’, an ‘Americano’ was the first cocktail ordered by James Bond. Bond demanded that it be made with Perrier water.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The IBA version is here. It is 30ml Bitter Campari, 30ml Sweet Red Vermouth, and a splash of soda water. Prepared in largely the same way described in this recipe.

TASTING NOTES – This is an unusual cocktail, in the sense that it doesn’t contain one of the common base spirits (whisky, rum, bourbon, vodka, tequila or gin). That makes it lighter in alcohol with liquors rather than spirits. It is meant as a before dinner apéritif, meant to aid digestion and bring out food flavours. You could consider this almost as a ‘lower-alcohol Negroni’, and it is certainly in the bitter orange flavour spectrum. For those who don’t like bitter flavours, you can swap out Campari for Aperol for less bitterness and more orange impact. In any case it is a refreshing drink great for warmer weather.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – The Americano is left behind for Negroni variations for bitterness fans and spritzes for sweet summer fans. I wanted to add some flavour range and give it a twist while keeping the core cocktail. Firstly I’ve chosen as high a quality sweet red Vermouth as I could find, the Margan Estate Vermouth from the Hunter Valley in NSW. I’ve found a flavour enhancer in the form of Fee Brothers’ Rhubarb Bitters, which melds amazingly well with the bitter edges and orange flavours, surprisingly making the cocktail taste slightly sweeter and with the best parts of the Rhubarb flavour range.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am going to build an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site (stay tuned). I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’. This cocktail is not super expensive to make, so source the best Vermouth you can (you can find the Margan Vermouth here), and find the Fee Brothers’ Rhubarb Bitters at a number of online providers.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

Coming up soon, more cocktails from the 1800s. Or take a look at the last one, the Sazerac.