Coffee Negroni

As with any simple drink—and this is a deceptively simple one—the choice of which gin and which vermouth is very much part of the fun, as well as the ratios in which you intend to blend them. But let’s give coffee pride of place here; this is a coffee negroni, after all. Ultimately, in this drink we found coffee’s home not in the spirits but in the ice: first stirring the drink with an ice cube made of Honduras La Cueva by Partners Coffee Roasters and then by serving the drink with another coffee cube, which will slowly dilute and subtly impart smart coffee flavors with each sip. In this way, the addition of brewed coffee is allowed to mingle with the expressive gin and plays gracefully with the orange garnish, the classic finishing flourish to traditional negroni construction. 

The final element of the negroni’s robust worldwide popularity is its relative ease of construction; nearly anyone can make a version of this drink at home, which is much to its benefit.

Step 1 of this recipe (making coffee ice cubes) is where some purists might start howling—“Won’t that ruin the coffee?”—a topic upon which there is widely differing information online. The short answer is that for our purposes in cocktail creation, the end result is only ruinous if one coffee negroni turns into three or four. Just be quick with the cube-to-shaker train of action, avoid storing coffee cubes in the fridge for weeks, and make a fresh batch a night or two before you intend to stir up your negroni. Please also avoid the temptation to garnish this drink with coffee beans, which are a lovely addition to some but not all coffee cocktails. 

Note: We’ve tweaked the classic 1:1:1 negroni ratio with an eye toward the role our diluted coffee cubes will play. A soft touch with the vermouth is agreeable to this drink.

This recipe was excerpted from ‘But First, Coffee' by Jordan Michelman and Zachary Carlsen. Buy the full book on Amazon.