Gin, Campari and Rosso Vermouth. For many this is the gateway cocktail that introduced the world into what a truly great cocktail made at home can be.
By most popular accounts, the Negroni affords its origins in an aperitivo popular in Northern Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century. Gaz Regan in The Negroni Writes "Thanks to Dom Costa, we know that the Negroni was from the loins of the Americano, the Americano was based on the Milano-Torino, and in turn, the Milano-Torino was a variation on the Torino-Milano". The Milano-Torino incidentally taking its name from the geographical origins of its two main ingredients: equal parts Campari (from Milan) and Amaro Cora (from Turin). The Milano-Torino is said to have been invented in the 1860s at the Caffe Camparino in Milan which was owned by Gaspare Campari. The drink was popular with Americans who during this period of economic improvement and cheaper travel were out and about in the world exerting their influence, which in this instance included requesting the addition of a dash of soda water in their Milano-Torinos, thus giving birth to the Americano. However, both Dale Degroff in The Essential Cocktail and Anastasia Miller & Jared Brown in A Spirituous Journey take the view that the Milano-Torino already contained soda and it was simply renamed as the Americano because Americans liked it. There are other reasons given as to why the drink took that name, but this is not a history of the Americano. - Difford’s Guide