Categories: Cocktails

Laphroaig-groni

It’s Negroni week 2019 in San Francisco! A veritable Christmas for lovers of the best cocktail out there in which each bar features its own special variant (or multiple variants) of the cocktail. The problem is figuring out where to go. There’s a website, but only two or three bars have posted their special cocktail and the website is woefully annoying to navigate.

So far, the following are the most interesting (to me) negroni specials in San Francisco:

Elixir SF: Several variants, including the Negroni Fog with salted sweet vermouth whipped cream over navy strength gin + Campari
Mourad SF: Nikka gin, Aperol, Campari, black tea syrup, and sour beer
White Chapel: Build your own negroni and a Negroni Week party on Thursday
Recchiuti Confections: Negroni cocktail + confection pairings
Bluestem Brasserie: Negroni cake!
Commons Club: Gin, Campari, cold brew coffee, and house blend amari

There are a few others such as a “black negroni” that just features Averna instead of sweet vermouth, but those did not seem very exciting. I’m also bummed that Holy Mountain did not hold a negroni week, as their 2016 was awesome and I remember it fondly.

At any rate, we’re currently at home because we’re too tired to go out and socialize… but also want to partake in Negroni week. So we’re doing a bit of a compromise: stay at home, make negronis, and donate to Planned Parenthood (our charity of choice) online.

The current negroni is the culmination of what I have attempted many times over the year: try to make Laphroaig work in a negroni. I have tried subbing out the gin (or rye) with Laphroaig before with dismal effects. What has finally brought it together is using a mild and slightly funky Oloroso sherry instead of the sweet vermouth to balance out the peat (instead of trying to mask it) and then putting in less Campari (and more Averna) to not overwhelm the balance.