Aperoni

B forwarded me a post from Michael Rhuhulman’s blog about a Berkshire Martinez from last April, which was his take on the classic Martinez cocktail.  Apparently this post was inspired by a robust (such as 140 characters will allow) Twitter discussion of his previous post on The Perfect Martini started by Gerry Jobe, bartender at RauDZ.  I was preparing to give the Martinez a whirls when I caught passing comment by Jobe that a “Punt e Mes for its bitter quality works extremely well with Aperol (substituted for Campari) as a Negroni variation”.  Well, I’m always game for cocktails that use either Punt e Mes or Aperol. So I did a little digging around to see if someone had come up with a reasonable name for such a drink and ran across the Aperoni at TwinFountain, which is fortuitous as it’s a great blog with an ethos I appreciate—”I like my cocktails simple. Usually brown and stirred. Often bitter. … Made with affordable ingredients.”  My thoughts exactly.

Aperoni

• 1 1/2 oz Gin (Beefeaters)
• 1 oz Aperol
• 1 oz Punt e Mes
• Orange twist

Stir all of the ingredients  with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Add a a healthy orange twist.

I am not one who is normally taken by “a modern take on a classic”, but I actually think I like this cocktail slightly better than the original Negroni. The Punt e Mes and Aperol just harmonize exceptionally well.  It’s still a serious, bitter cocktail, but there’s just some little extra bit of alchemy there.  This is definitely one that’s going into our regular rotation.

Cin-cin.