Cardinale cocktail served up in a cocktail glass with a lemon twist

IBA

Cardinale – IBA

Name: Cardinale – IBA
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: London dry gin — 40 ml (1 1/3 oz); Dry vermouth — 20 ml (2/3 oz); Red bitter (e.g., Campari) — 10 ml (1/3 oz)

Stir ∙ 3 min ∙ 26.4% ABV ∙

The Cardinale – IBA is a stirred, spirit-forward drink of gin, dry vermouth and a red bitter such as Campari, a drier take on the Negroni.

Ingredients

Servings

Garnish

Lemon twist

Instructions for 1 serving

Pre-chill a glass
Stir all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 40 mlDry vermouth 20 mlRed bitter 10 ml
Strain into the chilled cocktail glass
Garnish with a lemon twist

Tips

Stir over plenty of large cubes for 20-25 seconds, until the drink is cold and properly diluted.
The red bitter is only 10 ml, so measure it. A heavy hand makes the whole drink bitter.

History

The Cardinale is a variation on the Negroni, the Italian aperitivo most commonly traced to 1919 Florence. The Cardinale itself is generally credited to bartender Giovanni Raimondo at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome around 1950, reportedly mixed for a visiting cardinal during Pope Pius XII's Holy Year Jubilee, with the drink's reddish hue and name tied to the churchman's robes. Some accounts instead place the story in 1926 or 1947, and Harry's Bar in Venice has occasionally been floated as an alternate birthplace, though the Excelsior version is the one most consistently documented.

Its defining departure from the Negroni is the substitution of dry vermouth for sweet, giving a drier, less fruity profile.