Negroni Amaro Sour

Name: Negroni Amaro Sour
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: London dry gin — 45 ml (1 1/2 oz); Red bitter (e.g., Campari) — 20 ml (2/3 oz); Amaro (e.g., Montenegro) — 20 ml (2/3 oz); Lemon juice (freshly squeezed) — 20 ml (2/3 oz); Orange juice (freshly squeezed) — 10 ml (1/3 oz); Sugar syrup — 5 ml (1/6 oz); Egg white (pasteurised) — 15 ml (1/2 oz)

Dry shake ∙ 5 min ∙ 18.6% ABV ∙

The Negroni Amaro Sour reworks the Negroni's bittersweet backbone into a shaken egg-white drink of gin, red bitter, amaro and citrus. A plush, cloud-like foam cushions each sip, giving way to a tart citrus snap and a lingering bittersweet finish that stays dry, not syrupy.

Ingredients

Servings

Garnish

Dehydrated lemon slice

Instructions for 1 serving

Pre-chill a glass
Shake all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 45 mlRed bitter 20 mlAmaro 20 mlLemon juice 20 mlOrange juice 10 mlSugar syrup 5 mlEgg white 15 ml
Strain back into the shaker
Dry shake (without ice)
Fine strain into the chilled glass
Garnish with a dehydrated lemon slice

Tips

Double shake: the first shake with ice chills and integrates the egg white, the second dry shake builds the foam before straining.
Use pasteurized egg white and shake it hard; a weak shake leaves a thin, uneven foam instead of a stable head.
Pre-chill the coupe before the final fine strain so the foam doesn't collapse against a warm glass.
Fine-strain through a mesh strainer to keep the citrus pulp out and give the foam a smooth, even surface.

History

The Negroni Amaro Sour is a modern twist on the Negroni that turns the aperitivo into a citrus-and-egg-white sour, splitting the usual Campari between the classic bitter and a second amaro (commonly Amaro Montenegro) for a rounder, less astringent bittersweet profile. No individual bartender or bar is credited with its creation; it circulates as a template on contemporary cocktail menus and recipe collections, in the same spirit as the many other Negroni riffs that swap or split ingredients while keeping the drink's bittersweet backbone.

Its parent, the Negroni, is most commonly traced to Florence in 1919, when Count Camillo Negroni is said to have asked a bartender at Caffè Casoni to fortify his usual Americano by replacing the soda water with gin. This origin story is widely repeated but far from settled, with rival family claims and a thin documentary trail. The Negroni Amaro Sour keeps that gin-Campari-vermouth-style bitterness but reworks it into a shaken, citrus-and-egg-white sour rather than a stirred, built-over-ice aperitivo.