The Fig Negroni: the signature aperitif cocktail at Aperture, Montpellier

13.12.2021

Julien Escot (Aperture Montpellier) shared with us his version of the Negroni, with the Fig Negroni.

“The fig leaf is one of our favorite ingredients. It gives the cocktail a flavor that is both vegetal, fig sap, almost almond,” says Julien Escot about the Fig Negroni.

Fig Negroni

Recipe

For 1 glass

30 ml vacuum infused gin with fig leaves

30 ml Campari

30 ml Italian vermouth

Place 3 spheres of clear ice in an old-fashioned glass.

Pour in ingredients and stir with a mixing spoon.

Garnish with a die-cut fig leaf.

Come taste the Fig Negroni at Aperture Montpellier (World’s 50 Best).

2 Rue des Trésoriers de la Bourse, 34000 Montpellier

aperturemontpellier.com

About The Negroni Cocktail

A cocktail to be enjoyed on any occasion, the Negroni has a somewhat confusing history. We tell you more…

The Negroni is a cocktail highly praised by the cocktail scene and one of the most popular cocktails ever created. This year it turns 102 years old and even has an annual week dedicated to it, the Negroni Week, in which for seven days bars around the world prepare its original recipe and even versions, and even take advantage to make charitable works with the funds collected from each Negroni sale.

It is said that Count Camillo Negroni created this aperitif around 1919. The count, liked to appreciate what was initially known as Americano (Campari, Sweet Vermouth and Club Soda and lemon peel). To change the recipe, he asked a bartender to replace the club soda with gin to add a deeper touch…and of course the lemon peel with orange.

Accordingly he count “asked for a touch of gin instead of club soda in his Americano, in honor of his recent trip to London. The cocktail, which he adored, took the count’s name (…) Simple and balanced, it is considered one of the best-known Italian cocktails in the world.”

Apparently, this would have happened at the bar and drugstore Café Casoni, in a sophisticated district of Florence.

It is a widely accepted story documented in “Sulle Tracce del Conte: La Vera Storia del Cocktail Negroni,” written by Lucca Picchi, head bartender at Caffe Rivoire in Florence, Italy, and translated as “In the Footsteps of the Count: The True Story of the Negroni Cocktail.”

Don’t drink and drive. Enjoy responsibly.