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Bartenderly
The Negroni, Revisited
On the 100th anniversary of the Negroni, we provide two animal-friendly alternatives
Want a cocktail veganized? Bought a bottle of something and don’t know what to do with it? Need a cool mocktail? Want to make your own liqueur? We’ll drink to that. Bartenderly is here to make all your vegan drinking dreams come true. If you want to check on whether a specific brand of alcohol is vegan, I recommend Barnivore.
2019 marks the 100th year of the Negroni’s existence. Unfortunately, it also marks the year I found out that Campari, the key ingredient to this classic cocktail, is not vegan. The product itself contains no animal products, but during its filtration process ingredients like gelatin come into use. Filtration of wine and spirits can really cut down the options for drinking vegans, and depending on your stance or your particular needs at any given moment you may decide to look the other way and just get the drink. We’re all on our own particular journey here! Currently though, it looks like my journey involves not drinking Campari.
I was extremely gloomy at this prospect as I love its acquired taste and ruby-red colour, and the Negroni is an unimpeachably perfect drink. Equal parts Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth, it supposedly first emerged as an upgrade on the Americano cocktail (Campari, sweet vermouth and soda water) when in 1919 the devil-may-care Count Negroni rakishly swapped his mixer for even more booze in the form of gin.
The drink has seen a massive resurgence in the last decade, due to an increased interest in classic cocktails with well-crafted ingredients; gin’s staggering rise in popularity; and, though this is pure speculation, probably the Instagram-friendly nature of the Negroni’s red colour— it looks so good in photos and, not tied to any particular season, can be depicted on social media all year round.
So what’s a cocktail enthusiast vegan to do when they want to partake in this tradition but remain free from animal products? Well, I’ve come up with some solutions for you.
