This is a Blood Orange Negroni recipe, a great alternative to the classic recipe. While the traditional Negroni consists of Campari, this recipe substitutes Blood Orange Liqueur. But we also had to make some other unusual adjustments to this recipe in order to find balance for this cocktail.
For our highlighted flavor, we used Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur, as opposed to blood orange juice which would add an undesirable tangy note to the cocktail. Solerno is an Italian triple sec that’s very comparable to Cointreau. And Solerno is not only high in sugar content, but also high in alcohol, standing tall at 80 proof. So this recipe was kind of tricky trying to find a balance between blood orange flavor, sweetness, and alcohol by volume; not to mention that we also had to somehow incorporate the necessary red color to the libation.
And since Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur contributes a great amount of sweetness, adding sweet vermouth on top of it would be overkill; so we used dry vermouth instead. This way we could get that fortified wine flavor into the recipe without over sweetening the drink. Fun Fact: Sweet vermouth is just dry vermouth that’s just been sweetened, colored, and slightly flavored. So in essence, we’ve made our own Blood Orange Sweet Vermouth with this recipe.
Moreover, balancing out the sweetness in a Negroni requires an amaro. But the Campari Amaro adds a lot of flavor that would overwhelm the blood orange flavor, so we used Luxardo Bitter instead (not to be confused with bitters, Luxardo Bitter is a drinkable type of amaro). This spirit adds a significant bitter tone without adding too many other underlying flavors, allowing the blood orange to remain the primary flavor.
But surprisingly, the gin, the amaro, the blood orange liqueur, and the dry vermouth are all colorless! And Negronis are known to have a reddish color. This is where Peychaud’s Bitters saved the day. A few dashes of it added the much-needed red color, and it also added more bitterness to further balance out the sweetness.
All this bunched together on ice with a slice of blood orange makes a dynamite cocktail. Cheers!
“With a handful of popular variations such as the White Negroni and Boulevardier, the general breakdown of a Negroni is spirit, vermouth, and bitter. This is a fun and citrusy variation on a Negroni that will be well enjoyed. This recipe has great balance if you follow the recipe closely.” —Sean Michael Johnson
A Note From Our Recipe Tester
Ingredients
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1/2 ounce dry vermouth
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3/4 ounce Luxardo Bitter
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3/4 ounces Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur
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8 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
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1 1/4 ounces gin
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1 slice blood orange
Steps to Make It
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Gather the ingredients.
The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
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Pour vermouth, Luxardo, Solerno, Peychaud’s, and gin into a short rocks glass.
The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
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Add a large ice cube and stir for 10 seconds until cold.
The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
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Garnish with a blood orange slice, and serve.
The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck
Tip
If you want to make dehydrated blood orange slices for garnish, just slice up some blood orange wheels, put them in the oven at 160 F for six hours.
Recipe Variations
- To make this into a Mexican-style Negroni, you could just swap out the gin for blanco tequila, and the Solerno with Ancho Reyes liqueur.
- If you’re more of a whiskey fan, just switch out the gin for rye whiskey, and you’ll have a Blood Orange Boulevardier.
- The French version of this Negroni is just simply swapping out the Solerno for Grand Marnier, and the gin for cognac.
- If you want to make a Green Fairy Negroni, swap out the dry vermouth for Dolin Chanbery Blanc vermouth, swap the Solerno for absinthe, and swap the Peychaud’s bitters for lime bitters.
How Strong Is a Blood Orange Negroni?
The calculated ABV (alcohol by volume) for the Blood Orange Negroni is 34 percent ABV or 68 proof.
