Introducing The Mixing Ingredients House Cocktail
Entering 2026 with a fresh, original recipe that exemplifies what I love about cocktails
Ok fine, we’re more than a full week in - is this really still “entering” 2026? Probably not. But my excuse is that an infant at home appears to create a time dilation event and it sure still feels very early in the year to me…
I’ve talked recently about the value I’ve found having a consistently-stocked bar and handy, solid house recipes ready to whip up a cocktail once we have a chance to wind down at the end of the day (especially if folks come to visit). And so it’s great that I’ve spent so much time over the last ~2 years building that bar and defining those recipes.
But those recipes are light variations on classics. And the classics, while incredible, have a tendency to get a bit old at times. Sometimes, you want something a bit more unique. And I’ve made a lot of unique drinks over the ~8 years I’ve been writing Mixing Ingredients! Many of them are very good! But they’re generally more “creative” and aren’t designed to line up to the now-curated home bar I’ve built.
So, I entered the year seeking to create a unique cocktail that can leverage those standard ingredients and serve as a true “house cocktail” for this newsletter. And believe it or not, it only took a few days to find the one.
The Process
Given my wife’s preferences, and this being a house cocktail, not a personal project, I had to start with the Negroni. In as much as we’ve had a house cocktail before, the Negroni was really the answer. And it’s pretty much been that way since we studied in Spain and Italy in the Spring of 2012, so it would be hard to deviate too much now.
So if I had to start with the Negroni, I knew the base was going to be Gin. And I knew that Sweet Vermouth would need to be involved as well - that sweet herbaceousness is irreplaceable. Another irreplaceable piece of the Negroni is the orange notes you get from the Campari - but that’s the part I wanted to mess with.
So, instead of Campari as the bitter-and-orange addition, I wanted to split them up. For bitter, I went with Cynar - there’s not nearly as much fruitiness there by comparison. And then, to punch up the orange even more in a different way, I added in Cointreau.
The “obvious” mix here would be to keep the gin and vermouth equal, and then split the bitter and liqueur to match what Campari was doing directly. And that yields a pretty good drink! But straying from the equal parts ethos here opens up a whole other range of profiles.
Increasing the gin ratio brings out some of the natural esters and brininess with much more clarity. Decreasing the vermouth and bitter presence gets some of that stringency out of the way. And playing with the liqueur-as-sugar with the rest of it lets you find that balance point. In this case, I was going for an objectively sweeter drink than the house Negroni, so that was key.
The Cocktail
So here we are - a 4-ingredient, no-prep cocktail that started as a simple Negroni riff and became something else that’s still extremely delicious. And, since this is almost always the case, these measures work much better when you’re making 2 drinks at a time.
1.25 oz Gin Mare
0.75 oz Cointreau
0.5 oz Carpano Antica Formula
0.5 oz Cynar
All you do is stir with ice and strain over ice. No bitters, no juice, and - controversially I think - no garnish. The result is still herbaceous and bitter and botanical like you get with a Negroni, but it’s much sweeter, much orange-y-er, and overall a bit easier to drink. Not necessarily a “crowd please” but not a drink you need to really go out and acquire the taste for either.
I don’t think I’ve really seen much like this out there on menus, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts popping up more. We may be at Peak Negroni, and this is a fantastic way to start coming down a bit.
I am 100% making this! 🍊🥃