Mezcal Negroni
The Negroni's smoky, agave-forward sibling: mezcal replaces gin, adding campfire complexity to Campari's bitter orange and sweet vermouth.

Ingredients
- 1 oz mezcal
- 1 oz Campari
- 1 oz sweet vermouth
- Orange peel, to garnish
Instructions
- 1Add mezcal, Campari, and sweet vermouth to a mixing glass with ice.
- 2Stir until well chilled.
- 3Strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube and garnish with an expressed orange peel.
Origin & Story
As mezcal conquered American bar culture in the 2010s, the Mezcal Negroni became one of the first and most successful spirit-swap experiments of the craft cocktail era. Swapping gin for mezcal does more than just change the base spirit — it shifts the entire cocktail from botanical brightness into a darker, earthier register, where smoke and agave interact with Campari's bitterness in a completely different way.
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