This is my favorite Negroni variant, featuring my favorite amaro, Nonino Quintessentia, a grappa- based liqueur with hints of caramel, vanilla, and orange.
Built off the equal parts Last Word template, this drink was created in the late 2010s subbing some of the harsher components of the original with Lillet Blanc for Green Chartreuse and St. Germain elderflower for Luxardo Maraschino.
Another drink from the Boston area, this came out of the mind of Josh Childs at the bar Silverstone around 2005, when he was playing around with the newly-released St. Germain elderflower liqueur (aka bartneder’s ketchup). The end result famously tastes of graprefruit juice, despite including none. The early version of this used gin, but was later updated by Childs to swap in malty genever (gin’s precursor) at Trina’s Starlight Lounge in 2009 where it continues to be served today.
I first tried this drink when we turned the clocks back in the Fall of 2020 to lament the ever-decreasing hours of sunlight as chillier temps took hold. The Sunflower was created by the legendary Sam Ross as a riff on the classic Corpse Reviver No. 2 on the opposite page. It highlights the woody notes of Ransom Old Tom gin, a label that recreates the gin of the mid-to-late 1800s, which spent a lot of time in oak barrels traversing the Atlantic as well as the trip to the burgeoning West Coast of the Gold Rush and beyond. The woody gin and its botanicals play in unique ways with the anise-flavored rinse. The drink may be a tad sweet given the two liqueurs, you might adjust the St- Germain and Cointreau down and the gin up by 1/4 oz. each.
