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James Heron's avatar

This sounds like it needs to be added to my repertoire as a matter of urgency. Have you tried a negroni with the gin switched for grappa? Heady, but has a satisfyingly yeasty edge.

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Henry Jeffreys's avatar

Sounds ferocious!

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James Heron's avatar

It certainly slows the sipping frequency, which is no bad thing for me!

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Richard S's avatar

Aren't negronis also best made spirit-forward? 3:2:1, roughly. Tempers the brutish Campari.

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Henry Jeffreys's avatar

I normally drink mine 1:1:1 but an extra splash of gin is never a bad idea.

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Andrew Spencer's avatar

Antica formula as the vermouth is pretty neat, but I’ve not done enough experimentation to be sure.

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Paul Smith's avatar

I was a bit of an early adopter of the Boulevadier and agree that "heavy on the bourbon" is the right answer. I tend to drink it mainly on cruise ships (who doesn't have a cocktail first thing in the evening!) and quite some people have asked "what's that you're drinking?" - apparently it is well liked!

Have you tried the Roma Bracciano from Hotel Locarno in Rome? A fabulous cocktail from a fabulous bar. 2 x campari, cocchi vermouth, and rabobaro zucca. it is one of the few cocktails that i like shaken, and this one *must* be shaken to get the creamy head. then a couple of drops of orange bitters before starting to coo like the happiest pigeon in the flock. https://photos.app.goo.gl/YAHCfugaiKX9oEom6

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Henry Jeffreys's avatar

This sounds excellent. I'll have to give it a go. Also love that you spend a lot of time on cruise ships.

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Christopher Mooney's avatar

Nicely done. Covered the same subject on Substack a few weeks back and was led down a hare-sized hole to the Paris magazine Boulevardier, after which (some say) the drink was named. Contributors included James Joyce, Thomas Wolfe, Noël Coward, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and at the helm, Erskine Gwynne, "a colourful figure, as was once said of such fellows, 'quick with both wit and fists and sporting an invincible smile.'" https://thehexagonstack.substack.com/p/the-boulevardier

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Henry Jeffreys's avatar

Thanks for sharing. That bar in Paris looks right up my street. Waiters in white jackets!

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