Boulevardier with a dried orange wheel.
The Boulevardier is what happens when a Negroni grows up and moves somewhere cold. Swap the gin for whiskey and the whole drink turns warmer and rounder, the bitterness of the Campari softened by the weight of bourbon or the spice of rye. It's a fireside drink, a winter Negroni, and it rewards a slow stir and a good ice cube.
A fresh orange slice sinks and bleeds pith into all that careful balance. A dried orange wheel floats where you put it, holds its colour against the deep red-brown, and gives you the rind aroma the drink wants without watering it down.
What you'll need
- 45ml bourbon or rye whiskey
- 30ml Campari
- 30ml sweet vermouth
- 1 dried orange wheel
- Large ice cube
How to make it
- Put a large cube of ice in a heavy rocks glass. A big cube melts slowly and keeps the drink right for longer.
- Pour the whiskey, Campari, and sweet vermouth straight over the ice.
- Stir with a bar spoon for 20 seconds. This is a stirred drink; you want it cold and silky, never shaken cloudy.
- Drop a dried orange wheel on the surface. It'll float, which is the point.
- Twist a fresh orange peel over the glass if you've got one, and discard. The dried wheel does the look; the fresh peel does the lift.
Why dried beats fresh here
A fresh orange slice gives you a few seconds of aroma and then sits there leaching pith and juice into a drink built on balance. A dried orange wheel keeps its oil concentrated in the rind, releases it slowly as the drink warms in the glass, and looks better at the last sip than fresh ever does at the first.
Use a bolder whiskey in winter and the bitterness leans back; use rye and it stays sharp. Either way the dried wheel holds the picture together, and you can stir a jug of these for a crowd and drop a wheel on each without reaching for a knife.
Use the Orange jar, about 25 wheels, enough for a whole season of boulevardiers.