Cherry-blossom season is basically over in the District. But cherry-blossom drinking need not be. So far I’ve offered you two cherry-blossom cocktails. The Sakura Sparkler is a refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail made with Seedlip. In that recipe, I also showed you how to make your own cherry-blossom ice cubes. Bookmark that, because we’ll use it again here. I also brought you another original recipe – the Cherry Blossom Cocktail – which was made with Cerasum cherry-blossom liqueur by D.C.’s own Don Ciccio & Figli. Now I bring you one last recipe for this cherry-blossom season: the Cherry Blossom Negroni.
The Negroni needs no introduction. It is made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. One of the classic cocktails, the Negroni has one of those colorful and contested histories. The leading versions agree that the drink is named after a Count Negroni of Italy. But they disagree as to when the drink was invented, and by which Count. And other historical research casts doubt on whether the inventor was really a Count at all.
What is certain is that the drink is a legacy of which any family should be proud. The same is true of Don Ciccio & Figli, that District-based distiller that traces its roots to a family liqueur-making business back (also to Italy) in 1883, somewhere in between the competing dates (1857 or 1919) on which the competing Counts Negroni might have first invented their eponymous drink. In one of its latest offerings, Don Ciccio has brought forth Cerasum, a cherry-blossom-based liqueur that stands in very nicely for the Campari that usually serves as the Negroni’s signature ingredient.
The Cherry Blossom Negroni is a worthy cousin of the original. The classic bitter taste of the Negroni is still there, but softened slightly, with subtle floral and cherry flavors that give the drink a smoother, almost velvety finish. Here’s the recipe:
Cherry Blossom Negroni
Ingredients
Cocktail
- 1 oz. gin I used Botanist
- 1 oz. vermouth I used Cocchi di Torino
- 1 oz. Cerasum
Ice cubes
- cherry blossoms
Instructions
Ice cubes
- In advance of making the drink, fill large ice cube tray with water. Add 1 to 3 cherry blossoms per cube. If working with dried cherry blossoms, be sure to rinse the salt off the flowers before adding. Try to orient the flowers in the cube so they will appear near the surface when the ice freezes. Leave in the freezer until completely frozen.
Cocktail
- Combine the gin, vermouth, and Cerasum in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
- Strain into a rocks glass.
- Add cherry-blossom ice cube.
Enjoy!