The negroni party has yet to happen. Far too many things are happening in life right now for me to want to host a large party. However it is still my birthday this week so I wanted to do something.

Cue the five year old negroni.

What can I say? It was awesome. It was much more delicate than a regular negroni, without losing any of the balance. It was also a very different texture to a freshly mixed (or younger aged) one. It was much more viscose to the point where it was actually quite syrupy. The first one we had as it came out of the bottle. The second one was served with a twist of orange zest (as a friend had arrived with an orange on request). The orange zest lifted it even more. The contrast of the syrupy negroni with the fresh zing of the citrus oil was epic.

Was it worth leaving for five years?

It’s really quite hard to say. It was definitely noticeably better than younger specimens but five years really is a long time. If you’ve got the time and space to leave negroni’s to age for a bit longer, then it’s definitely worth it, but I have a feeling five years is overkill! I’m pretty sure that without loosing a bottle again, I won’t be leaving it for that long. That being said I do have the three bottles that were originally made for the party – who knows how long they’ll be around for before I drink them? [almost certainly significantly less than five years!]

Recipe wise – it’ll have been a 1:1:1 gin:campari:vermouth as for some reason it’s a recipe I’ve never actually messed around with. Maybe I just know too many italian purist who’d lynch anyone who even thought about changing any traditional recipe. This one was done (as the bottle implies) with Portabello Star gin, which is a lovely gin that actually tastes of gin. Then it was just left in the back of a cupboard for five years.

As the photos also show. I am a very happy bunny as I was given those wonderfully kitsch LSA liquor glasses that I was coveting. They’re gorgeous and lovely and look like bubbles!

In less good news and an illustration of why I shouldn’t be allowed nice things, I have already managed to smash one of the coupettes I bought. Go me.