The Riff: Caffè Negroni | Video

Colleen Hughes is a Charlotte native and has been in the bartending scene since the beginning of her career. As the beverage director and head mixologist for the Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group, there’s no cocktail she can’t spruce up and make her own, mixing unique flavors and powerful spirits. Hughes has spent her career creating cocktails from the ground up, which has given her freedom and flexibility, with no boundaries to her creations. 

Hughes’ Caffé Negroni emphasizes rich coffee flavors and instead of the traditional gin, she incorporates rum. Originally mixed in Florence, Italy, in the early 1900s, the cocktail’s popularity rose in the United States in the 1920s, especially on the West Coast, because of the availability of Campari in San Francisco at the time. Today, the negroni is a classic cocktail that comes with endless possibilities to mold and create something entirely new, and there’s no better artist than Colleen Hughes. 

To create the deliciously unique Caffé Negroni, Hughes starts with an ounce and a half of the Diplomático Mantuano rum in a mixing glass. This dark-aged rum gives the cocktail a velvety backbone as opposed to using gin. Next, she adds an ounce of Campari. This particular negroni is not in equal parts, and there’s more rum than any other spirit in the cocktail, making it extra boozy. She then adds an ounce of Corpano Antica to the mixture, which provides prevalent, noticeable vanilla flavors. 

As a pro tip, Hughes says to add a couple of drops of saltwater to avoid the cocktail becoming too bitter, rounding out the rest of the flavors in the drink. Next, she adds a generous amount of ice, stirs until chilled and combined, and strains into an old fashioned glass over a large block of ice. Last but certainly not least, Hughes tops the cocktail with a sweet vegan coffee foam, but a splash of cold brew does the trick too.

Hughes’ Caffé Negroni can be found at Ever Andalo in Charlotte, North Carolina, or you can make it at home. With the refreshing coffee notes intertwined with the richly flavored spirits, there’s always time in the day for a Caffé Negroni.

recipe

yields

Yields 1 cocktail

ingredients

• 1½ oz Diplomático Mantuano rum
  

• 1 oz Carpano Antica vermouth
  

• 1 oz Campari
  

• 2 drops salt tincture (four parts water, one part salt)
  

• 1 oz cold brew coffee
  

steps

Stir rum, vermouth, Campari, and saltwater and pour over a large ice cube. Gently float with cold brew coffee and enjoy.

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