An excellent drink!  I've been making this with Rye instead of bourbon - Jim Beam's of late.  I also tried a variation using Jim Beam, Amaro Nonino, and (instead of Aperol) an aperitivo I found in Paris when I was (unsuccessfully) looking for a bottle of Select- Poli's "Airone Rosso."  It worked very well. (The Italian shopkeeper in Paris told me that Airone Rosso is very similar to Select.) I also sometimes add 1/8 to 1/4 oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur. And I sometimes substitute Ramazotti for the Nonino. There you have it.

A tasty variation I've seen called the Paper Mache subs cachaca and Averna for the bourbon and Nonino.

Been making it lately with Sfumato Rabarbaro in place of the Nonino. Also very tasty.

Had to sub Meletti, and I drink Rye not Bourbon, still loved it. Looking forward to playing around, maybe trying Cardamaro or Grand Poppy next time. Campari would be too overpowering imo especially if using a stronger flavoured Amaro in place of the Nonino. Lots of opportunity to experiment with this one.

Used 1 oz Woodford,  3/4 lime juice, Averna and aperol:  Very good.  Never tried the original recipe 

Tried with Overproof Bourbon 129 proof... Much better. Less flat than comon proof Bourbon.

After a dear bartender friend recommend Meletti in place of Nonino, we now make them that way. Call it a "Paper Plame", because there's M instead of N. :-)

This is one of those drinks I just don't understand. It is imbalanced, with too much citrus sour overwhelming/even masking the amaro and Aperol's contributions, creating an overly dry, unfulfilling drink. (I don't like the song either, despite my rather eclectic taste in music.) Cutting the lemon way back makes a better drink, although not exciting. I can think of much better things to do with Amaro Nonino.

A little bit of work, but a gorgeous color. I subbed Campari + Soda for the Sanbitter, which is impossible to find where I live. It's got nice balance, and interesting flavors, but there's a serious "Strawberry-Banana Jello" character here, and while the cucumber adds some freshness and complexity, the whallop of Peychaud's leaves sort of a metallic/phenolic bitterness. I think I admire this more than I love it.

I've made this drink both ways, and it's actually a pretty different drink with the sanbitter, which has less bitterness up front and more of a kind of weird bubblegum taste.

However, I agree with your basic assessment - this is a must try drink, but once you've had it I don't know how many times you'll go back to it. There are probably 10-15 drinks in Rogue and/or Beta that I would pick over this one for my go to drink.

Also, while I generally love drinks with a ton of bitters, I'm a bit wary of drinking 2 whole ounces of peychaud's at once, as it kind of seems like the most processed (i.e. least potable) of the major bitters.

I realized that I had all the ingredients, including Sanbitter, to make this. That doesn't happen often! I have to admit that I didn't love it as much as I did before. I found it surprisingly flat. The strawberry takes a little mental control to suppress the mundane connotations. With all the muddling, it didn't have much alcohol. I added an ounce of J Wray & Newphew overproof rum, which helped considerably. A juniper-forward gin might work well, too.

I still stand by my belief that this is a mind-blowing drink -- worth making at least once.

This exact recipe is posted on About.com and is called "Rimbaud's Left Hand." Any background on which name is more authentic?

http://cocktails.about.com/od/cocktailrecipes/r/rimbaudlefthand.htm

That is odd. The recipe came directly from the first edition of Rogue Cocktails -- now renamed Beta Cocktails. The blurb from the first edition is reproduced in this blog post by Fred Yarm on Cocktail Virgin Slut, along with some interesting backstory.

The only difference I see in the two recipes is that the one from Rogue Cocktails specifies merely "Pernod," but which we assume Stephen means Pernod brand pastis. Rimbaud's Left Hand on about.com specifies "Pernod Absinthe." This is a quite different from the sweet low-alcohol pastis of the Rogue Cocktails recipe. Interestingly, the photograph on the about.com page is copyright Pernod Absinthe.

I wonder if Pernod modified the recipe when it introduced its Absinthe. This is mere speculation, of course. I will see if I can contact Stephen Cole and find out.

I like it with half aperol, half campari; with this change it is 5/5 stars for me

My friend Hugh summed it up, "This is everything a Cosmopolitan wants to be and everything it isn't."

Made it with cynar substituting for the campari and got a seriously good drink. I used Berkeley Square as the gin, which is quite herbal, so between that and the cynar this probably ended up significantly more herbal than the original recipe intends but it worked really well.

I have finally found something nice with Campari in! Really like this drink and the flavour pairing in it. Delightful!

Glad you like this. It is a favorite of mine for when I have a bottle of St Germaine open. You might also try a touch of Campari added to a Pegu Club. This was a drink that got my wife to like Campari.

Delicious. Tried with half Campari, half Aperol per the suggestion below and it's quite good. Lovely pink color and just slightly bitter. Very appealing.

I really agree w/ the rest of the commentators here: 50/50 on the campari & aperol. Awesome drink! So do we call that substitution a Bitter Elder #2?

For the bitter lover, the Bitter Elder works brilliantly using the inverted amaro template:
2 oz Campari
1 oz gin (ideally overproof & high juniper)
1/2 oz Elderflower liqueur
3/4 oz lemon (or lime)

Made this with half Cynar/half Luxardo Bitter in place of the Campari.
Holy crap was that good.

Here's my take on this drink using the Campari/Aperol combo..

Lovely rose pink color with a very, very light nose that is gin forward with a touch of fruit sweetness from the Campari and Aperol - I’m somewhat stunned to not smell any of the St. Germaine. Sip is sweet and St. Germaine dominant on the front of the tongue while the midpalate sees the gin and its juniper notes come out immediately followed by the grapefruit-like bitterness from the Campari and Aperol. The back of the tongue and the swallow see that grapefruit profile grow stronger as the tart lemon juice develops. Amidst all these flavors the St. Germaine still darts in and out providing consistent sweet honey and lychee notes. The finish is pretty bitter with the most immediate flavor comparison being grapefruit juice with a hint of juniper and a good deal of elderflower. All in all, the grapefruit juice comparison is the most telling. Let’s say you were serving a customer at a bar and were thinking of something interesting to do for them with St. Germaine, or even trying to guide someone into drinking gin, and you asked them if they liked grapefruit juice, and they said yes, then you would no doubt have great success with this drink, however, if they say they don’t like grapefruit juice, then the chances are they will hate this drink.

I prefer this ratios: 2oz silver light rum, 3/4 lime,  1/4 rich simple. Shaken with mint and top with 3/4 oz  dry champagne and 1 dash ango.

1oz simple seems too much as well as the recipe in punchdrink calling for 2oz champagne.

I really think the drink is interesting if it remains dry.

Your post on ChowHound inspired my last night to try 1 oz Gin, 1 oz Carpano Antica, 1/2 oz Sloe Gin, 1/2 oz Campari. I thought it was good, but theCarpano Antica, dominated. Next I'm going to 1 oz Gin and 2/3 oz each of the other 3. Thanks for the great idea!

The blogger at cocktailchronicles.com has passed along the idea of making a Negroni Swizzle by adding a pinch of salt and an ounce of club soda. (Original credit goes to Giuseppe Gonzalez at Painkiller in NY.) Can't wait to try it.

Glad to hear it! I've been trying to track down Carpano Antica in Wisconsin. Might try a Lillet version in the meantime.

If you would say you normally don't like campari and/or sweet vermouth (like me) then double the gin quantity. Makes it stronger too! Just don't change the proportion of vermouth to campari.

I would say it's an impressive achievement to like a Negroni in any form if you don't like Campari and Sweet Vermouth! If it's the sweetness that you don't like, you can try a Perfect Negroni, splitting the vermouth 50:50 between sweet and dry.

If you can find Punt e Mes, the same people will have Carpano Antica, but a lot of the times, distributors just don't know they have it.

If I was on a deserted island with one drink available, this would be it. I also love a number of variations of this drink, but the original, with the classic 1:1:1 proportions, is my favorite (thought I like it best over crushed ice with a lime wedge)

Kindred Cocktails has accumulated a huge number of nearly-identical Negroni variations. We plan to consolidate these, adding comments for various variations.

I'd really like people's thoughts here - we have 14 things called a Negroni in the database, and fully half of them are calls for the gin and Sweet vermouth. Some are not Negronis at all (those that sub Sherry, sub Aperol for Campari, have Cynar or other things in them). Are there any variants people are particularly attached to that should not be collapsed?

Thanks,

Zachary

I think that is going to be a tough call- many of these variations/derivatives are delicious, but they are completely different drinks, despite their names. Even substitutions that seem more minor, such as Gran Classico for Campari, create entirely different drinks- and that is even more true for the Cynar/Sherry/Rum etc. substitutions. I'm not a fan of clutter, but I think it makes the most sense to only collapse the more minor tweaks, such as the Perfect Negroni.