Negroni Vs Boulevardier: Which Bitter Cocktail Reigns Supreme?
When it comes to pre-meal tipples or aperitifs that are served at cocktail hour to awaken your taste buds and ready your stomach for a delicious dinner to follow, most times a host would look no further than a negroni.
Crafted out of premium quality gin, a splash of sweet vermouth and a dash of campari and lime juice, this drink with a yellowish hue is a welcome delight on cocktail evenings savoured while taking in a glorious sunset.
The Italian aperitif is particularly known for its flavours and pleasing sweetness that oozes sophistication and complex tasting notes despite following a very simple recipe.
The boulevardier is a rich and warm drink that is generally filled with bitter and smoky flavours which make it a sought after aperitif when you want a more tart alternative to the herbaceous negroni prepared using gin. Mixologists and cocktail enthusiasts often debate the merits of the classic negroni and the boulevardier respectively to determine which bitter cocktail emerges as the more delicious tipple at cocktail hour.
Negroni Vs Boulevardier
The making of both negroni and boulevardier follows a similar method, except the former is prepared using gin while the latter uses bourbon as its base spirit. Both drinks contain sweet vermouth and campari and are served traditionally in a rocks glass over ice with an orange peel or twist as a garnish.
However, the differences in the flavours of gin and bourbon are what lend a flavourful twist to the cocktails, pitting them against one another.
Bitterness
While the classic negroni contains a bitterness that oozes out of the campari, it is the bourbon in the boulevardier that completes these bitter and tart notes in the cocktail. The bitterness in a negroni is mild, whereas the boulevardier contains a more sophisticated blend of campari and bourbon which elevates this flavour note to bring into the cocktail more depth and complexity.
Texture
As well, bourbon or rye whisky brings in a richer and smokier quality into the boulevardier that gives the drink a more intense, spicy finish. The negroni, for its part, is full of the herbaceous and botanical notes of good quality gin that lend it more herbal, floral and citrusy notes.
Flavours
Sometimes, these fresh flavours counteract some of the bitterness in the negroni to create a less dense blend than the boulevardier. In both the cocktail blends, sweet vermouth adds a gentle sweetness to counteract some of the stronger bitter notes and balances the drinks to enhance their overall rich and complex quality.
Where the orange, yellowish negroni embodies a character with bitter notes coming out of the blend of herbal gin and campari, the slightly darker, reddish brown boulevardier has a more rounded flavour because the depth of the campari is balanced by the complexity of the whisky.
And while both drinks are equally delicious in their own right, the negroni offers a lighter and fresher quality on a bright evening whereas the boulevardier encapsulates a layered quality that is perfect if you enjoy a rich and warm character in your cocktails.
Conclusion
As the debate between the negroni and the boulevardier—as two stunning bitter cocktails—rages on, it becomes quite evident that the flavour combinations in each one provide a different kind of tart quality making them equally inviting and appealing.
The next time you want to pick between a negroni and boulevardier, choose your tipple depending on the intensity or the freshness you desire from your cocktail blend to pick your personal victor in this ongoing battle.
