Feeling adventurous this past Friday, I decided to take some liberties with one of my favorite cocktails, the Negroni. I decided to substitute Aperol for the Campari, and swap out my go to sweet vermouth, Carpano Antica, for Lustau East India Solera Sherry. This is the first time I substituted sherry for sweet vermouth it turned out to be a bold but delicious move.
East India is a sweeter sherry; not dry like most. It has a complex, mature nose of burnt sugar, spices, raisins, chocolate, walnuts and orange peel. Its a sweeter sherry. The resulting cocktail lacked the bitter profile usually present in the traditional version of a Negroni. This cocktail had more of a mellow profile; rich and full bodied. It will be interesting to see what East India brings to other traditional cocktail recipes.
