Boulevardier Cocktail

Serve in an

Garnish:

Orange zest twist

How to make:

STIR all ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass.

Review:

Basically a Negroni with bourbon replacing gin. The original 1927 recipe calls for equal parts, but I've previously favoured a 3:2:2 (45ml bourbon, 30ml rosso vermouth, 30ml Italian red bitter liqueur) recipe. Popular demand (see comments) has led me to adopt a 2:1:1 recipe as I have to concede it's better balanced.

Variant:

Banana Boulevardier
Irish whiskey-based Boulevardier
Casa Savoia Boulevardier
A The Right Hand (aged rum-based Boulevardier/Negroni)
Rye whisky-based Boulevardier

History:

The Boulevardier first appears in Harry McElhone's Barflies and Cocktails, not among the book's A-Z listing of recipes but in a piece called "Cocktails Round Town" contributed by Arthur Moss, the "Around the Town" columnist of the New York Herald, Paris.

Now is the time for all good Barflies to come to the aid of the party, since Erskinne Gwynne crashed in with his Boulevardier Cocktail: 1/3 Campari, 1/3 Italian vermouth, 1/3 Bourbon whisky.

Arthur Moss, 1927

This suggests that the recipe was not one of McElhone's but was created by Erskine Gwynne, a regular at McElhone's Harry's New York Bar in Paris. Like McElhone, Erskine Gwynne was an American expatriate, but he was also a socialite, nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt and most importantly for this story, edited a monthly magazine called The Boulevardier, hence the drink's name.
Negroni cocktail history and how the The Boulevardier fits in

More cocktails by Harry MacElhone

Nutrition:

One serving of Boulevardier Cocktail contains 152 calories.

Alcohol content:

• 1.6 standard drinks
• 25.42% alc./vol. (50.84° proof)
• 22.9 grams of pure alcohol