Hello, world! We are a husband and wife duo taking our love of cocktails to the web with our new website, the Barrister’s Bar Room (http://www.barristersbarroom.com). What started as hosting family and friends for drinks, the “Barrister’s Bar Room” quickly evolved from a pun on the wife’s career – a barred attorney, or barrister – to a ritual of barrel aging cocktails and experimenting with small batch bitters and tinctures. We typically post a cocktail every other night; but, let us be honest, life is rough, and we might end up with a few extra concoctions after those long days in the office. Salut!

We are new to Reddit and are excited to become part of this little community for cocktail aficionados. To introduce ourselves, we will present our latest cocktail; the Negroni (barrel aged). A history lesson probably is unnecessary for such a community; however, to set the stage, the Negroni likely originated in 1919, Florence, Italy, after a bartender substituted gin for soda water in an Americano cocktail. Bringing some strength to the Americano and replacing the traditional lemon garnish for an orange peel, the Negroni was born.

Negroni (barrel aged) One (1) part Gin One (1) part Vermouth Rosso One (1) part Campari

For our cocktail, we used “Green Hat” gin – a gin near and dear to our hearts because of fellow attorney and Navy veteran turned distiller, Michael Lowe, who brought craft distilling to Washington, DC in 2011. Cinzano is our base vermouth. Our American white oak barrel was previously used to age a variation of the “Poor Man’s Pappy;” so, this Negroni has undertones of bourbon. It’s by no means a Boulevardier; but, you can certainly pick up on the bourbon’s caramel and vanilla notes. The Green Hat gin holds up well with its citrus forward aroma. The bitterness of the Campari lingers on the palate. For garnish, we used an orange peel from our family’s Florida Orange tree.

I doubt this Negroni will last long in the Barrister’s Bar Room.