Old and bitter

I told you it was going to be a hectic week.

Last night Campari launched its a new bottle design at its head office, with a bartender from the award-winning Maybe Sammy slinging red drinks.

Fortunately I had the day right this time. I asked my friend Oliver from The Whisky List to be my plus one and sent him an invite with the wrong date on it: February 22 rather than March 7.

February 22 was when the event was originally meant to be held, before Campari realised that 50 million other things were on that night, including World Margarita Day celebrations.

Anyhoo the new bottle is very glamorous. The direction of the lines on it, with their modern and direct cut, are meant to symbolise the journey of the aperitivo ritual from Milan to the rest of the world, and also lead the eye to the city’s name in the centre of the bottle.

We also got to learn about the origins of Campari, which was created by a bloke called Gaspare Campari. He spent many years experimenting with bitter aperitifs until he settled on the recipe for his signature creation in 1860.

In the late 1860s, Gaspare opened the Caffe Campari and introduced the Americano cocktail, a blend of Campari and sweet vermouth topped with soda water.

It was a huge hit, then in 1920 Count Camillo Negroni asked for a shot of gin instead of soda water in his Americano and the iconic Negroni cocktail was born.

It’s still one of the world’s most popular cocktails more than 100 years later.

While the Campari bottle has been reimagined, the liquid inside remains unchanged. Well, apart from the fact it was originally coloured with carmine dye, derived from crushed cochineal insects, which gave the drink its distinctive red colour. Campari stopped using that in 2006.

It has taken many years, but I now quite enjoy both a Campari Spritz (Prosecco, Campari and soda) and an Americano (Campari and sweet vermouth). I can still take or leave a Negroni, but Oliver seemed to enjoy his.

It was very cool to stickybeak at the Campari headquarters too, which have incredible Harbour views and are walking distance from my place! Winning!

As I ambled back home I ran into my friend Ania walking her dog and had a lovely chitter chat before I raced to Woolies to pick up supplies for my big weekend adventure.

Today will be a blur as I juggle work, International Women’s Day and travel. I’d better get cracking!

Stay tuned for the lowdown on Monday.

Oh and happy International Women’s Day!

Song of the day: INXS “Bitter tears”