Negroni Week 2017

words by ben stephens

So you know when you go for a drink and then all of a sudden you feel the need to help a charity? Happens all the time right? Thankfully, the beginning of June signals the week-long celebration of giving; Welcome to Negroni Week.

Now before I get into what mouth watering concoctions you can look forward to next week, let me take you on a short Negroni history lesson:

Sometime in the early 1900’s, in the depths of Italy, on what must’ve been a tough day at the office, Count Cammillo Negroni asked for his drink to be strengthened. The drink came back to him with a dash of gin and twist of orange and the rest, as they say, is history. Negroni history. In 1947, American writer/director/actor Orson Wells tasted a drop or two and wrote ‘The bitters are excellent for your liver, the gin is bad for you. They balance each other’.

As the saying goes, a little gin never hurt anybody.

What you have today is a drink that is hard not to love. All that bitterness, balanced, perfectly.

Negroni Week celebrates the magic of that bitterness while giving back to a charity that betters the lives of others around us.

Here at QT Hotels & Resorts we have created seven different variations of the classic cocktail and will be donating $1 from every Negroni sold to our chosen charity, OzHarvest.

The good people at OzHarvest rescue excess food from supermarkets, restaurants and hotels to then deliver meals to those who need it.

So it is with a huge thank you to Count Cammillo Negroni and all involved those many years ago, that this week we can celebrate the orange drink while knowing that our favourite bittersweet brew is helping out those in need. Be sure to drop in (daily) to try our takes on the classic aperitif.

Negroni Week 2017 runs from June 5 to 11.