The Inception Negroni

The Inception Negroni combines two of my favourite versions of the same cocktail, a classic Negroni and a white Negroni in one.

“Whuuuut?”, you say?

Yes, Robyn Gray, the genius Head bartender at Rosewood Hotel Georgia’s Prohibition Lounge in Vancouver, has encapsulated the classic Negroni in a hollowed out ice sphere before pouring a White Negroni over the top to create the Inception Negroni.

rosewood inception negroni — (image Nikki Bayley for Difford’s Guide)i

Of course, as soon as I saw it on instagram, I knew had to try to make one at home. Enter Mr GQ, who amongst other skills is a dab hand with a power drill. Oh yes, you’ll be needing one of those.

Equipment needed to make an Inception Negroni

Spherical ice mould

Power drill

Ingredients for the Classic Negroni

25ml Gin

25ml SweetVermouth

25ml Campari

(Quantity may vary depending on

Ingredients for the White Negroni

30ml Gin

30ml Lillet Blanc

30ml Suze

Method

Pour 150ml of water into the spherical ice mould and secure the lid before placing in the freezer for 3 hours at -19C.

Heat the drill bit (we used a 3ml bit). Your spherical mould should have a small hole in the lid for excess contents to spill out. Use this to drill a small pilot hole. (See 1. in image above)

Remove the flexible plastic lid of the mould and using a heated 8ml drill bit, make the hole wider.(2.)

Drain the ice ball out and by pouring the liquid into a measuring jug so you can see how much liquid you need to replace. We poured out 75ml of water.

Place empty frozen sphere back into the freezer at -19C while you make up the classic Negroni. We used 25ml gin, 25ml sweet vermouth and 25ml campari to replace the 75 ml of water we drained from the sphere.

Put your made up Negroni in the fridge for 45 minutes.

Take out sphere from freezer, and carefully pour the classic Negroni into the sphere (we used a small funnel from a hip flask (3.). Plug the hole at the top of the ice sphere with crushed ice and some water to create a seal which should close the hole after an additional 45 minutes in the freezer. (4.)

Building the Inception Negroni

Make up your white Negroni and chill in the fridge while you wait for the classic Negroni sphere to finish off in the freezer.

Invert the spherical mould and pour warm water into it so the classic Negroni sphere pops out easier. BE PATIENT. We cracked one sphere trying to remove it from the base of the mould.

Carefully place it in a chilled rocks glass and pour your White Negroni over the top.