Turtle Negroni

Boxes and Booze

Jul 19

Turtle Negroni cocktail — Turtle Negroni

A toast for a turtle is a bit slow to arrive, naturally. A quick bit of research led to the “Baby Turtle” cocktail, a fan favorite from San Francisco’s Trick Dog which opened to industry and critical acclaim in 2013. They have always innovated delicious cocktails around pop culture themes. For example, they once had an entire menu dedicated to the Pantone color palette. Baby Turtle, a pink grapefruit colored tequila citrus sour from that first menu, has remained available at the bar ever since. I noticed that the ingredients were nearly identical to a cocktail called Modest Means I had already paired with a different turtle many years ago, because the idea of modesty fit well with the name of that turtle. It seems like a crazy coincidence, since that cocktail didn’t have any overt relation to turtles. But I didn’t want such a similar drink, and besides, the current turtle is no baby – he’s fully grown! Another tack I might have taken was to emulate the flavors in the chocolate, caramel and pecan candies known as “turtles”. A nice Old Fashioned might be a good template for such a drink, but again, I had already done that for yet another turtle!

Slowly, steadily, I knew that what I really wanted, all along, was a Negroni. I’ve made a few colorful Negronis before – cherry red, electric blue, vibrant purple, even crystal clear. Naturally, the Tortoise Negroni had to be green. I turned to a favorite template for colored Negronis, which starts out fairly clear to begin with, and turns colorful with just a hint of something interesting. The best example of this template is also one of my favorite bespoke cocktails ever. It’s just the thing to make if you ever find yourself host to an alien at happy hour. The protocol for turtles makes just one small adjustment, swapping out blue curacao, which gives the drink a lovely orange flavor, for green Midori, which lends a more summer friendly hint of melon to the drink. It’s time to slow down and enjoy this one – cheers!