The team behind the award winning Italian small-plates restaurant, Stuzzi, will debut their first ever spirit this month, with the launch of ‘the perfect gin, for the perfect Negroni’.
Stuzzi Per Negroni Gin has been created in partnership with award-winning Leeds-based distillery Hedonist to celebrate and enhance the classic cocktail, whilst remaining authentic to the serve’s Italian roots. It has been distilled with a medley of botanicals to create the definitive Negroni, including Candied Sicilian Orange, Bergamot, Lavender and Cinnamon.
The idea for the gin came during lockdown when Stuzzi’s two restaurants in Leeds and Harrogate were both closed. Having always made as much produce in-house as possible, such as their own bread, pasta and desserts, it was a natural next step to explore their other passion of Negronis and diversify into spirit production, creating a gin specifically crafted for the world’s most popular cocktail.
The gin stays true to the Italian no-nonsense approach to food and drink, using simple but great quality ingredients to deliver the best possible flavours. With four consecutive years in the Michelin Guide, the Stuzzi team know flavour and this commitment to sourcing the best ingredients shines through in Stuzzi Gin, with incredible tasting, authentic botanicals from all over Italy.
Jimbob Phillips, co-founder and director of Stuzzi says:
“The uncertainty of Covid not only brought us a lot of time to drink but also to think. Realising how vulnerable the service industry is to lockdowns, we used the time to turn our attention to how we can diversify and protect the business. While supping lockdown negroni after lockdown negroni we started thinking about how we could perfect this ruby red nectar and the idea for the first Stuzzi gin was born”.
“Our gin lifts the negroni, rather than working against it. A negroni made with Stuzzi Gin isn’t a twist on a classic, it’s turning the volume up. It almost softens the initial bitter punch, making a dangerously drinkable cocktail with layers of flavour. It’s our best interpretation of the classic. And we think it’s a game changer for negroni lovers.. a bitter, sweet, symphony”.
Nick Harvey, co-founder and director of Stuzzi says:
“Stuzzi Gin was created with both bartenders and Negroni lovers in mind. Our aim is to elevate every Negroni and make it the go-to gin for the serve. Stuzzi Per Negroni is the perfect combination of the glamorous Italian Sprezzatura with inherent Yorkshire honesty. We enlisted the help of Hedonist Drinks, long time friends of the Stuzzi family, celebrated and award winning bartenders with a distillery just down the road, they were the perfect partner to join us on our mission – we needed this to be a gin that was made in a bar, not in a boardroom”.
Having initially trialled Stuzzi Per Negroni in our venues, we knew it was too good to keep to just two sites and from this month it is available for both the on and off-trade”.
Stuzzi Per Negroni (RRP £39.50, 70cl, 40% abv) is available now for the on and off-trade.
For More Information:
https://stuzzi-mercato.myshopify.com/