As I write this it is Negroni Week. Sure, it’s one of those made-up points in the calendar beloved of the drinks world. But this one was launched in 2013 by Imbibe magazine, and raises money for charities, or at least good causes such as this year’s beneficiary, Slow Food. So we can more than forgive it.

The only problem with Negroni Week is this: what week isn’t negroni week? The cocktail regularly tops the annual list of most ordered cocktails in the world. The reason for that is that it is a perfectly balanced cocktail — and yet one that is utterly simple to make. Countless articles will repeat that it contains three ingredients with distinct characteristics: the spirit element of gin; the sweetness of vermouth; and the bitterness of “red aperitif” (i.e. Campari). All mixed in equal ratio of 1:1:1.

We all know this.

We’re all wrong.

Far from being distinct, the three elements overlap. All three contain botanicals — barks, roots, flowers, leaves etc. You don’t think vermouth, even sweet vermouth, has a bitter note? Er, it’s literally called “wormwood”. And anyone who doesn’t realise how sweet Campari is will get a nasty surprise at their next blood glucose test.

These overlaps are the reason a negroni works. And different gins, different vermouths (Punt e Mes is more bitter than Noilly Prat; Antica Formula is more intense than Gonzalez Byass) and different red bitter aperitifs (of which, thankfully, there are several these days) overlap in different ways. That is why, if you are trying to perfect it, you should start with the 1:1:1 ratio, but then stir, taste, adjust. And then stir, taste, adjust again. The perfect balance is very rarely going to be perfectly balanced, so to speak.

So, if you are experimenting with different vermouths, bitters and gins in slightly unequal parts, why not push the envelope even further by swapping out ingredients completely and mixing a very personalised drink? Perfection can always be improved upon, after all. Here, I publish a week’s worth of negroni tweaks in honour of negroni week — and in full defiance of doctors’ orders.

Day 1: Make it without gin

Go for a simple substitution of clear spirit for clear spirit. Rum and tequila are often mentioned, but let’s move past those. Only some very particular rums will work — a rich, molasses-heavy one will be too cloying (given the sugar that’s in the other two ingredients — but we’ll save those for Day 7. And there is a spirit more suitable than tequila, too. Mezcal’s earthy depths and petroleum heights swirl around the botanicals of the vermouth and the bitter ingredient, and cut through the sweetness. Mezcals are more individual than tequilas: there are very smoky ones, slightly smoky bottles and versions with no smoke at all. But more fundamentally, mezcal can be made from different sub-species of agave, whereas tequila has a monocultural source.

Another option is aquavit, the Scandinavian equivalent of gin. Instead of juniper being the legally required dominant botanical, aquavit is made from caraway and/or dill. Aniseed, star anise and fennel are often high in the mix too. So if you don’t like those flavours, skip past this bit. But they will add fresh, green herbal notes to your negroni that can be quite welcome.

An old standby is whisky, which makes a negroni a boulevardier. But wait till Day 4 for that.

And, whatever you do, avoid Stanley Tucci’s disastrous lockdown YouTube negroni tutorial, which not only told people to shake a negroni (only ever stir it), but suggested vodka was an acceptable substitution for gin. It’s not. Remember, that part of the holy trinity is not only there to provide alcohol, but botanical edge as well.

Day 2: Make it with pretty much ONLY gin

The next day, take the opposite approach and welcome the gin back with open arms. So much so that we are basically making a negroni-influenced martini. You could argue that a martini is a cousin of the negroni. Early recipes for the martini were made with orange bitters on top of gin and dry vermouth — a legacy of the grandparent cocktail, the martinez (relatively sweet old tom gin, red vermouth, a touch of maraschino, orange bitters).

So, to make a negronish martini, use one of the drier sweet vermouths (Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, not Americano), a very orangey bitter aperitif (Amer Picon) and London dry gin. The ratio of vermouth and bitters combined, to gin, should be about the same as you like your dry vermouth in a martini. If you’re the “glance at a bottle of vermouth” type, simply rinse the mixing glass with both; if you like a 3:1 wet martini, go 6 gin to one each of the other two. But remember the mantra: stir, taste, adjust; stir, taste, adjust.

Then garnish with a twist of lemon or orange peel, rather than an olive. But, hey, we’re experimenting here, so feel free to do that, too.

Day 3: Make it white

One of the great attractions of the negroni is that beautiful ruby glow it gives off to lure the hapless thirsty drinker into its web. But, as Eddie Murphy sang in his cell at the beginning of 48 Hours, you don’t have to put on the red light.

The white negroni is a well-established alternative version. Instead of red vermouth, use bianco (i.e. sweet white vermouth, as opposed to dry) and Suze — a classic French bitter aperitif, with gentian root at its core. If you’ve just come back from a skiing holiday and have no idea what to do with that bottle of génépi you bought from a farmer, this is your use-case.

You can also go with different colours. Try blue curaçao (basically a bittersweet orange liqueur) instead of bianco vermouth (and not quite as much — it is very sweet), so that everyone will assume you’re drinking WKD but putting on airs with your cocktail glassware.

Day 4: Make it a digestivo

The negroni comes from Italy, of course, where you can be arrested for having milk in your coffee after 11am. So, it’s very much frowned upon to be drinking this ultimate aperitivo cocktail after dinner. Of course, everyone outside of Italy does (indeed, the hospitality industry seems to be fuelled by post-midnight negronis).

Some changes to the recipe, though, will make it even better as a digestivo. For example, rather obviously, swap the aperitivo element (the Campari) for a darker, more syrupy digestivo liqueur. Ironically, what you’re looking for is an Italian amaro (“bitter”) but these deep brown, bittersweet liqueurs are even more sugar-packed than Campari. Try Sicilian Averna, Montenegro from Bologna, or an aromatic rabarbaro (with rhubarb). If you really want to lean into the bittersweet, you could push it towards the medicinal Fernet-Branca or the Alpine-herby Braulio, or the weirdly vegetal Cynar, flavoured with artichokes.

The other way of making a negroni into an after-dinner drink is to make it a boulevardier, the name for a negroni with whiskey instead of gin — or, you could say, a manhattan with Campari added. (The negroni has more boozy relatives than an Irish funeral.) The official International Bartenders Association recipe offers the choice of bourbon or rye, but feel free to explore single-malt Scotch, particularly ones that have tasting notes of citrus, marmalade, chocolate orange etc.

Day 5: Make it sweet and fruity

We’ve leant into bitterness. So now let’s try the sweeter approach. Go for a less bitter aperitivo element — Aperol instead of Campari, for example. And try a cherry brandy, port or a sweet sherry (a very sparing amount of Pedro Ximenez, for example) instead of vermouth. You can go utterly nuts here: there is even one alternative recipe that includes Midori (plus Chartreuse), which would qualify as a green alternative for Day 3 as well as twisting your melon, man.

Day 6: Make it a long drink

After five solid nights of alcohol-forward cocktails, you might need a break. There are two classic alternatives to the negroni which remove the gin and lower the ABV: a negroni sbagliato (“messed up”), is red vermouth and Campari over ice topped up with prosecco. It was supposedly invented when a young bartender accidentally mixed a negroni with prosecco instead of gin. The story is, of course, utter cazzate — how would the kid have mistaken a bottle of fizz for one of spirits? More likely that a customer asked for a jazzed up Americano.

The Americano is the other long-drink iteration of the negroni — that Milano-Torino base (red vermouth and Campari), topped up with soda water. Most negronis benefit from a wheel of orange as garnish, but in an Americano, it’s imperative.

These are great summer options. Just be careful you don’t mix a sbagliato the way my stepmother does. She genuinely thought it was a negroni, gin-and-all, topped up with prosecco... a sbagliato sbagliato, if you will.

Day 7: Make it punchy

That was enough lower-ABV drinking. Let’s get back to the alcohol-forward character of the negroni. In fact, let’s double down. There’s the sbagliato sbagliato above — but we can go further.

The boulevardier can be made with a full-proof or barrel-proof bourbon or rye (the latter will taste stronger because of the spice). One acquaintance swears by cask-strength, heavily peated Kilkerran single malt Scotch from Campbeltown. But he also swaps out the vermouth for Buckfast, so he’s possibly not a reliable witness.

This is also a chance to use rum — clear overproof rum made directly from cane, like the Grenadan rums from River Antoine or Renegade, or a 50%+ rhum agricole, made on French-colonised islands. These rums are full of volatile aroma compounds that are close to sniffing glue along with your drink.

And for week two? Stick to mineral water.