Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Rum Cocktails

Dub Treo

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Liquor.com
Liquor.com

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Updated 09/10/21
A flat coupe glass rests on the edge of a dark wooden table. The drink within is red and bubbly, and garnished with an orange peel.
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Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

It’s come to a point that the Negroni, that crimson-hued Italian classic, is essentially a category of cocktails as much as its own drink. While many purists might reject that premise, the fact is that it provides a useful template that has led to countless variations. The Dub Treo is one such version, which uses the base recipe of gin, sweet vermouth and Campari and tweaks the individual ingredients as well as their proportions.

The key to the cocktail is the rum. A Rum Negroni is no strange thing, and it’s especially delicious when made with a Jamaican rum like Appleton Estate. This high quality, affordable aged rum works well as a cocktail base for its rich, assertive characteristics and the fact it’s relatively dry. It’s also easy to find in most markets. It will make an excellent Daiquiri or Rum Old Fashioned, so it’s worth getting a bottle for the Dub Treo, even if you only make a few.

When it comes to the sweet vermouth, there’s a wide world of options, but the Dub Treo specifically calls for Carpano Antica Formula. This lush, botanical vermouth was first crafted in 1786 and was, reportedly, the first sweet vermouth ever made. It was also wildly popular in the early days of the so-called Cocktail Renaissance of the late 2000s, before the category was flooded with all kinds of vermouth, from old, re-discovered recipes to new styles. Today, Carpano is still widely available and well-regarded for its botanicals and it’s a hard one to substitute.

The largest deviation in the drink from the Negroni is using Aperol rather than Campari. Though they’re both bittersweet Italian amari (and are both owned by Campari Company), Aperol is lighter, more citrus-forward and a bit sweeter with notes of gentian and bitter orange. Its most famous application, and something you can play with once you’ve had your fill of the Dub Treo, is the Aperol Spritz.

Finally, unlike the one-to-one-to-one ratio of a Negroni, this drink is two parts rum and one part each sweet vermouth and Aperol. Plus, for some extra botanicals and some dark notes it gets a dash of whiskey barrel-aged bitters. If needed, you can swap that for Angostura bitters.

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Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces Appleton Estate Reserve Rum
  • 3/4 ounce Aperol
  • 3/4 ounce Carpano Antica Formula vermouth
  • 1 dash whiskey barrel-aged bitters
  • Garnish: orange twist

Steps

  1. Add the Appleton Estate rum, Aperol, Carpano Antica Formula vermouth and whiskey barrel-aged bitters to a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled.

  2. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

  3. Garnish with an orange twist.