This drink was a favorite of American expats during Prohibition. Prior to then it was known as the Milano-Torino, for the cities where its two main ingredients were first made: Milan (Campari) and Turin (sweet vermouth).

When New Orleans bartender Chris McMillian mixes mint juleps at Bar UnCommon, he recites an ode, written in the 1890s by a Kentucky newspaperman, that calls the cocktail "the zenith of man's pleasure…the very dream of drinks."

The origin of this classic rum cocktail is one of the great debates in tikidom. Both Ernest Beaumont-Gantt (a.k.a. "Donn Beach," the father of tiki culture) and Trader Vic founder Victor Bergeron lay claim to its invention. This version borrows from Beaumont-Gantt's recipe, which adds dashes of Pernod and Angostura bitters for complexity.

Hidetsugo Ueno currently uses the exquisite French Dolin rouge vermouth in his Negronis, but you may want to experiment with different sweet vermouths—Martini & Rossi, Cinzano, Carpano Antica Formula—or try a bittersweet one like Punt e Mes.