Tip Top Cocktails are one of a handful of companies who aim to make bar-quality and bar-strength cocktails. This is not to say that there’s a place for lower ABV cocktails that more closely mirror the strength of hard seltzers, beer and other canned drinks found in coolers at backyard parties. However, Tip Top is not aiming to do anything other than to re-create the cocktail you’d order at a bar or make at home— in a can. Tip Top Negroni is 100mL of 26% ABV honest-to-god Negroni.
Tasting notes
Color: Deep Crimson. A hair darker than your usual homemade Negroni.
Aroma: A touch different than your usual homemade Negroni. Slightly fruitier, with gentian amaro, bitter orange, and fruit punch.
Flavor: Slightly fruitier at first with tart bitter orange, then spice note building throughout the palate. Hints of mole sauce, with unsweetened chocolate and a touch of coriander and spice. While the can says “never too sweet,” I fear that Negroni aficionados might find it a touch sweeter than they would normally like.
Finish: Mildly cloying, Tip Top Negroni is moderately long lasting with some jammy fruit notes and a hint of bitterness.
Overall, Tip Top Negroni
Tip Top Negroni checks most of the boxes. But it’s a bit closer to what you might expect from a Negroni at a dive bar than what you would expect at a high end cocktail bar.
However, that doesn’t make Tip Top Negroni a bad drink. It’s passable and good enough to stand in as a quick and easy drink for fans of the esteemed cocktail. It won’t replace a homemade Negroni in my home bar, but at parties and the like where it might be difficult to make a three bottle cocktail— Tip Top Negroni is a good enough stand in.
Footnotes and afterthoughts:
I enjoy that Tip Top Negroni is canned in Temperance, Michigan. The irony hopefully is not lost on the Temperance Movement enthusiasts who named the community for the Prohibition aspirations.