Did you hear the sound of ice clinking all weekend? That’s because everyone who’s in love with House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy—which is everyone—was knocking back the actor’s favorite drink: “A negroni,” they told costar Olivia Cooke in a viral TikTok video posted by HBO Max. Cue a seductive smile. “Sbagliato,” they continued, “with prosecco in it.”
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D’Arcy’s smooth, buttery tones melted the internet. One Twitter user wrote: “emma d’arcy speaking ‘sbagliato with prosecco’ changed the trajectory of my life.” Another said, “Pour some prosecco out for the bartenders having to make negroni sbagliatos for 1000 bisexuals this week.” TikTok has been flooded with recipes for the cocktail in question. And a traffic surge to Bon Appétit’s seven-year-old Sbagliato made it our most popular recipe of the week.
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One fastidious TikToker pointed out yesterday that a negroni and a sbagliato are technically different cocktails. A classic negroni contains equal parts gin, vermouth, and Campari. While a sbagliato, which translates to “mistake” in Italian, swaps prosecco for gin. Supposedly, a bartender grabbed sparkling wine instead of the spirit as he was making a negroni, and the drink stuck.
Multiple publications call it a Negroni Sbagliato, though none call it a Negroni Sbagliato With Prosecco in It—at least, not before, well, now. You don’t need to say “with prosecco” when ordering, as it’s already implied (just as you wouldn’t order a sandwich “with bread”). “I could barely sleep last night because I kept running that through my head,” said the TikToker after taking a deep breath.
However you refer to it, the sbagliato is an excellent drink. Bright ruby like a sunset, its flavor is sweet-bitter thanks to the saucy chemistry between Campari and vermouth. Topped up with sparkling wine and seltzer, the sbagliato is fizzy enough to give anyone butterflies, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Even as I write this at work on a Monday, a sbagliato calls to me like a siren song. (Or maybe that’s D’Arcy’s voice?) It’s a DIY portal perfectly timed to suck us out of a North American fall and dump us on the warm, pebbly shores of the Mediterranean. So like everyone else, I’ll be having one tonight—“with prosecco.”
