The Old Flame is a variation on the Negroni. I was doing cocktail dinners on my book tour for the first edition of The Craft of the Cocktail and paired the Negroni with the canapés. In Texas the bitter finish of the Negroni left the writer and photographer less than enthusiastic. I pulled their two drinks and retooled the recipe on the fly, adding a sweet note—Cointreau—and some orange juice. Nancy, the photographer, was very enthusiastic with the results. I renamed the drink the Fancy Nancy in her honor. I won first prize in the Fancy Cocktail category at the 2001 Martini & Rossi Grand Prix in Málaga, Spain, with this cocktail under another name, the Old Flame.
Reprinted with permission from The New Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff, copyright © 2020. Photo by Daniel Krieger © 2020. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc.