Gaspare Campari created the drink in 1860 in a Piedmont café; its red came from carmine, a dye made from cochineal, until 2006
The red of Campari, the Italian bitter that goes into the Negroni and the Americano, has a little-known origin: for almost 150 years, the color came from carmine, a dye made from cochineal, small crushed insects. The story begins in a café in Piedmont in 1860.
Gaspare Campari was born in 1828 in Cassolnovo, in the province of Pavia, Lombardy, the tenth child of a farmer, according to Difford's Guide. As a teenager he went to work in Milan; he later moved to Novara, about 50 km to the west, and opened his own café. It was there, in 1860, that he created the drink, which he first called Bitter all'uso d'Hollanda, or Dutch-style bitter, inspired by a liqueur from Holland.
Novara claims the invention. In January 2025, the city installed a plaque in its historic center, near the spot known as the Angolo delle Ore, recalling that the Caffè dell'Amicizia, with an attached laboratory, stood there and that Gaspare created the blend there, the newspaper VerbanoNews reported. According to the paper, he had leased the café in 1850.
Gaspare later moved to Milan and, in September 1867, opened a café in the newly built Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, next to the Duomo. He died in 1882, and the business passed to his son Davide, who with his brother Guido turned the drink into an industry: the first factory opened in Milan in 1892 and, in 1904, production moved to Sesto San Giovanni, now mechanized, Difford's Guide recounts.
Davide also took the brand into art. Between the 1920s and 1940s, artists such as Fortunato Depero, Marcello Dudovich and Leonetto Cappiello made Campari posters, and in 1932 Depero designed the cone-shaped little bottle of Campari Soda. In 1987, according to the same guide, the company built a bottling facility in São Paulo.
For nearly a century and a half, the red hue came from carmine. In 2006, the company swapped the natural dye for an artificial method, according to Bloomberg, cited by the website The Takeout. Bottles from before that year may contain the insect dye, and it may still be used in some countries, according to the site, which does not confirm which ones. For those who want to check, carmine appears on labels under names such as cochineal, carminic acid or natural red 4.
Campari is in Bebidário's catalog, in the liqueurs category.
Sources: Difford's Guide (accessed October 25, 2026), VerbanoNews (January 22, 2025), The Takeout (June 18, 2018).
