Aperol Spritz
With the dog days of summer straight ahead it's a great time for a refreshing summer cocktail. Simple and light, the Spritz is a perfect go to cocktail for these remaining warm summer nights.
The spritz has a surprisingly long history. As the story goes the Spritz was created in the 1800's in Veneto, Italy. During the period of the Habsburg domination of the region the soldiers in Veneto became quickly accustomed to drinking local wine in the taverns.
They were not familiar with the wide variety of wines from the Veneto, and the alcohol content was higher than they were accustomed to. So they started to ask the local hosts to spray (spritzen, in German) a bit of water into the wine to make them lighter. The real original spritz was sparkling white wine or red wine diluted with fresh water.
It seems surprising that the Austrian German Habsburgs needed to water down their wine. But that's basically the origin of this cocktail. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention.
Sometime in the 1920's in Venice the spritz was combined with local bitters. Aperol was created in 1919 in Padua and Select was created in 1920 in Venice.
This recipe remained largely unchanged for the next 50 years or so until the 1970's. That is when the modern spritz recipe was developed, with Prosecco instead of still wine.
The Spritz has evolved further since then and there are now countless variations. One only needs a quick internet search to be overwhelmed with a wide variety of types of Sprtiz.
Even the ratios vary somewhat. A 3:2 Prosecco to bitters with just a splash of soda water is the official recipe of the International Bartending Association (IBA).Other recipes can be found with a higher ratio of soda water. Some are 1:1:1 Prosecco to bitters to soda. Others can be found that are 3:2:1.
Generally, the drink is prepared with Prosseco, or a bubbly wine, bitter liqueur such as Aperol, Campari, Cynar, or Apertivo Select. Typically it served with ice in a wine or rocks glass and garnished with a slice of orange, or sometimes an olive, depending on the liqueur.
The Aperol Spritz seems to have rocketed to popularity in the last 10 to 15 years. The IBA official recipe is:
9cl Prosecco
6cl Aperol
Splash of Soda Water
Build all ingredients into a wine glass filled with ice. Stir gently.
It's Friday. If you're heading out for cocktails this hot summer evening try a Spritz before your meal. Hopefully it will kick the night off right. Cheers!
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