Aperol Spritz Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Aperol Spritz Recipe? ›

Place ice cubes in a stemmed balloon glass. Pour 3 parts of Prosecco D.O.C. Follow by pouring 2 parts of Aperol, and 1 ounce of soda. Slice an orange and use it as a garnish.

Club soda – A splash of extra bubbles makes this co*cktail super fizzy. If you don't have club soda, sparkling water is the next best thing. Oranges – A classic Aperol spritz is garnished with large orange slices to complement the fruity and bitter Aperol.

The alcohol content of Campari is also higher, around 25%, compared to Aperol's 11%. Both are used in various co*cktails, but Campari is traditionally used in a Negroni, while Aperol is famous for the Aperol Spritz.

Combining gin, Aperol, fresh lime juice, simple syrup and club soda, this crushable drink makes for a perfect post-beach sipper. Bar manager Ben Lohnes suggests using a drier, less-botanical gin, such as Maine's Batson River gin, for the Aperol to really shine.

The 3:2:1 method is the traditional method and means three parts Prosecco to two parts Aperol and one part soda water. The 1:1 method is equal parts Prosecco to Aperol and just a splash of soda water.

That's three parts prosecco, two parts aperitif (like your Select or Aperol), and one part soda water. “ You can play around with this by keeping the structure the same, but replacing the ingredients,” Tonelli explains. “For example, add Lambrusco or hard apple cider instead of prosecco.”

The wine expert's advice

According to Zanon, the Prosecco to use for the Spritz is undoubtedly a Prosecco Superiore Extra-dry. Slightly sweet, it is characterized by its fresh and versatile taste and fruity and floral scents that perfectly match the bittersweet taste of Aperol.

Campari is a deep red and is 20.5 to 28.5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), depending on where it's sold, which is twice that of Aperol. Aperol is the younger sibling because it has a bright orange color and is generally more approachable than Campari. Aperol is sweeter than Campari and has around 11 percent ABV level.

If you typically find Aperol Spritzes to be too sweet, try a Campari Spritz instead. Campari, which is also an Italian aperitif, is more bitter than Aperol, and has a significantly higher alcohol content as well. The result is a more intense drink that will give you a pleasant buzz.

The company will only confirm bitter orange peel is part of the recipe but it is also believed to contain: quinine, rhubarb, ginseng, chinotto (myrtle-leaved orange tree) and Cascarilla bark.

Why is Aperol Spritz so popular? ›

The beauty of the Aperol Spritz lies in the simplicity of its ingredients, which extracts the quality of each native component. The foundation of this co*cktail is Aperol from Padua, with Veneto's adored Prosecco and chilled soda.

A universal crowd-pleaser, and much less alcoholic than Campari, Aperol introduced a taste for bitterness to people who didn't know they liked it yet, Villa explained. In the US, Aperol played a key role in the evangelisation of bitterness.

is an Italian aperitif, originally created in 1919 by bartender Raimondo Ricci. The drink was invented as a means to combat the heat and humidity of Italy's summer months. It became popular among people who wanted something light to sip on before dinner.

Aperol is made much like Campari, but unlike its deep red counterpart, the ingredients for this orange-hued liqueur are slightly better-known. Aperol's key ingredients include bitter rhubarb, vegetal gentian root, and cinchona, a tree bark which gives tonic water its characteristic bitterness.

Fever-Tree's soda-like bubbles and slightly acidic flavor makes it the best club soda for Aperol Spritz lovers. The bubbles will mimic and complement the bubbles from the Prosecco, and the bright but not overpowering acidity will brighten the zesty, bittersweet Aperol even more.

A typical-strength 125ml glass of prosecco has around 1.5 units of alcohol. So, over a week, drinking more than a bottle and a half of prosecco in total would put you above the UK Chief Medical Officers' (CMO) low risk drinking guidelines, of drinking less than 14 units a week.