Enjoy an Aperol Spritz, Italian Style
Picture yourself in 1919, sitting in an outside cafe in Padua in Northern Italy's Veneto region. It's a September day and they're serving a new drink to whet your palate. It's the Aperol Spritz and you're one of the first in the world to sip and enjoy its rich yet refreshing combination of flavors.
Fast forward to 2017. The Aperol Spritz is still making waves. It's the perfect aperitif, an alcoholic drink meant to be taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite. This cocktail is bright orange and has a unique taste. Aperol is made of bitter orange, gentian, rhubarb, and cinchona and other "secret" ingredients. It's 11 percent alcohol volume and accompanies many menus, such as roasted rack of lamb. Its flavor accents all of those herbs and spices without interfering with the dish.
The word "spritz" is a generic term linked to the 19th century Austro-Hungarian practice of adding a splash (German: spritz) of water to northern Italian wines.
The Aperol Spritz has remained popular in Italy, especially with young people, for nearly 100 years. It's estimated that in the Veneto region alone, about 300,000 Italians drink one of these wine-based Aperol cocktails every day. Americans also are catching on to the drink's unforgettable flavor.
Aperol was created in 1919 by the Barbieri company, but the drink didn't become popular until after WWII. During the "Il Carosello" period in the 1950s, the first Aperol TV commercial appeared in America and the rest is history. In 2008, Gruppo Campari bought the rights to Aperol. (Campari is also a aperitif, but has twice the alcohol content and is dark red in color.)
Here's the Crescent School of Gaming and Bartending's recipe for a crisp Aperol Spritz, made for you by Aaron Dean, a current Crescent student:
Ice
3 parts Proseco
2 parts Aperol
1 part Club soda
Garnish: A slice of orange
Bellisimo!