spritz : a venetian cocktail

only a very special cocktail could make it to my yummy recipes blog... and this one definitely fits the bill. i discovered this delicious cocktail in venice in 2003 while at the spectacular 300-year-old caffe florian in piazza san marco. i figured at the time that i was better off paying 12 euros for a cocktail rather than 8 euros for a coffee: at least i’d get a buzz out of it! and for the record, caffe florian is an absolute museum of richness and beauty, well worth the price of a cocktail.

so what is a spritz? well, there are variations of it, but essentially it is a mix of a bitter orange aperitif and white wine. the most popular of those aperitifs is aperol which unfortunately is not available in north america (as of january 2012, it is now available in canada) and the other one is campari. the difference is that aperol is much less bitter than campari, and slightly sweeter. it also has only 11% alcohol vs 25% in campari. the latter is also much more red in colour. — to learn more about spritz check here.

at first this cocktail will be a shocker to most: it is bitter. but it is also very refreshing and very addictive. and i have many many friends that can attest to that. for one, if you get to travel to italy you must experience it firsthand while you’re there. just like if you go to france you should not leave the country without having tried a pastis. that is how i travel anyhow.

so here are recipes using both types of aperitifs, as i have finally managed to create an equivalent recipe for making a spritz with campari that it is much more like that of the aperol.

spritz with aperol + white wine

1 measure of aperol

1 measure of white wine

a splash of sparkling water -just enough to give it a fizz

a slice of orange -always squeeze the juice out of it a little

spritz with aperol + prosecco

1 measure of aperol

1 measure of prosecco

a slice of orange -always squeeze the juice out of it a little

spritz with campari

1 measure of campari

1/2 measure of orange syrup -you can double this amount if you find it too bitter

3 to 4 measures of white wine or prosecco

a splash of sparkling water -only if using white wine: replaces one measure

a slice of orange -always squeeze the juice out of it a little

as i constantly described aperol as a sweeter and more orange-flavoured alcohol than campari, it occurred to me that by adding a touch of orange syrup to the campari it might soften the difference. as it turned out, i was very happy with the result when i finally made the taste-test. depending on your palate, feel free to adjust the syrup amount to your liking. it’s all good... so make it your own, and enjoy it!

if you missed the other cocktail that warranted a spot in my yummy recipes blog, here it is.

please let me know if you enjoy the spritz by leaving me a comment ~ thanks!