A Fun Summer Drink

A Fun Summer Drink

A couple of years ago, my wife and I took the kids to Tuscany for a friend’s wedding. We were at a little seaside café and a woman at the next table was sipping a beautiful orange drink on ice in a large stemmed wine glass. Tonya asked the waitress what it was. She said it was an Aperol spritz, which sounded lovely with her particular pronunciation (more about that later). Tonya ordered one and quite a few more during the course of our stay. I don’t really drink this kind of thing, but I had a sip or two and didn’t mind it much at all in the hot, late afternoon sun. I’m sure a lot of you know about this drink, but we’ve since made them for friends at summer parties and it’s fun to serve something new. They’re very simple to make, something that I never admit about anything that I know how to do.

1. Fill a substantial wine glass with large ice cubes.
2. Pour in three ounces of Prosecco
3. Add two to two and a half ounces of Aperol
4. Now, a dash (a half ounce) of San Pellegrino sparkling water
5. Add an orange slice.

You don’t need to fuss over the ratios of the ingredients. If you get close at all, it will taste just fine.

Prosecco is an Italian sparkling wine.  It’s what is typically used to make a spritz and it’s a third the price of champagne.  I buy Martini brand Prosecco because they sponsored the Porsche race teams for many years. Can you think of a better reason?

Aperol is an orange liqueur that has a slightly bitter taste, a bit like an orange version of Campari.

I prefer sparkling water to club soda as it doesn’t have as much salt, but either one is fine.  In this case, I use San Pellegrino because I like the way it sounds and the way the bottle looks.

One last thing if you make it to Italy. Tonya quickly discovered that if she ordered a spritz, the waitress would look at her strangely. If she ordered a spreetz, the waitress would head to the bar and come back with a pretty orange cocktail. Have a fun summer!