The orange revolution of the spritz that Europe drinks

• Cocktails.Miguel F. Lancha: "In the United States the glass of cane seems like a joke"

Everything orange.

Putting the word

on Instagram

- actually a mix of bitter base, prosecco or cava and soda - triggers a glut of

and beachy smiles.

The majority, girls posing with the orange cup in hand.

Much has changed since in the 1960s the actor Tino Buazzelli exclaimed on television: "Ah, Aperol!"

on the bar bills.

Because everything is thanks to Aperol, which comes from the French word

, aperitif.

The brand founded by the Barbieri brothers in 1919

for this type of cocktails

to the point that everything is taken for the part.

"The

is a family of drinks although now it seems that Aperol has the property", explained

journalist and expert in cocktail history, last July in a talk organized by the Amarguería agency in 1862 Dry Bar and that was dedicated to the aperitif drinks.

"It seems that you cannot imagine a

without Aperol and it is not like that, you

", he stressed while continuing his eagerness to claim our liquid heritage, such as that of the average combination, against the" thoughtless act of taking an Aperol Spritz without going beyond our history ". Bearing in mind that, as Monti recalls,

. ”Despite everything, and as the style of our vermouths shows, the Spanish palate still prefers the sweetest notes.

In Veneto, the

prior to World War I, some

were consumed per day before the pandemic

Its origins, the result of the evolution of reducing wine with water

), were not associated with any brand as it was a category in itself.

The current fever is part of another trend: light alcohol and soft drinks to drink on the terraces during the day.

Bar times are changing.

Hard drinks at night

or after work.

The phenomenon also took advantage of the economic crisis of a decade ago in which people went out but were limited to flirting with the aperitif.

In Milan, the strategy was clear: give a free cover with the

, as long as it reached ten euros.

Geographical, seasonal and schedule expansion to simplify the offer and separate more sophisticated relatives such as the American, the Garibaldi, the Bicycle or the Negroni Sbagliato.

The phenomenon also took advantage of the last crisis in which people were limited to flirting with the aperitif

It sounded like a new gintonic.

The basic ingredient of the boom is its aspirational and viral character.

As Talia Baiocchi, a true connoisseur, puts it, "the aperitif is a state of mind".

And his art is no longer exclusive to Italy, not even to the

belt

.

In Spain, the Aperol Spritz phenomenon has been going on for almost ten years, when it was presented as the great revolution of the European afterwork.

Its strength goes beyond an ephemeral fashion.

Behind, all the muscle of the Campari Group, a company that took over Aperol in 2003, being

Since then, Aperol stopped limiting itself to the area of ​​influence of Venice, Treviso and Padua to turn half the world orange, experiencing annual growth of over 15%.

From selling 1.7 million nine-liter cases in 2009 to 4 million in 2017. Its target audience, 81% of its consumers, ranges between 18 and 44 years.

The wrinkles do not fit into the orange ideal that the Royal Polo Club sponsors the same as a motorcycle grand prix that puts a bar on the Mad Cool.

But let's face it, and not because The

pontificated it last year

, the Aperol drink - with its syrup texture and just 11 degrees of alcohol -

At least as it is served in most places that promise to refresh our summer with this

and generally watery

that seems to come out of a plastic flash.

And it is not the same to ask for a spritz at the town festival, with bad ice and a coarse slice of grapefruit, than to taste a sparkling creation prepared by bartenders such as Marc Álvarez, founder of Drink's Atelier, or the Italian Luca Bonsigniori, Brand Ambassador of the Zamora Company group.

Using other Italian bitters or taking care of the wine part usually improves the mix.

"Now all cocktail bars have spritz", explains François Monti, "but twenty years ago it was something you had in a cafe in Italy. There was a division between the world of European aperitifs and American drinks."

Today, it doesn't matter whether you sit in the Piazza delle Erbe in Verona or in a cocktail bar in Brooklyn.

Or on a terrace in Freiburg im Breisgau, where its interesting local spritz is served in a nondescript glass of ... Aperol.

It is the

that was announced in one of the campaigns that gave a lot to the socializing nature of Aperol and that

.

But, beyond the orange phenomenon that floods the global bar, the spritz will always start from a bitter product, something to soften and bubbles.

And to play with the infinite combinations of this structure that continues to define the eternal aperitif.

Aperol Spritz

• 3 parts: cava or prosecco

• 2 parts: Aperol

• A splash of soda

• Ice and a slice of orange

• It is prepared in a wine glass or in a glass.

  Add ice and a slice of orange, pour in the cava or prosecco and a touch of soda and finish with Aperol to prevent it from touching the bottom

A route

• 1-The Orange (Madrid).

  3 parts of brut (prosecco or cava), 2 of Aperol (or Campari) and 1 part of soda, ice and orange slice.

  Their Veneziano Spritz is with white wine instead of brut and with olives.

  Reopens in September.

• 2-Great English Hotel (Madrid).

  Spritz bike: Campari instead of Aperol, prosecco and some soda.

  Reopens in September.

• 3-Savas (Madrid).

  Aperol Spritz Savas style: Aperol, carrot juice, Dutch cucumber, cava.

  Dry Spritz: Noilly Prat Dry, gin, St.Germain, cava, cucumber.

• 4-Boia Nit (Cadaqués).

  Manel Vehi prepares Costa Brava: 40ml gin, 25ml Aperol, 30ml raspberry, 20ml liquid sugar, 30ml lime, finished with ginger beer.

• 5-14 de la Rosa (Barcelona).

  House and seasonal spritz: 20ml Aperol, 20ml Dubonnet, 7.5ml passion fruit syrup, 50ml Vichy Catalán, 50ml cava.

• 6-Ideal (Barcelona).

  0'0 Spritz: bitter Monin, orange juice and ginger ale.

• 7-Chapeau 1987 (Mallorca).

  Barmaid Jasmine Manzoni prepares Sangria Síndra, a spritz with local products: Mallorcan organic wine, centrifuged watermelon and strawberries from Manacor, a touch of vermouth and sparkling.

• 8-Beach House (Ibiza).

  Ayur Vida: mezcal, grapefruit juice, lime juice, passion fruit syrup, Aperol and soda.

• 9-Duna Beach Club (Sancti Petri).

  Classic Aperol Spritz in a balloon glass, lots of ice and half an orange slice.

  1/3 Aperol, 2/3 prosecco (white wine if requested) and soda.

  Garnish with orange rind and colored straw.

• 10-Meeting Point (Avilés).

  Spritz Meeting: "At the end it is Aperol, soda and sparkling. We are making a different spritz with a rose soda and we give it a differentiating touch with a lavender bitter that enhances the flavors and unifies the drink. We do it a little more Provencal, more floral. You keep the bitter Aperol, which is not as much as Campari, and we change the soda so that it is not so bland. "

• Limoncello Spritz: "Another Provençal spritz based on Limoncello di Capri. This citrusy part goes well with a syrup of basil, soda and prosecco."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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