How the Aperol Spritz Became the Summer's Hottest Drink
With the start of fall looming, we're trying to squeeze every last drop of goodness we can out of the summer, and this year it's hardly a surprise that those drops taste an awful lot like an Aperol spritz.
While summery aperitif is naturally popular every time the temperatures spike for its bubbly-bitter-refreshing mix of tastebud-awakening Aperol, prosecco, and club soda, but this year in particular has been a rollercoaster.
For starters, the drink got an early jolt when the New York Times posted a piece in May titled "The Aperol Spritz Is Not a Good Drink." Social media was quickly flooded with proponents of the drink, defending the sip under the hashtage #spritzlife. Divisive though it may have been, the cocktail has been riding a popularity high ever since (it was only narrowly beaten out in the semi-finals of our own Drink of the Summer bracket.)
But the Aperol spritz is far from a 21st century phenomenon; in fact, this easy summer cocktail has been a seasonal favorite for more than half a century.
Where did the Aperol spritz come from?
Though Aperol itself didn't come into being until 1919, the idea of a spritz has been around for much longer. The name appears to trace back to the 1800s in when portions of the Veneto region of northern Italy were controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Visitors and soldier from other parts of the empire were said to have found Italian wines too strong and so lightened them with a splash (a "spritz," in German) of water.
Wine may have been the starting point for spritzes, but the recipe slowly evolved, first substituting flat water for the lift of bubbly soda water, then progressively supplementing the flavors with fortified wines and progressively, liqueurs.
Aperol finally entered the picture in the early 1900s, when brothers Luigi and Silvio Barbieri inherited their father's liquor company in 1912, and after seven years of experimentation, debuted the bold, technicolor tipple Aperol, inspired by the French term for apéritif: "Apéro." The original recipe, which is still in use today, remains a secret, but does include both bitter and sweet oranges as well as rhubarb.
The brand grew in popularity throughout the beginning of the 20th century, but it wasn't until the '50s that the official recipe for the Aperol spritz was born. The sip was a hit in its native Italy as an aperitivo—a sort of light, low-ABV pre-dinner drink meant to refresh you from the day and get your appetite in gear for the evening.
The cocktail progressively made its way across the Atlantic as well, when Aperol was acquired by Gruppo Campari in the early 2000s and the group put some serious advertising force behind the Aperol spritz, making it the go-to drink at scoial media-friendly events like The Governor's Ball and BottleRock, kicking off a surge in popularity stateside that's still going strong to this day.
The Original Aperol Spritz
Ingredients
Equal parts Aperol
Equal parts Cinzano Prosecco
Splash of Soda
Instructions
Mix all ingredients in a wine glass with ice and gently stir. Garnish with an orange slice.
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