Puttin' on The Spritz to Hydrate and Refresh

Legend has it that one of the first uses for alcoholic beverages was to mix them with drinking water because the alcohol helped to purify it in the days before water treatment plants. Chances are, the fact that the mixture was pleasant to sip played a bigger role, but it’s nice to imagine that healthy living was foremost in our ancestors’ minds. 

Now, some might say, our society has advanced beyond the need for such lightly alcoholic refreshers. But September is the tail-end of South Florida’s least civilized season. It’s hot. It’s humid. It’s hard to go outside. Summers in the Biscayne corridor are nasty, brutish, and a little too long. 

Let hard-headed people tip back their hard liquor. The cool-headed Biscayne tippler seeks out something that rehydrates as it refreshes. Down here, September means spritzes. 

Spritz History

The mixing of alcohol with water is a practical tradition that gave rise to (among other things) military drink rations from sangria to grog. But the spritz as we recognize it seems to be an Italian invention, consisting of bitter, medicinal digestive liqueurs splashed into sparkling water on ice. 

One early example would be the Americano: equal parts Campari, sweet vermouth, and soda water served over ice. It came about in the 1860s, when Milanese bartender Gaspare Campari poured a drink, he called the “Mi-To” consisting of his own Campari liqueur and vermouth from Torino. Milan-Torino was slurred into Mi-To. 

Soon, his clientele realized the Mi-To was even better with a lot of bubbly water. Why this reminded the locals of American’s we aren’t sure, but the name “Americano” stuck. A local aristocrat, Count Negroni, asked for his Americanos with gin in place of the soda, giving birth to the Negroni cocktail. Serve either with an orange twist. 

Austro-Hungarian soldiers did their best to turn strong Italian wines into something more like their familiar beers by adding a “spritz” of still water – that’s German for “splash.” They quickly found bubbly was better. 

After the first Coca-Cola plant opened in Spain, Spaniards took to mixing red wine with Coke. Then the dark soda was replaced with a fruity Fanta to create a tinto de verano, a “summer red.” Diluting beer with soft drinks even took hold in the beer strongholds of Germany and England.

Aperol only entered the picture after its invention in 1919. It was just one of dozens, if not hundreds, of digestive liqueurs served as part of a pre-meal “aperitivo” – a cool way to “open” the stomach in a hot Italian summer. It was found to go quite well indeed with wine and sparkling water. 

Spritz and Variations

The simplest spritz is probably an Americano, which might also be called a 1-1-1, because it’s made from one part wine (vermouth), one part amaro bitter liqueur, and one part soda. In Italy, the 3-2-1 spritz is also popular, and as the globe-encompassing Aperol spritz wave has crested and begun to subside, many backyard mixologists have settled on 3-2-3 as the most refreshing combo. 

The fundamentals are so simple, and so fun, that it’s unsurprising to find a local venue as nice as Coconut Grove’s The Key Club offering a Build Your Own Spritz tableside presentation. The order comes with a selection of garnishes and four spirits of your choice to splash together in your own preferred proportions. 

Negroni Midtown, as you might expect given the namesake cocktail’s close relation to the spritz, serves numerous spritzes, including a Lucca spritz made with berries and rosemary, and a Veneciano, mixed with passion fruit, orange, and fresh basil. 

At Uchi Miami, the standard Aperol spritz gets a citrusy Japanese twist with the inclusion of Lustau Oloroso sherry and yuzu juice for what they call a Yuzu Spritz.

Once free of the constraints of Italian tradition, your explorations can go in any direction. If you’d like something a little tarter and a little less bracingly bitter, the French makers of Chambord recommend a berry-forward 3-1-2 Chambord spritz for the warm afternoons of the dog days of summer. 

Of course, there’s always the chance that what you really need isn’t a hard drink at all, but something alcohol free that tastes like it was made for grown-ups. The world’s simplest mocktail (and renowned hangover cure) is bitters and soda. Slightly more sophisticated is a dry, refreshing spritz made with a Seedlip non-alcoholic spirit (zero calorie drinks made from infusions of citrus, lemongrass, ginger, and other ingredients) and Aecorn Bitter (a non-alcoholic aperitif steeped with English oak, bay leaves, and quassia, among other things). 

Whatever your pleasure, it’s wise to take a moment to cool down and replenish as the sun blazes on. Don’t let the heat defeat you and eventually, everything else will take care of itself. 

Spritz Recipes:

SIMPLE SPRITZ

·    1 ½ oz. dry white wine (an inexpensive pinot grigio is good)

·    1 oz. amaro (Aperol is famous, but try Cynar or Luxardo Bitter Rosso)

·    1 ½ oz. soda water (they sell Pelligrino at Costco if you want to go totally Italian)

·    Slice of orange to garnish

Put ice in tall glass, add ingredients one after another, stir, and garnish with orange. 

YUZU SPRITZ

·    2 ½ oz. Aperol

·    1 oz. Lustau Oloroso sherry

·    ¼ oz. yuzu juice

·    ¼ oz. lemon

·    ½ oz. simple syrup

·    splash club soda

·    1 mint sprig to garnish

·    1 lemon wheel to garnish

Pour Aperol, sherry, yuzu, lemon juice, and simple syrup into cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into large wine glass with fresh ice. Garnish with lemon and mint.

CHAMBORD SPRITZ

·    3 parts white wine

·    1 part Chambord

·    2 parts soda 

·    Mint sprig and black raspberries to garnish

Pour wine into a pitcher or glass (depending on how many you’re serving) with lots of ice. Add Chambord and soda water. Garnish with black raspberries and a mint sprig.

GROVE SPRITZ

·    1 oz. Seedlip Grove 42

·    1 oz. Aecorn Bitter aperitif

·    Soda to fill

·    Grapefruit twist and green olive to garnish

Build in wine glass over ice. Garnish with twist and olive.