Let’s have a Spritz! What italian drink
- At January 02, 2016
- By Zia Lucy
- In Positano
- 0
Have you ever come to Italy and noticed an orange drink we generally have for our happy hour?
That’s the Spritz, our delicious and fashionable drink which is becoming popular all over the world.
At the end of my walking tours, I suggest my customers to have a spritz and tell them that we love having a drink with friends at 5 pm: it’s a way for us to meet and relax after a long day of working in Positano (and all over Italy) and it’s a good reason for turists to discover our culture.
We have excellent wines and prosecco, we like drinking bellini and rossini but the thing you will notice into the bars, from 5 to 7 pm (and sometimes even later), is that orange drink called Spritz.
But what is it? How can we prepare an italian Spritz?
The origins date back to the 19th century when absburg soldiers in Veneto used to dilute white wine with water due to the high alcohol content. The word they used was “spritzen” which means spray (the water into the glass). A century later, people started changing regular water with Seltz water and its sparkling taste was so good to became popular among the noble classes.
Between the 70s and the 90s new ingredients were added into the drink and nowadays there are different versions of the spritz. My favourite one is with Aperol (alcoholic aperitif made from orange and herbs), and it’s not difficult to make at home: you just have to mix 3 parts of Prosecco, 2 parts of Aperol and a splash of Soda. We love nibble crisps (my favourite are the San Carlo’s with lime and pink pepper), olives and peanuts while drinking and in some bars you can find buffets of food (cous cous, pasta, cheese and cuts, etc) because locals love to have nibs and dinner together for their long lasting “aperitivo”.
Remember that the Spritz contains alcohol so DRINK WISELY.
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