When you want to rustle up the freshest cocktail with that all-important fizz sensation, a spritz is where it’s at.
Easy on the eye, super refreshing with a signature shot of bubbles – be it soda, tonic or Prosecco to polish up your palate – it’s a stylish serve that won’t tax your bartending skills when the heat is on.
Here’s what’s putting us in a sunny frame of mind….
1. Paloma Spritz
Sweet, sour and refreshing, if you love a classic Paloma this twist brings all the elements together, with the addition of bittersweet herbal notes of vermouth. Topped with Franklin & Sons Pink Grapefruit Soda (£20, 24 x 200ml, Franklin & Sons), it’s bright, balanced and bound to please.
Ingredients: 30ml blanco tequila, 15ml fresh lime juice, 30ml Cocchi Americano, 75ml pink grapefruit soda, grapefruit peel to garnish.
Method: Fill a wine glass with ice, add the ingredients, gently stir, garnish with a grapefruit peel.
2. Tanqueray Paradiso Spritz
A gin-based spritz made with summer edition Tanqueray Paradiso (£26.99, 70cl, Amazon), beguiling notes of Brazilian guava lend a citrusy twang, with fresh notes of lemongrass and London Dry gin in the mix. Versatile and open to lots of possibilities, Paradiso offers a fruity spin on gin…
Ingredients: 50ml Tanqueray Paradiso, 10ml lemon juice, 5ml sugar syrup, 40ml soda water, 90ml Prosecco, lemon twist to garnish.
Method: Fill a wine glass with ice. Add the flavoured gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup. Stir, then slowly top with Prosecco and soda, garnish with a lemon twist.
3. Allora Spritz
When life gives you lemons… zesty or what! Allora Aperitivo al Limone (£25, 70cl, Allora) hails from the sun-kissed island of Procida, off the coast of Naples. Inspired by limoncello, alongside lemon peel and leaves, the liqueur is infused with herbs and botanicals. The result? Deliciously moreish and refreshing…
Ingredients: 75ml Allora, 75ml soda, lemon wheel to garnish.
Method: Half fill a wine glass with ice. Add the liqueur, top with soda, stir and garnish with a lemon wheel.
4. Gin Mare Spritz
When it comes to food and drink culture, Spain is hard to beat – and this spritz marries three of our favourites for sunshine in a glass… Gin Mare Mediterranean Gin (£39, 70cl, Waitrose) with rosemary, basil, thyme and olives in the mix; sherry and Cava. Salud!
Ingredients: 30ml Gin Mare, 25ml fino sherry, 15ml sugar syrup, 10ml lemon juice, 75ml Cava, sprig of thyme to garnish.
Method: Half fill a balloon glass with ice. Add the gin, sherry, sugar syrup and lemon juice, stir slowly and top with Cava, garnish with sprig of thyme.
5. Baldurs Garden Spritz
Mead may not be a tipple that rolls off the tongue, but this honey wine cocktail is cited as a Viking take on a refreshing Prosecco cooler. And the result? Nidhoggr Mead Co. Raspberry & Lemon Mead (£32, 70cl, Nidhogger Mead Co.) is pure nectar with its sweet, citrus-edged, honeyed notes to tantalise your taste buds…
Ingredients: 75ml Nidhoggr Mead Co. Raspberry & Lemon Mead, 25ml fresh lemon juice, 100ml Prosecco, soda water to top.
Method: Chill a wine glass. Add the mead and lemon juice, stir slowly. Add the Prosecco and top with a shot of soda water. And there you have it.
