Spritz-y cocktails.
Photo by Talia Baiocchi, author of Spritz.
We’re not going anywhere fast these days. And we shouldn’t, for the sake of our health and of others.
But it sure would be nice to get away, especially now, during the summer--the season of long vacations and prioritized relaxation. In addition, we’ve all been so cooped up at home for months on end now that a trip to elsewhere is not only desirable but almost pressing.
As someone who counts travel as one of her main hobbies, it’s felt strange not to be able to jump on a plane and explore a new country or to pay a visit to friends and family abroad. Since this kind of long-haul travel isn’t an option, what am I doing instead? I’m drinking to escape. No, not in that potentially harmful way that numbs the brain to one’s reality, but in the way that's similar to the nature of travel itself--a transportive break from one’s daily routine.
How can drinking do this? The trick is to pour yourself something that reflects another country's distinctive imbibing rituals. By doing so, on your home turf, you can experience, in a similar way to traveling, that transportive escape to somewhere new.
I am going to champion the spritz as a drink that can whisk you away, at least mentally.
A wine-based cocktail consisting of a bitter orange liqueur, prosecco, and soda water, a spritz, is so distinctly Italian that when you’re sipping one, it’s hard not to imagine yourself sitting at an outdoor table in a sunny piazza or inside a 19th-century gilded cafe in northern Italy, being served by polite and polished waiters in white blazers. The lively drink’s orange hue from Aperol, Campari, or Appertivo Select may even awaken your memories of actual trips you’ve taken to the Italian peninsula, allowing your mind to wander away from the confines of your too familiar home.
Sip a spritz slowly, following the example of how Italians do aperitivo hour in the peninsula’s Northern cities, when all its residents seem to be outside at cafe bars at a universally agreed-upon time. This shouldn’t be so hard for us to do, as life has slowed down considerably in usually hectic North America. So, embrace this quieter (though very strange and worrying) period and take your time with your spritz. Once you do, you’ve taken on the Italian way of life--spritz life.
It isn’t just the relaxed and social manner in which a spritz is consumed that is evocative of la dolce vita, it’s also its flavor profile, chiefly the bitter notes that comes from whichever sunset-colored aperitif you’ve chosen. (In Italy, the selection is regionally based: Aperol in Padua; Campari in Milan; and Apertivo Select in Venice.) Bitter isn’t yet in the American wheelhouse of flavors. We tend to favor sweet and salty. Even though bitter food and drinks are now more widely enjoyed in the U.S. (think fair trade dark chocolate, kale salads, single origin coffee beans, and hazy IPAs), the astringent finish of a spritz is decidedly foreign. And grown-up.
If bitter is not your thing and you still want to be transported elsewhere, there are plenty of other international drinking customs you could embrace. You could drink single malt scotch and eat oatcakes with cheddar cheese and imagine yourself looking out on the heather-covered hills of Scotland. Prefer anise or licorice? You’ve got a lot of mental travel destinations to choose from: ouzo for Greece, arak for Turkey, and pasits for the south of France. Always wanted to tour Spain? Sip sherry or vermouth along with marcona almonds and olives. Pick your destination and go there...by sipping.
Italian Spritz
With its lower alcohol content and easy-to-remember formula of three parts bubbly, two parts bitter, and one part soda water, a spritz is much safer and easier than flying abroad.
3 oz Prosecco
2 oz Italian orange-colored aperitif (e.g., Aperol, Campari, Cappelletti, Contratto Bitter, Brutto Americano)
1 oz Soda water
Garnish: Orange slice
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Pour all ingredients into a large, ice-filled wine glass and stir. Add garnish. Pretend you are in Italy.