3 Best Italian Drinks For Staying Cool This Summer

Hi, Taryn. Hi. So, what are we doing today? We're going to make three spritzes. They're all super refreshing, really easy to make, perfect for easy sipping in the summer. We're going to do the most famous of all the spritzes, an Aperol spritz. Let's do that one first. What type of glass is it? It's a stemless wine glass. You might be better off using a wine glass with a stem. The idea being that your hand doesn't warm. Like, if you drink it, your hand's going to warm it up. I think it looks better like that, but she's right. Especially where this is popular, it's like 100 degrees. I'm going to ask you to do the honors of opening the Prosecco, because last time I almost popped my eye out. We actually made a fourth spritz that we're not doing today, which is called the Lillet Spritz using Lillet Blanc. Yeah, so we did that one, and then when you were opening it, that's when you had the problem. Yeah. See, I'm a dumbass, too, already, because I didn't take the metal thing off of it. Oh, yeah, you got to do that. Yeah, well, now it's already open. All right, success. So one thing that we do a little bit differently for our Aperol Spritz recipe is we use one ounce of fresh orange juice. Tara has one ounce of OJ Fresh Squeeze. Our juicer wasn't looking so nice, so she wanted to do it off camera, right? Yes, so we've got one ounce of our fresh orange juice, and we are going to do three ounces of Aperol. That's one and a half, right? Two ounces right here. I love the way Aperol looks. Such a nice color. Photographs really well. Yes, it's beautiful. And then we're going to add our Prosecco, which we want to do about four ounces or so. And do you top with this, or is it just that? Top with club soda. All right, so you're good, then. Because you barely have any room. Yeah. Very nice. Does it get any garnish or anything? It does. We're going to slice up an orange. Yeah. The other half of the orange. Oh, there's the orange. That's the real orange. So I'm going to do that. Beautiful. And then we're going to cut that in half. And that is going to be our garnish. Here's the next one. These are all the ingredients. What are these, Tara? So this is the Yugo Spritz, which actually originates from northern Italy in the area of the Alps. It includes elderflower liqueur. Which is this right here. Yes, we're using St. Germain, but you could also use St. Elder. I think the original recipe does not include an elderflower liqueur. It includes elderflower syrup. It was created as a response to the Aperol Spritz. It's a little bit lighter. The Aperol Spritz can be a little bit bitter for some people. This has really no bitterness at all. This is 20% alcohol, so this is stronger than the Aperol. Depending on the ratios, though. All right, let's do it. Yugo Spritz has a garnish of fresh mint leaves and a few slices of limes. And we just got these mint leaves from the garden. Yes. Beautiful mint. All right. So this recipe calls for an ounce of elderflower liqueur. This was one of our earlier recipes. Yeah, we've had this on the site for probably four or five years now. Yeah, when we were trying to figure things out. And then it's about six ounces or so of Prosecco, which I'm just going to eyeball it. And that's the beauty with the Spritz. You can make it as high or low alcohol as you want. You can omit the Prosecco and just do club soda. I've seen a few people on the website keep asking sweet Prosecco or dry Prosecco. I honestly didn't even know there was a difference. I think it's all dry. To me, Prosecco always tastes dry. I did answer that question. And I said the Prosecco we use is dry. For this, you just fill to the top with club soda. And the limes push down again. Which makes it really nice. And for the mint, if you give the mint a little bit of a whack, it releases some of its oils. So you can do that. Let's do the next one. So the next one is the Limoncello Spritz, which is actually one of our most popular recipes on the website. Especially in the summer. So we have soda again, Limoncello, Prosecco again. Which makes it really easy because you're using a lot of the same ingredients. Lemon and mint again. Lemon slices. I'll take those seeds out. Thank you. You're the mint grabber slash... Don't you love when you get a lemon and there's no seeds in it? You're just like, yes! Then you get another one and there's like 50 seeds. Alright, get to work. I'll get to work. That's what I'm here for. So this one uses two ounces of Limoncello. And Limoncello can be drank. I think most of the time it's drank after dinner as a digestive or digestivo, right? And then we're going to add three ounces of Prosecco. And again, I'm eyeballing this, guys. If you like it strong, you don't even need to use the club soda. If you like it light, don't use the Prosecco. So I'm going to take my seedless lemon slices and add a few. And same thing that we did with the Yugo. Just give those mint leaves a little bit of a whack to release their oil. Pop it in. Gorgeous. And you're set. Alright. Alright, so let's try all three of these out. So let's just drink them in the order we made them. Apple spritz. Okay. What do you think of when you look at the apple spritz? I think of White Lotus. That's right, because that's what they were drinking the whole time. If you haven't seen White Lotus, it's good. Not for kids. No, definitely not. Just like these drinks aren't for kids. That's why you don't see the taste tester here today. That is delicious. Right? That's really good. Yeah, I think the orange juice is good in it. I don't think it detracts from it. In fact, I barely even notice that it's in there. I wish it was maybe a little bit more. So I think what it does, because yeah, you're right. I'm not tasting orange juice. But what it does is it cuts the bitterness. Apple's not very bitter. It's not. It's not as bitter as Campari. Oh, not even close. But it does add a little bit of sweetness, I think. I'm actually going to taste it one more time. We'll rank them. We'll see which one we like the most. Honestly, one of my favorite things to do is just a little bit of Aperol and club soda. Yes. In a fancy wine glass. Yes. Right? Okay, so the Yugo. Do you want to taste it first? Sure. Okay. It's beautiful. I think this is the most beautiful of all of them. I'm going to put the mint back in because I like to get that little whiff. That's really good. To be honest with you, I feel like you could probably do a simple syrup in that one to make it a little sweeter. Do you think so? You could. Like I said, the original version is not with an elderflower liqueur. It's with an elderflower syrup. Yeah, there you go. That would be sweeter. So yeah, you could do that. Do I have anything on my face? No. Good? You're good. Okay. The final one. You go first. I'll let you have the mint in it. The mint? Thank you. This one you really went to the top on. A lot of this is going to be determined by the brand of Limoncello because there are hundreds of different brands. That's right. Like cheap ones, expensive ones. This one I think was... I got this one a while ago. It was moderately priced. It's from Sorrento, I believe. Excellent, too. Very conflicted. All right. Well, Tara, what is your favorite and your least favorite? I really do like Aperol and I like bitter drinks. Like I love a Negroni. I love an Americano. Oh, Americano is a good drink. Yeah. The paper plane cocktail. So I think my number one is the Aperol Spritz. Okay. Which actually, like I said, my favorite way to have it is just club soda and Aperol. What's your number two? My number two, it's really tough, but I think it's... God, this is hard. I think it's the Hugo. Okay. I mean, I love... They're all... It's very tough. Great. I think you guys will like all of them. I'm going to go... Number one is going to be the Hugo. Number two is going to be the Aperol Spritz. And number three is going to be the Limoncello Spritz. That being said, that Limoncello Spritz is amazing. I just... You know, I think it depends on the day, what you're eating. What do you think the Aperol Spritz would go to best with? A little barbecue outside? Yeah. And actually, I was reading more about it. It was created in Venice. And one of the snack foods that's often served in that area is meatballs made with eggplant. All these... You know, you can really put your own little unique spin on them. Nobody's going to care if you don't make it authentic. It's not like somebody's going to hunt you down like they do for pasta sauces and stuff like that. So, you know, right? You say that, and we might get a lot of hate for how we... What do people go crazy the most about that we do? Cream and pasta, right? The cream, the chicken. Oh, chicken, yeah. Chicken with pasta, that's an absolute travesty. Yeah. So... That's not sweet at all, but it's delicious. It is. Hope you guys make them. We will see you next time. Cheers.