Amaro Spritz Recipe

Ingredients

As straightforward as the recipe is, using the right ingredients is essential to master the drink. Here's what you'll need and why we pick this combination for our Amaro Spritz:

• Amaro Nonino - If you're into Grappa, Nonino Quintessentia is an ideal Amaro liqueur. The Italian herbal liqueur is based on Nonino's famous Grappa and flavored with a variety of roots and herbs. It has an excellent balance of bitter and sweet, which makes it great as a base for mixed drinks.
• Cynar - This Amaro liqueur is best known for its main ingredient: artichoke leaves. It's more sweet than bitter, with subtle but surprising caramel notes. 
• Soda water - You can use club soda, sparkling mineral water, or Seltzer. As long as it brings enough bubbles to the drink, it fits the brief.
• Sparkling wine - I prefer an extra dry Prosecco spumante (not frizzante) to balance out the sweet notes from Cynar. If you can't that, look for another extra dry or brut sparkling wine. 
• Orange slices - Adding an orange slice is the best way to garnish any Spritz. It complements the flavors in most Amari extremely well.

Note: If you are confused by the terms dry, extra dry, and brut on the label of your sparkling wine of choice: 

Dry is still relatively high in sugar because the term goes way back to when bubbly was much sweeter than it is today. What was dry then is actually considered quite sweet today. Hence, opt for extra dry or brut in cocktails.  

How to Make an Amaro Spritz - Pro Tips

The ingredients are mixed right in the glass. No shaker or mixing glass is needed. -A bar spoon will help incorporate the ingredients.

Making this refreshing Spritz cocktail is easy. Just follow the standard Spritz ratio of 3 parts sparkling wine, 2 parts liqueurs, and 1 part sparkling water.

You may want to chill all these ingredients and the glass, so the ice doesn't melt too quickly. Work with large, clear ice cubes to bring this drink to the next level. Crystal clear cubes in your cocktail (instead of cloudy ice) will melt slower and also look impressive.

The art of making perfectly clear ice cubes at home is not as hard to master as you may think. What you need, though, is the right tools, technique, and time.

Variations

This drink goes by the name Amaro Spritz for a reason. You can replace the two Amari we use in our recipe with any other Amaro. For instance, combine Campari and Nonino for a more bitter version or Amaro Averna and Cynar for a sweeter one. There's plenty of room for experiments.

However, not all combinations work for everyone. We tried to pair Campari with Cynar and found the two don't go awfully well together. Mixing Cynar with a more moderate Amaro, like Montenegro, worked much better. My preferred pairing for Cynar, though, is still Nonino.

More Light Drink Recipes

Here are some other refreshing recipes that are among our favorite pre-dinner drinks:

• Americano Cocktail
• Oolong-Hai
• Elderflower Aperol & Vodka Spritz
• Lavender Lemon Drop Martini

More About Spritz Cocktails

The Amaro Spritz cocktail, like Spritzes in general, is an Italian aperitivo drink. With its light taste and low ABV, it's a regular serve before dinner to prepare your stomach for the upcoming meal.

The first Spritzes came up as early as the 19th century. Back then, Amari were not part of the recipe. Austrian soldiers created the drink when they diluted too-strong Italian wines with sparkling water.

In the 1950s, Aperol started incorporating their herbal, bittersweet liqueur in the formula. In our recipe, we replace the Aperol base with a combination of two Amaro liqueurs: Amaro Nonino and Cynar.