The Aperol Spritz Didn’t Start Where You Think
Aperol Spritz in Venice costs four euros if you know where to stand. We drank our way across Italy, from Turin to Trieste to Padua to Venice, to find the original spritz, and it turned out not to be Italian at all. In Venice we drink in bàcari, the old standing bars where you order a small glass at the counter and choose your cicchetti one piece at a time. In this episode we show you where to find them, what a spritz actually costs once you walk away from San Marco, why every Venetian spritz arrives with an olive on a stick, and why the orange drink most visitors order is not the one the locals are drinking. The search started in Turin, where vermouth was invented in the 1700s and where Italy built the aperitivo hour around it. Without that there would be no spritz at all. From there we went east to Trieste, which spent five hundred years as an Austrian city and was the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was here in the early 1800s that soldiers posted far from home asked for a spray of water in the local wine because it was stronger than anything they drank at home. The German word for spray is spritzen. We drank a spritz bianco in the last Viennese coffee house on Piazza Unità d’Italia, and it looks nothing like the drink you are picturing. White wine, soda water, a slice of lemon, and nothing else. No bitter, no prosecco, no orange. The empire was broken up in 1918 and Trieste became Italian. The following year two brothers launched Aperol at the Padua International Fair, and the year after that the Pilla brothers created Select in Venice. Within two years of the border moving, the drink had a bitter in it. How much does a spritz cost in Venice? Four euros standing on the canalside at Al Squero in Dorsoduro, and five euros on Giudecca with a view across the water to San Marco and the Salute. In Piazza San Marco you can pay four or five times that. What do Venetians actually drink? Spritz al bitter, made with Campari. Select was created in Venice in 1920 and has a gondola on the label, but the red one is what you see on the tables at six o’clock. What is a bàcaro and how do you order in one? A bàcaro is a traditional Venetian standing bar. You order at the counter, choose cicchetti individually from the display, and pay for each piece. Most people stand outside with the glass in one hand. A small glass of wine is called an ombra, which means shadow. Why does a Venetian spritz come with an olive? Because in Venice it always does, whatever is in the glass. The citrus changes with the bitter, lemon with Select and Campari, orange with Aperol. The olive does not change. What is a spritz bianco? The original spritz. White wine, soda water and lemon, with no bitter at all. Still served in Trieste and across Friuli, and almost unknown outside the region. What does Aperol actually taste of? Not orange. The dominant flavour is grapefruit, with rhubarb behind it and a little orange. The recipe has never been published and has not changed since 1919. Where was the Aperol Spritz invented? Aperol was created in Padua in 1919. The spritz itself is a century older and comes from Trieste, when the city was Austrian. Nobody knows who first put the two together. EPISODE FACTS AND PRICES Al Squero, Dorsoduro, Venice: 4 euros a spritz, standing on the canalside opposite a working gondola yard Generator, Giudecca: 5 euros a spritz, looking across at San Marco and the Salute The oldest café in Padua: 9 euros a spritz, which is why we walked out Caffè on Piazza Unità d’Italia, Trieste: where we drank the spritz bianco Aperol: 11% ABV, launched 1919, Padua Select: 17.5% ABV, launched 1920, Castello, Venice The standard pour: three parts prosecco, two parts bitter, one part soda Campari Group bought Aperol in 2003 and say they now sell 1.5 billion Aperol Spritzes a year, more than the entire champagne category MUSIC All music in this episode is original, composed and produced by Adam. THE NOMADS CLUB Members get early access every Thursday and a library of exclusive B-Sides. Click Join below the video to come behind the scenes with us. CHAPTERS 00:00 The World’s Most Ordered Cocktail 00:50 Turin, Where Italian Aperitivo Began 02:08 Trieste, the Austrian City Where the Spritz Began 04:05 Tasting the Original Spritz Bianco 05:45 Padua 1919, the Invention of Aperol 09:04 What Aperol Actually Tastes Of 11:43 Venice Bacari, Cicchetti and Ombra 13:22 Select, the Venetian Spritz 15:18 Why Every Venice Spritz Has an Olive 17:47 What a Spritz Costs in Venice 21:19 What Venetians Actually Drink 22:16 Three Spritz Bars on a Cruise Ship #AperolSpritz #Venice #Trieste #Padua #Italy #Spritz #VeniceTravel #TheFloatingNomads #SlowTravel