Ve.N.To
Ve.N.To is a grappa sour, which is a sentence most people have never had cause to read. It is built on white grappa with lemon, a chamomile honey mix and chamomile cordial, and it exists to make a case: that Italy's most misunderstood spirit belongs in a cocktail glass rather than only at the end of a meal. Forty-five millilitres of grappa against twenty-two and a half of lemon is a standard sour ratio, and the chamomile is where the drink becomes itself. It appears twice — once as the water in the honey mix, once as a cordial — which means the florality is the structure rather than a garnish note. The name is an acronym of Venezia, Nordest and Todaro, and the drink comes out of the movement to rehabilitate grappa as a modern ingredient rather than a rustic digestivo.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Lemon Twist expressed over the surface and rested on the ice and a small bunch of white grapes
Ingredients
45ml
Smooth and unaged, which keeps the floral, grapey dryness the chamomile is built to meet. An aged grappa moves toward brandy territory and brings oak that flattens the delicacy of everything else in the glass.
22.5ml
Squeezed to order and a standard sour measure. Lemon rather than lime, because its rounder acidity suits the florality: lime is sharper and more aromatic and it argues with the chamomile rather than supporting it.
15ml
Two parts honey to one part strong chamomile infusion, mixed warm so the honey dissolves. It carries florality as well as sweetness, and it keeps about a week refrigerated because the infusion spoils faster than a plain syrup would.
15ml
Chamomile again, this time with acid alongside the sugar, which brightens the honey and stops it turning heavy. The doubling is deliberate: the flavour sits at every level of the drink rather than on top of it.
A few drops, optional
Optional in the official specification and worth taking. A few drops give silk rather than foam, which suits a drink this delicate, and they round off the edge of a high-proof spirit without muting the florality.
Instructions
Make the chamomile honey mix in advance: two parts honey to one part warm chamomile infusion.
Squeeze the lemon immediately before building the drink.
Add the grappa, lemon juice, honey mix and chamomile cordial to a shaker.
Add a few drops of egg white if using, and shake hard with ice for 12 to 15 seconds.
Strain into a small tumbler filled with fresh ice and garnish with lemon zest and white grapes.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification). Last checked 13 August 2026.
Expert Tip
Make the honey mix before anything else and make it properly. Steep the chamomile for ten minutes in water just off the boil rather than boiling it, because pushed too hard the flowers turn bitter and hay-like. Stir two parts honey into one part of the warm infusion until it dissolves completely, then cool it. Neat honey seizes into a lump in cold spirit and no amount of shaking will recover it. Use a white grappa rather than an aged one. The barrel-aged expressions are lovely and they bring oak, which flattens the floral top note that the two chamomile ingredients exist to build. Serve it over fresh ice rather than up. The continuing chill keeps the delicacy legible, and a grappa sour warming in a coupe loses its aromatics within minutes.
Flavour Profile
Grappa in a Cocktail
Grappa is distilled from pomace — the skins, seeds and stems left after wine is pressed — and it spent most of its history as a rough farmhouse spirit.
That reputation is decades out of date. From the 1970s producers began distilling fresh, single-variety pomace with careful cuts, and the modern category has a genuine top end: aromatic, precise and expressive of the grape it came from. What it brings to a sour is a floral, grapey dryness that no other base spirit supplies — not vodka, which brings nothing, and not brandy, which brings sweetness and oak.
Use a smooth white grappa rather than an aged one. The aged expressions move toward brandy territory and lose the floral top the chamomile is built to meet.
Chamomile, Twice
The recipe uses chamomile in two forms and the doubling is deliberate.
The honey mix replaces its water with chamomile infusion, so the sweetener carries florality as well as weight. The cordial then adds chamomile again, this time with acid alongside the sugar, which brightens it and stops the honey turning heavy. Between them the flavour is present at every level of the drink rather than sitting on top of it.
Chamomile is a better cocktail ingredient than its bedtime-tea reputation suggests: apple and honey notes with a dry, faintly bitter finish. That bitterness is doing structural work here, keeping two sweeteners from running away with the glass.
Making the Honey Mix
Two parts honey to one part strong chamomile infusion, mixed while the infusion is still warm.
Steep the flowers rather than boiling them — ten minutes in water just off the boil, then strain — because chamomile pushed too hard turns bitter and hay-like. Stir the honey into the warm liquid until it dissolves completely and let it cool before use. It keeps about a week refrigerated, which is shorter than a honey syrup made with water because the infusion is doing the spoiling.
Neat honey will not work. It seizes into a lump the moment it meets cold spirit and no amount of shaking recovers it.
How to Serve It
Shaken hard and strained into a small tumbler filled with fresh ice, with lemon zest and white grapes.
The few drops of egg white are optional and worth taking: at that quantity they give a silky texture rather than a foam, which suits a drink whose whole character is delicate. Serve it over fresh ice rather than up — the continuing chill keeps the florality legible, and a grappa sour warming in a coupe loses its top notes quickly.
The white grape garnish is a nod to where the spirit comes from, and it is worth doing for that reason alone.
The Spirit
GrappaItalian pomace brandy, distilled from the skins, seeds and stems left after winemaking. Once a rough farmhouse spirit and now, at its better end, a precise and aromatic one — grapey, floral and dry, with none of the sweetness the fruit suggests.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Ve.N.To?
A grappa sour: 45ml white grappa with 22.5ml lemon, 15ml chamomile honey mix and 15ml chamomile cordial, with optional egg white. The name is an acronym of Venezia, Nordest and Todaro, and it makes the case for grappa as a cocktail base.
What is a chamomile honey mix?
Honey cut with a strong chamomile infusion instead of water, two parts to one, mixed while the infusion is warm. It carries florality alongside the sweetness, and it keeps about a week refrigerated rather than the weeks a plain honey syrup would.
Can I use aged grappa?
You can, and it works against the drink. Aged grappa moves toward brandy territory and brings oak and vanilla that flatten the delicate floral top the two chamomile ingredients are built to support. A smooth white grappa is the right choice.
Why is chamomile used twice?
So the flavour sits at every level. The honey mix carries florality with weight; the cordial adds it again with acid alongside the sugar, which brightens the whole drink and stops the honey turning heavy. One alone leaves the character sitting on top.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits
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