Aperol, Campari and the aperitivo hour: Spritz, Americano and more

Aperitivo is the drink, and the half hour, before an Italian dinner. Aperol’s own pages trace the word to the Latin aperire, to open, and place the brand’s first popularity with young drinkers in the cafés of Padua and the bars of Venice. Campari’s history puts the Milanese version of the habit at the Camparino, the bar Davide Campari opened in the Galleria in Milan in 1915.

No law defines an aperitivo. The word says when a drink is poured, not what is in the bottle, so a vermouth, a spritz or a glass of prosecco can each be one. What the drinks here share is a bitter red or orange base, a low strength, and something long or sparkling to stretch it. Where each bottle sits in law, and why that decides its label, is in what is a liqueur.

Aperol is an Italian bitter aperitivo of 11% ABV. By the brand’s own account, the brothers Luigi and Silvio Barbieri created it in 1919, after seven years of experiment in the liqueur company they had inherited from their father. Its maker describes the recipe as fruit, aromatic herbs, roots and woods, with citrus peel leading, and keeps both the full recipe and the source of the colour secret. It tastes of orange first, with a little vanilla and a herbal, bittersweet finish. It now belongs to Campari Group.

At 11% Aperol cannot be a spirit. The retained spirit drinks regulation sets 15% as the floor for any spirit drink, and a liqueur is a kind of spirit drink, so in UK law Aperol is neither. It sits at the strength of wine, which is why it suits a long drink better than a short stirred one.

Campari is older and stronger. Gaspare Campari first made it in 1860, and the bottle sold in Britain is 25% ABV on UK retailers’ listings, while Campari America labels its bottle at 24%, so the strength depends on the market. Its maker’s tasting notes give orange, herbs and wood under a pronounced bitterness. Aperol leads with the orange; Campari leads with the bitterness.

The two do not swap cleanly. A spritz built on Campari is drier, redder and stronger, with more than twice the alcohol in its bitter part. A Negroni built on Aperol is softer and sweeter, and loses the edge that holds the gin and vermouth in place.

Two more bottles sit on the same shelf. Cynar, launched in Italy in 1952 by the retailer McGrocer’s account, takes its name and label from the artichoke and is flavoured with thirteen herbs and plants; at 16.5% it falls between Aperol and Campari, and the IBA names it as one of the bitters a Spritz can be built on. Suze is a French gentian aperitif first made in 1889, sold at 20% in Britain and at 15% across most of Europe, by a UK retailer’s account, and it is the bitter in a White Negroni. Both work long with soda.

Every drink on the ladder uses two or three of the same bottles, and each rung adds strength, bitterness or both. The strengths below are worked out from our measures and the bottles’ stated ABV, before any ice melts, and the ice brings each one down as it sits. Start low and stop where the drink tastes right.

Bitterness climbs with the Campari. The Garibaldi and the Aperol Spritz are the gentlest; the Milano-Torino and the Negroni are the most bitter, because nothing long is there to soften the Campari. Aperol’s own figure for its Spritz is 9%, which matches the ladder.

Aperol publishes its Spritz as a three-two-one: 75ml of prosecco, 50ml of Aperol and 25ml of soda, in a large wine glass filled with ice, with a slice of orange. Its method pours the prosecco first, then the Aperol, then the soda. The IBA lists the drink as Spritz, at 90ml of prosecco and 60ml of Aperol with a splash of soda, built in a wine glass over ice and stirred gently, and adds that other versions use Campari, Cynar or Select in place of the Aperol. Our Aperol Spritz keeps the three to two to one at 90ml, 60ml and 30ml.

The brand dates itself to 1919, not the drink. Aperol’s own timeline puts the Aperol Spritz recipe in the 1950s, its spread beyond the Veneto in the 1980s, and its international growth after Campari Group bought the brand in the 2000s.

Put Campari where the Aperol was and the drink becomes a Spritz al Bitter, drier and redder, and at about 14% a good deal stronger. The Hugo Spritz and the Limoncello Spritz keep the prosecco and the soda and drop the bitterness: 25ml of elderflower liqueur in the first, 50ml of limoncello in the second. They are spritzes, but they are not bitter, so they sit beside the ladder rather than on it.

Campari Soda is the simplest rung. Campari calls it Davide Campari’s first memorable creation, served at the Camparino since 1915, where it goes by Campari Seltz. In 1932 Davide Campari worked with the Futurist artist Fortunato Depero on a small cone-shaped bottle for the first ready-mixed version, a single serve of Campari and soda, and Campari still sells Campari Soda under that name. Our Campari and soda is 45ml of Campari to 90ml of cold soda water in a highball full of ice, with an orange slice.

The Garibaldi swaps the soda for orange juice. The IBA builds it in a highball over ice from 45ml of Campari and 120ml of freshly squeezed orange juice, with an orange wedge. Ours whips air into the juice as it is squeezed, which softens the bitterness, and at about 7% it is the lightest drink on the ladder.

The Americano is Campari and sweet vermouth stretched with soda water. The IBA lists it among its Unforgettables at 30ml of each with a splash of soda, poured over ice in an old fashioned glass and finished with half an orange slice and a lemon zest; ours takes 75ml of soda in a highball. Campari’s own account is that the drink was first served at Caffè Campari as the Milano-Torino, for Campari from Milan and vermouth from Turin, and took the name Americano from the American visitors who drank it before Prohibition.

Leave out the soda and it is a Milano-Torino, 45ml of each over ice. Pour prosecco where the gin would go and it is a Negroni Sbagliato, the Bar Basso drink from Milan. Add gin and it is the Negroni. The Negroni’s story and its whiskey and gin relations are in Martini, Negroni and the gin and vermouth drinks.

From the Americano up, half the drink is vermouth, and vermouth is wine. An open bottle kept warm for months flattens every rung above this one. Keep it capped in the fridge; vermouth explained gives the reasons and the keeping time.

Two shaken drinks branch off the ladder. The Aperol Sour treats 60ml of Aperol as the base of a sour, with lemon and egg white. The Rome With a View shakes Campari and dry vermouth with lime and sugar, then lengthens them with soda, for a bitter drink that drinks like a long sour.

Spritzes go in a large wine glass full of ice, as both Aperol and the IBA specify; the extra room holds the ice and the sparkle. Campari Soda, the Garibaldi and our Americano go in a highball. The short drinks, the Milano-Torino, the Sbagliato and the Negroni, sit on a single big cube or a few large ones in a rocks glass, which melt slowly. Orange is the garnish throughout: a slice for most, a wedge for the Garibaldi, and the IBA adds lemon zest to the Americano.

Aperol advises keeping every ingredient in the fridge before you mix, so the drink starts cold and stays cold for longer. Once open, the bottles keep differently. Aperol holds about two to three months capped and chilled, Campari a year or more out of the light, sweet vermouth three or four weeks in the fridge, and prosecco one to three days with a stopper. Bitterness and balance in a drink are covered in how to balance a cocktail.

The Spritz, Americano and Garibaldi measures follow the International Bartenders Association, whose pages were read on 12 October 2026. Aperol’s dates, description and its own Spritz come from Aperol’s UK site, and Campari’s from Campari’s UK site, read the same day. Strengths are those stated for UK bottles and change by market. The 15% floor for a spirit drink is in the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 on legislation.gov.uk.