Aperitif

The elegant three-ingredient classic Champagne cocktail makes every glass feel like a special occasion.

With lemon juice, gin, and sparkling wine, the French 75 makes any cocktail hour feel like a special occasion.

The classic Corpse Reviver #2 cocktail combines equal parts gin, orange liqueur, lemon juice, and Kina Lillet, an aperitif. It’s an easy drink for happy hour.

This star of this springtime spritz is an easy homemade rhubarb syrup.

This riff on the martini has a touch of pear and cardamom. It’s the ideal make-ahead batched cocktail for your next gathering.

This flavor-packed nonalcoholic cocktail is delightfully bitter and tart.

Bold cranberry mingles with bittersweet Cynar in this bitter and bubbly variation on the spritz cocktail.

Delicately apricotty, this easy spritz can be made with or without Aperol. 

The classic Aperol spritz recipe on the back of the Aperol bottle calls for three parts Prosecco (or other sparkling wine), two parts Aperol, and a splash of soda. The concoction is fizzy and vibrantly orange in flavor, softly sweet and just a tiny bit bitter—perfect for sipping before dinner as an aperitivo. Earlier versions of the spritz used Select, which some tasters find more complex, or Campari, which is quite a bit more bitter and bracing. But you can spritz with whatever bittersweet liqu.…

The best gin and tonic is all in the technique, because the most important ingredient in a G&T is not really the gin, or even the tonic. It’s carbonation.

The classic negroni is an anytime cocktail. With equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, the Italian aperitivo is bittersweet, herbal, and a cinch to mix.

This is an especially refreshing take on the cosmopolitan cocktail. You can batch the cosmo mix up to 10 hours in advance to cut down on last-minute fuss at your next cocktail-worthy occasion. (If you’d like to mix it together earlier than that, add the lime juice at the last minute.) To retain maximum fizz, pour the chilled club soda and sparkling wine into each ice-filled glass first—then you don’t need to rigorously stir to mix the bubbles into the heavier cocktail base. This recipe makes eno.…

Scorpion bowls are heavily boozed, sugared, and communally shared. These updated Apéritif Scorpion Bowls keep the fun and ditch the sting.

Mix up this sherry and vermouth cocktails as an individual drink on the rocks, or stirred over ice and strained if you can be bothered. 

White port and tonic can handle all sorts of garnishes—I tinker happily with thyme, basil, mint or even cinnamon; but I love the rasping austerity of rosemary. Lemon is always my citrus of choice.

This simple two-ingredient cocktail is the ideal brunch or before-dinner drink. Campari gives it a delicate bitterness, while fresh orange juice creates a beautiful froth.

I created this sparkling cocktail for the menu at Keith McNally’s Morandi Italian restaurant.

We love a fun twist on a classic cocktail—this Negroni riff is mellowed by an extra splash of gin and punched up with herbaceous Punt e Mes in place of the standard sweet vermouth.