I want to be careful about what that means.

The Aperol spritz was in. The Aperol spritz is now out. The Aperol spritz is not a drink. It is a product. The Aperol spritz is not ordered but it is sold. Sold to you, and sold to me. Our hands are as red as the apertivo itself in this regard.

The Campari Group and a ruthless cabal of NYC bartenders, decided in roughly 2015 that they were going to make you order this, and you did. You tried it in Paris. You did it in Mykonos. You did it in a backyard in the Hamptons. You did it because a woman at the next table did it and a billboard told her to.

Aperol's Ignorance

To order one in 2026 is to announce, gently, that you have not been paying attention. It is the drink equivalent of a Balenciaga tote bag from the Rome airport. (I'm sorry.)

We estimate peak Aperol spritz was 2019. To order an Aperol was to say: things are basically fine, I am basically fine, and I have 16 dollars to spend on a beverage that is the color of a sunset - its nice, not too sweet either. I am on trend and not trying to be too drunk.

That environment is gone. Read a book, doomscroll. Times have changed. Drinking is back. The headlines are bad. The rent is worse. Nobody is photographing their drink at 1pm anymore unless they are doing it ironically, and irony has also died.

Hugo for Us

I offer you the Hugo.

Notice how we don't even need the "spritz." Dunkin doesn't need Donuts.

The Elderflower, mint, prosecco still — we are not yet ready to give up the bubbles — but the orange, the certainty, has been retired.

The Hugo is paler. The Hugo is more expensive. It's the Amex Platinum to the Aperol's Capital One. The Hugo is, for now, not yet owned by anyone you have heard of. That is most of its appeal. The Hugo says: I am coping with the times, but with elegance.

Return to Home

I should tell you, in the interest of accuracy, that you will go back. Of course you will go back. It will be August, and it will be ninety-one degrees, and you will be at a wedding where the bar has three things, and one of them will be an Aperol spritz, and you will order it without thinking, and it will be exactly as good as it ever was.

The Aperol spritz is an ex. The best ex you've ever had. The One That Got Away Yet Remains. It's a Drake lyric. You can be done with it for very good reasons and you will still, on a hot enough afternoon, end up back in its apartment. The drink does not care.

Every era gets the spritz it deserves. The Hugo is what we are ordering now. The Aperol is what we will order again. Order what you like, stay lusty.