Italy is renowned for the most delicious wines and cocktails in the world. And you can easily prepare a homemade cocktail to take with your meal. Read on to understand why these Italian cocktails are creating a sensation in most homes and restaurants.
If not for its rich culture, incredible history, lavish life, and the best wines, Italy enjoys some of the world’s most historical cocktails. Their social lives revolve around mingling with friends at social places or at home to share a few glasses of their favorite traditional Italian cocktails.
Italy is famous for its sumptuous delicacies, incredible wines, and classic cocktails. An Italian dinner couldn’t be tastier without an aperitivo cocktail to stimulate your taste buds. These drinks have become an essential accompaniment in every restaurant, bar, and house. And, you can even get recipes at mykitchenadvisor.com to make your own at home.
If you’re a cocktail lover, then you’re going to love these five choices we have for you. Salute! That’s the formal way you say cheers in Italian.
Here are among the best Italian cocktails with rum, in no particular order:
1. Milano-Torino
Milano-Torino is one of the lightest, flavorful Italian cocktails used as aperitivo. This drink combines sweet Vermouth and Campari to produce a balance of bittersweet taste on the palate. It has a distinctive charm and is a favorite to many.
Discovered in 1860, Milano-Torino has crossed international borders to become a favorite in America and other countries. Due to its simplicity and originality, this fizzy cocktail can be taken at any time and on every occasion.
To prepare your Mi-To, you must have Campari, Vermouth di Torino, and an orange slice for garnishing. You can also throw in a dash of orange bitters and Angostura bitters if you like.
Directions: Pour the liquid ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain the mixture into a rocks glass over ice, then garnish it with an orange slice.
2. Rossini
Rossini cocktail was first developed and served in Italy. It is a spin-off from Bellini and can be enjoyed all year round, most especially during the Christmas holidays. This drink consists of pureed strawberries and Prosecco, which gives it a sweet, mildly sour, floral, and fruity flavor.
Rossini is also one of the most reveled Italian cocktails for summer and during holiday celebrations. As an all-time drink, you can have this cocktail for brunch or with dessert. Named after the famous composer, Gioachino Rossini, this delectable drink is irresistible.
To get your favorite Rossini, you must have a champagne flute, fresh, chilled strawberry puree, chilled prosecco for topping, and fresh strawberries for garnishing.
Directions: Pour your chilled, fresh strawberry puree into your champagne flute and top it with prosecco. Then garnish your drink with slices of fresh peach.
3. Negroni
Negroni is among the most popular classic Italian cocktails created in 1919. It’s a dry, bittersweet cocktail consisting of Gin, Vermouth, Campari, and Angostura Aromatic Bitter. Perfect for aperitivo, this balanced cocktail was developed with a hard liquor taste by Count Negroni.
If you want to feel great Negroni’s taste, you should pair gin with vermouth to compliment Campari and round out all the flavors. Garnish it with an orange twist, and you’ll have your ultimate aperitivo.
What you need is a rock glass, gin, Campari, sweet vermouth, and an orange for garnishing.
Directions: Pour the Campari and sweet vermouth into your cocktail mixer and stir the mixture until chilled. Then single strain the drink into a rocks glass before filling it with ice cubes. Garnish it with an orange twist.
4. Angelo Azzurro
Angelo Azzurro is one of the popular Italian cocktails you can find in Italy’s most social places and homes. This Blue Angel retro classic drink is a combination of Triple Sec, Gin, and Blue Curacao garnished with lemon peel.
If you’re a heavy drinker, this is the type of cocktail you can have after dinner. This cocktail gained popularity in the ‘90s as a discotheque stalwart because of its unique color. Good quality curacao gives the drink a bright blue hue loved by many, including celebrities like Don Johnson, who played Det. James Crockett in Miami Vice.
Here’s what you need to prep your Angleo Azzuro cocktail:
- A martini glass
- Cointreau
- Limoncello
- Gin
- Sweet Vermouth
- Any fruit for garnishing
Directions: Add all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with plenty of fresh ice. Shake well, and then double strain the mixture into a martini glass. You can garnish your drink with any of your favorite fruits.
5. Bellini
Bellini is one of the best Italian cocktails for winter. It’s a delightful Italian brunch cocktail with a light, fruity taste. It was invented in Venice in the 1940s.
Bellini incorporates fresh peaches and sparkling wine, a simple but delicious combination. Its originality stems from its creator’s love of the fresh smell and flavor of peaches. Giuseppe Cipriani created and named this cocktail Bellini because its color kept reminding him of the famous shade of pink paintings of Giovanni Bellini, a Venetian artist.
Bellini is a peachy-pink cocktail that combines peach puree with bubbling, fizzing Prosecco. Its rosy hue can be felt on the palette. You can make your own at home to enjoy a few rounds for brunch.
Preparing your Bellini cocktail is easy. All you need is a champagne flute, chilled, fresh peach puree, chilled prosecco for topping, and slices of fresh peach to garnish.
Directions: Pour your fresh peach puree into the champagne flute and top it with prosecco. Then garnish it with a slice(s) of fresh peach.
Italy has a vast collection of cocktails you can drink any time of day, alone or with a meal accompaniment. The five highlighted in this article are some of the most cherished out there. So if you’re up for a true taste of the country’s best cocktails, you have quite a variety to choose from. Get to the local cocktail bar and order your favorite. Some of them are easy to prepare at home too.
Have you tasted an Italian cocktail before? If not, what are you waiting for…salute!
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