Put down the Aperol. This Summer, we drink like Spaniards.

Out with the Spritz, in with vermouth + tonic: how to order it, where to drink it in New York, and the Spanish vermouth spots to save for your next Euro trip.

Repeat after me: no more prosecco through a straw!

For the last decade, the Aperol Spritz craze was inescapable. The bubbly orange tidal wave that swept through every rooftop bar, every Instagram feed, every restaurant patio from Venice Beach to Venice, Italy. It’s photogenic! So easy to sip! Aperol Spritzes are the bright, universal shorthand for I am having a good time in the sun! I’m very fun and fizzy okay??

From 2010 to 2022, case sales skyrocketed from 9,000 to 390,000. And then, slowly, quietly, like all things that become too ubiquitous, your feed became slightly less orange.

Maybe the cloying sweetness? Maybe dirty martinis just look chicer on a feed? Our palates are saltier, maybe a little more serious. But can we still make it summer?

Yes! Let’s go salty! Let’s go Spanish! Let’s go for a Vermouth and Tonic!

New for vermouth? No you’re not! It’s in your Martini, your Manhattan, your Negroni! Vermouth is a fortified wine, spiked with a neutral spirit and steeped in botanicals, herbs, citrus peel, and spices. It’s been an anchor in Spanish culture for centuries. La hora del vermut (the vermouth hour) is a sacred pre-lunch ritual across Spain, served over ice with an olive.

Vermouth and tonics have that same low ABV (most vermouths hover between a cute 15–18%, meaning over ice with tonic you’re looking at something comparable to a glass of wine) and the same refreshing Euro fizz. But instead of cloying summer sweetness, you get something herbal, a little bitter, a little sophisticated. The tonic cuts through, the ice keeps it cold enough to sweat, and the right garnish - a pickled olive! or anchovy! sometimes an orange wedge so you can still get your Vitamin C fix, Aperol lovers.

Por favor, bestie:

Instead of your Aperol Spritz → Cocchi Vermouth di Torino over ice, topped with good tonic, garnished with a big fat green olive. Bitter, herbal, cold. Loud Aperol’s hot European cousin who sometimes lives with them during the summer.

Instead of your Hugo Spritz → Lustau Vermut Rojo with tonic and a long twisty twist of orange peel. Lustau’s vermouth is made from a base of amontillado and PX wines, so it has the floral, slightly sweet quality that Hugo drinkers are after, but with depth and a dry finish that’s less syrupy sweet.

Instead of your Limoncello Spritz → Yzaguirre Blanco Reserva with tonic, ice, and a salted lemon slice. The white vermouth is lighter and more citrusy. Spanish vermouths taste like fresh herbs and florals like chamomile and orange blossom, but with that signature bitter finish.

Tapathh and Vermut in NYC

The best places in NYC that lean into Spanish vermouth culture with good bottles, proper garnishes, and something salty on the side.

La Vara Feels like a dinner party in someone’s very Cobble Hill apartment; the vermouth list is thoughtful and the gildas are perfect.

Bar Jamón is a Grammercy classic for a reason: standing room, jamón carved to order, and vermouth that tastes better when you’re slightly shoulder-to-shoulder.

Txikito is perfectly Basque, low-lit, and one of the best vermouth programs in the city. Order anchovies and a second round probably.

Ernesto’s is the downtown crowd’s version of a vermouth bar with natural wine energy, but with Spanish aperitivo instincts.

El Quijote is a faaaavve. The lesser known bar in the Chelsea Hotel. It’s old-school in the best way and the vermouth here feels ceremonial. The kitchen staff once told me that they’d been haunted by an old Spanish woman? which makes this the only place I feel truly comfortable drinking vermouth and tonics.

The best places in Spain for Vermouth:

Costa Brava - bop up and down the coast of fishing towns for long seafood lunches, very St. Tropez vibes in Spain

Can Rafa is exactly the kind of place people return to every summer. It’s on the port, and a little worn. I once stayed there for 6 hours. All you need in grilled fish, cold vermouth, a plate of anchovies.

Compartir is further up the hill on a rustic property with a menu designed for sharing and vermouth drinking.

Menorca - the quieter and more practical cousin of Mallorca

Bar Marcelino (Can Vermut) is famously the best vermouth spot in Menorca. Located right on the port, it’s a tavern that locals make lively and welcoming. Stop in at hora del vermut for classic tapas and local vermouth on tap.

Mercat Des Peix is a fresh fish market has a string of laid-back, all-day pintxo bars where you can cram around beer-barrel tables or find a spot on the sunny terrace to feast on tasty, tiny bites for just a few euros. It’s loud, bustling, and slightly chaotic, which is exactly what makes it great, especially around lunchtime.Order a vermouth or a Menorcan wine from a bar counter.

Deià - a hillside village of stone houses and sea views

Ca’s Patro March is up in the rocks! You climb down, order some kind of fish, vermouth, and bread.

Sa Vinya is quieter and farther out from the main stretch. Terrace tables, a good wine list, and a solid vermouth.

Seville - a warm, tiled city with that’s got it’s own kind of rhythm, and very little reinvention

Casa Morales is a classic bodega that’s large, a bit echoey, with barrels lining the walls. Vermouth is ordered at the bar and poured without any kind of showiness - usually with montaditos or your fave tapas.

Bodeguita Romero is tighter, more crowded, and known for its pringá.

San Sebastián - a coastal city where your day quietly revolves around what and where you’ll eat next

Ganbara is a Michelin guide “sport bar” you squeeze into. They’re known for their simple pintxos (try the mushroom one!).

Txepetxa is a whole restaurant built around anchovies! Prepared more ways than you thought possible. So vermouth is a must.

Barcelona - do I need to describe?? a perfect city of neighborhood bars and late dinners

Quimet & Quimet is standing-room only, with shelves of bottles and a tight menu of montaditos. The Vermouth here is house-made or well sourced.

Bar del Pla is a neighborhood staple where a vermouth and tonic fits easily into the cadence of a longer meal. My sister and I once ordered most of the tapas menu here but all I remember is the jamon and the people watching.

MMmm HOT TAKE but sometimes a Vermouth and Tonic tastes like Twisted Tea.

I’d had vermouth before (I’m VERY worldly), but last summer my sister and I found ourselves in a very vermouthless place, and necessity is the mother of beach cocktail invention.

We were at the beach in the town we grew up in, and saw a group of high schoolers (what do you call a group of high schoolers, by the way? I know it’s a murder of crows, a pride of lions, a conspiracy of lemurs, a pod of whales… a clique of teens? an annoyance?). Nothing humbles you quite like seeing high schoolers wearing the exact clothes you wore, but were much cooler and more sober? Nobody was drinking! Everyone under 22 was hydrated and well-behaved and glowing. Then we spotted a teen hauling a box of Twisted Tea. That’s what the kids are up to I guess?

Not only were we feeling old and cocktail dependent, we’d brought nothing. And beach shop at Stinson is priced like it arrived by helicopter straight from 2005 (read: bad, expensive, grocery wine). So we improvised. We found Martini RossiVermouth, a bag of ice, a bottle of soda and and orange which wasn’t weird it was Spanish. And it tasted just like complex, less sweet Twisted Tea! Herbal, bitter, and refreshing.

We felt so genius and generous, that we gave the remaining ten pounds of ice to the annoyance of teens, who I’m sure thought wow, this girls - no - WOMEN know how to drink on a beach and boy, do we look up to them! And we should absolutely wait to drink until we’re of legal age.