Replace prosecco with a chilled dry rose.
Why you are pouring this tonight
The Hugo, in its original Aperol-spritz-adjacent form, is what you drink when someone has booked you a long lunch in Padstow and the waiter is trying to convince you that elderflower is having a moment. It is fine. It is also slightly too sweet by your second one, and by the third you are negotiating with the bar staff about whether anyone in this hemisphere has actually had a properly balanced Hugo since the last federal election.
Swap the prosecco for a chilled dry rose, ideally a Provencal or a Mornington Peninsula pinot rose like the one Ten Minutes by Tractor pours, and the whole thing finds a second gear. The bubbles soften. A proper red-berry note replaces the apple-juice sweetness. Mint and lime stay because mint and lime are non-negotiable. It becomes the drink for long lunches at the back of someone’s garden in February, the kind that start at noon and end at “is anyone hungry yet” o’clock.
What changes from the Hugo Spritz
Prosecco out, sparkling rose (or still rose + soda) in.
What to pour it alongside
Grilled salmon, strawberry-goat-cheese salads, watermelon and feta.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Fill a balloon glass with ice.
- Add St-Germain. Top with rose and soda.
- Slap mint; drop in. Add raspberries.
Nutrition
Want the classic? Our Hugo Spritz recipe is here.
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