Tequila Spritz Recipe
Tequila, Aperol and sweet vermouth lengthened with tonic: bittersweet orange up front, a dry quinine snap at the end.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Wine glass
- ABV: 12%
- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- Blanco tequila45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Aperol30 ml (1 oz)
- Sweet red vermouth30 ml (1 oz)
- Orange bitters1 dash
- Tonic water90 ml (3 oz)
How to Make It
- Fill a wine glass with ice.
- Pour in the tequila, Aperol, sweet vermouth and bitters.
- Top with chilled tonic water and stir once, gently.
- Garnish with an orange slice.
Garnish
Orange slice
What it tastes like
It has a bitter backbone, it is carbonated and it drinks cool and easy.
The technique
Built in the glass. Ice goes into the serving glass, the ingredients go on top, and you stir once if at all. Anything carbonated goes in LAST and never gets stirred; every turn of the spoon costs you bubbles. Fill the glass to the rim with ice: less ice melts faster, not slower.
Glass and ice
A stemmed wine glass. The big bowl leaves room for ice and fruit, and gives the aroma somewhere to gather.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Blanco tequila
- Unaged tequila — the rawest form of agave flavour. If the label does not say "100% de agave", it contains cane spirit as well, and the drink will not taste the way it should.
- Aperol
- The orange aperitif, flavoured with bitter orange and rhubarb. It is Campari's gentler cousin: 11% alcohol, sweeter, far less bitter. Substituting Campari means adding sugar.
- Sweet red vermouth
- Once opened it lives IN THE FRIDGE and should be finished within a month; a bottle left at room temperature oxidises in a few weeks and sours the drink.
- Orange bitters
- Orange-peel bitters. Where Angostura brings spiced weight, this brings citrus lift; in gin and tequila drinks the two are not interchangeable.
- Tonic water
- Carbonated water made bitter by quinine — that is what separates it from soda. Sugar content varies up to twofold between brands, and that directly sets how sweet the drink lands.
The Story
Conceived as a freezer-door drink: the spirit base is batched in a bottle and kept ice-cold, then poured over ice and topped with tonic to order. The amounts here are scaled to a single serve.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Tequila Spritz mixed?
- It is built in the glass and served in a wine glass.
- How strong is a Tequila Spritz?
- Roughly 12% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Tequila Spritz be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Tequila Spritz hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.