Why Is Everyone Suddenly Putting Olives in Their Syringes?
Four years ago, Campari launched an aggressive campaign to make Aperol Spritz the drink of the summer. It worked. The bright red-orange drink has filled the patios of bars everywhere, and while its grip has loosened a bit since 2018, the fizzy cocktail is still there . But this year, I noticed a slight modification: instead of a single orange mug (or crescent-shaped wedge), the sprits are garnished with salted green olives.
Salted olives in a predominantly sweet, slightly bitter drink might seem counterintuitive, but they’ve always been there. The Venetian spritz was created in Venice (apparently) in 1920 and part of that original recipe was an olive garnish. It’s not clear why the folks at Campari have omitted olives from their recipe – I’ve reached out to the company for comment, but they haven’t responded yet – but my gut tells me they removed it out of respect for American drunks, as we can be weird. about mixing salty and spicy with sweet and citrus. (This is my guess, but we are the main group on a global scale.)
In terms of flavor, I think olives make a lot of sense, especially if you prefer bitterer varieties like Campari or Cynar over Aperol, which is the sweetest offering in the genre. The addition of salted olives adds another element of taste to the aperitif – instead of sweet, bitter and slightly sour, salty sharpness also appears in the taste.
Even if olives were part of the OG cocktail recipe, I still didn’t understand why I was suddenly seeing them splashed all over my Instagram feed. I contacted food and drink author Alicia Kennedy to see if she had any insight into the recent salt sprit twist. “I think people just love olives,” she wrote to me via a direct message on Twitter. “Along with the glass stone, it creates a sophisticated atmosphere. I think the martini renaissance has definitely made olives a more popular garnish for spritz.” Alicia also thinks the garnish makes sense in terms of flavor combinations: “In my opinion, the salt complements that sweetness and bitterness better than the orange,” she wrote.
I, for one, am glad that the olives made their way back into the spray. To make your own Venetian drink, simply add an olive or two to any spritz recipe , in our case without the orange. (You know me, though I’m a big fan of multiple side dishes .)