All about aperitivo: the history of this Italian ritual, the cocktails involved – from the Negroni to the dry martini – and where to enjoy it in Hong Kong
- Aperitivo, the ritual of drinking bitter, low-alcohol cocktails before dinner, dates back to Roman times and has evolved into a cocktail category of its own
- Drinks like vermouth, Campari and Aperol form the base of many. We reveal the best places in Hong Kong to enjoy your own moment of Italian-style conviviality
After a long day at work, there’s nothing better to take the edge off than a nice tipple.
Make it a martini, a negroni or simply a cold glass of rosé – ingesting these nectars of the gods at a bar before dinner is what prevents we adults from losing our minds on a daily basis.
This holy moment of the day is widely known as happy hour; when you can get a two-for-one deal and the drinks usually come with cheap snacks. But in Italy, the land of poets, artists and Casanovas – where everything takes a romantic turn – we call this keenly observed ritual aperitivo.
The word derives from the Latin aperire, which means “to open”, referring to the fact that these tipples were often enjoyed before a meal, designed to stimulate the appetite. Historians trace the ritual back to the heyday of the Roman Empire.
Before tucking into their banquets, Romans enjoyed a gustatio, an appetiser washed down with a glass of herbaceous honey wine. More recently, we can locate the start of the aperitivo craze in northern Italy, specifically Turin and Milan.
