Make Winter Aperol Spritz Cocktails for the Holidays

Let’s get into the holiday spirit with aperol spritz recipes full of winter flavor for a quiet night in or festive holiday party.

We have the perfect cocktail for your holiday party.  We took the classic aperol spritz recipe and added a winter twist perfect for the holiday season.  

Traditional Aperol Spritz

The traditional recipe is one of the easiest cocktails you’ll make:  in your wine glass or champagne glass with ice, add 3 oz bubbly prosecco, 2 oz aperol, splash of club soda garnished with an orange slice.  

And we thought, why can’t we take this classic summery aperol spritz cocktail and turn it into the perfect winter spritz.  So we did.  

Winter Cocktail Recipes

It’s the time of year when we start mixing up all the festive drink recipes to celebrate the season.  Whether you’re looking for the perfect aperitif or special winter celebration cocktail for your drink station, we have lots of bubbly holiday cocktails perfect for the moment.

These new recipes are more aligned with a Christmas Aperol Spritz theme and if you’re looking for the perfect holiday cocktail for Thanksgiving, check out this blog post.  

Aperol Cocktail Recipes with a Seasonal Twist

For some reason when I think of Christmas, I immediately think of pomegranate.  I have certainly had my share of pomegranate mimosas with a fresh rosemary sprig garnish to brighten up the cocktail which is easy and delicious, but so is this!  

Pomegranate Aperol Spritz

• 3 oz Sparkling Wine
• 2 oz Aperol 
• 1 oz Pomegranate juice
• 1/2-1 oz Ginger Simple Syrup

1. In a cocktail shaker with ice, add aperol, pomegranate juice and simple syrup.  
2. Pour into your favorite glass. 
3. Top with sparkling wine.

I added frozen cranberries to this drink honestly because I forgot it was pomegranate and didn’t have any perils.  You could truly do either.  

When I was playing around this recipe, I had a can of sparkling apple cider with cherry.  I decided to try adding 1 oz of that to this recipe and it turned out to be another delicious drink.  Using seasonal ingredients like sparkling apple cider always makes these holidays cocktails even more perfect.

Winter Cranberry Aperol Spritz

I am a sucker for any cranberry juice cocktail.  So this was a no brainer and is honestly perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas or to survive the cold winter months.

• 3 oz Sparkling Wine
• 2 oz Aperol 
• 1 oz Cranberry Juice or Sparkling Cranberry 
• 1/2 Cranberry Simple Syrup (we used Cranberry Pie from Hipsters)
• Garnish with a sprig of rosemary
• Fresh cranberries (or frozen)

1. In a cocktail shaker with ice, add aperol, cranberry juice and simple syrup.  
2. Pour into your favorite glass. 
3. Top with sparkling wine.
4. Garnish with rosemary and cranberries. 

Tart Cherry Aperol Spritz

This might be my first tart cherry juice cocktail and I don’t know why because I love all things cherry.  

• 3 oz Sparkling Wine
• 2 oz Aperol 
• 1 oz Tart Cherry Juice
• 1/2-1 oz Sparkling Apple Cider with Cherry OR Sparkling Water, Cherry flavor (Optional)

1. In a cocktail shaker with ice, add aperol, tart cherry juice and simple syrup.  
2. Pour into your favorite glass. 
3. Top with sparkling wine.
4. Garnish with cocktail cherry.

TIPS:

• For most of our bubbly cocktail recipes, we use a prosecco to top.  We do this for a couple reasons, the price point for starters and I don’t ever want to use an expensive bottle of bubbly when I am changing the flavor with a cocktail.  That being said, make sure you would drink a glass of that bubbly on it’s own before you top that cocktail with it.  
• One thing I love about these holiday aperol spritz recipes (or any aperol spritz recipe for that matter) is how easy it is.  And you don’t have to use the cocktail shaker like we did in the steps.  The reason I did that is because my aperol and juices were warm and there’s nothing worse than a festive cocktail that is not cold. So if everything is chilled, pour it right into the glass.
• When we want to keep drinks chilled and not watered down or set out a drink station ahead of time, we put frozen fruit in the glass.  In these recipes you can use cranberries, cherries and even pomegranate perils. 
• Because of the simplicity of the ingredients, you can turn these three cocktails into a Make Your Own Aperol Spritz Drink Station.  If you want more recipes to choose from, head over to this post.  

Which winter spritz will you make first?

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