After a recent girls’ weekend driving up California Highway 1 filled with car trouble, storytelling, and late nights, I came up with this Lillet Spritz to toast our memories. I was ISO something refreshing and a tad sweet, like an elegant take on hard lemonade. This Lemonade Lillet Spritz Cocktail Recipe is light enough to sip on while you chat away the hours but still strong enough to wash away the hardest work weeks!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy, light, and subtle, this Lemonade Lillet Spritz Cocktail Recipe is the ideal warm-weather cocktail. It’s bubbly, sweet and refreshing, made with Lillet Blanc, gin, lemon, honey, and soda water.
Ingredients In A Lillet Spritz
As opposed to a classic Aperol Spritz, this cocktail is not regulated, as I came up with on a whim. Easy, light, and subtle, this Lemonade Lillet Spritz Cocktail is the ideal warm-weather cocktail. It’s bubbly, sweet, and refreshing, made with Lillet Blanc, gin, lemon, honey, and soda water.
Here is what you’ll need to make this Lillet Spritz:
- Fresh Lemon – The base for the hard lemonade flavor.
- Honey or simple syrup – We prefer honey for a floral note.
- Chilled Lillet Blanc – The classic choice is Lillet Blanc but we also like to make this with Lillet Rosé for a twist.
- Botanical gin – As in the more modern style gins with less juniper (think Hendricks)
- Ice cubes – To keep everything cool and help balance the drink.
- Chilled club soda – To give it that spritz-y bubbliness!
- Fresh basil leaves or tarragon or mint leaves – For an herbal garnish
How To Make This Recipe
These are the instructions that you’ll need to follow to make this recipe:
- Make The Horse’s Neck Garnish: To remove the zest from the lemons, use a paring knife or Y peeler and, while rotating the lemon, carefully remove the peel in one long, continuous strip (avoiding the white pith).
- Make The Lemon Lillet Spritz Cocktail: In the bottom of a balloon wine glass or Tom Collins glass, stir together honey or simple syrup and lemon juice until dissolved and thinned out. Add the Lillet Blanc and gin and stir again.
Place the horse’s neck garnish against the inside of the glass and add ice cubes to fill it. Add the soda water, then use a bar spoon to stir the mixture until it’s thoroughly chilled. Garnish with herbs, if using, and serve immediately.
What Is The Difference Between A Spritz And A Spritzer?
A spritzer is a chilled alcoholic drink historically made by diluting white wine with carbonated water or sparkling mineral water.
The drink is said to have originated in the 19th century when Austrian soldiers traveled around the then-Austrian Empire and diluted the wines of Northern Italy with bubbly water until the alcohol content was lowered and more similar to that of beer.
The word spritz comes from Austrian German spritzen meaning to splash or spray. These cocktails have the exact origin, but traditionally, a spritzer is white wine diluted with soda water, with no ice or garnish. Meanwhile, the Spritz is an IBA-regulated cocktail best known as being made with a bitter liqueur or amaro.
Horse’s Neck Cocktail Garnish
This cocktail is made with a long spiral of lemon that’s often called a horse’s neck garnish. Confusing the situation a bit is the fact that there is a classic cocktail known as a Horse’s Neck.
To make a horse’s neck garnish, the key is to use a Y-shaped peeler to pull almost the entirety of a lemon peel off in one long piece. The name comes about because the spiral is arranged in a cocktail glass in a way that resembles a horse’s neck. Here, we’re spiraling the entirety of the lemon spiral inside a serving glass for maximum lemon flavor.
Easier Take On This Cocktail
This cocktail is also similar to a gin and tonic in that it’s gin and lots of ice and water. So, if you want something similar but different, check out this Spanish Gin And Tonic Cocktail.
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Lemonade Lillet Spritz Cocktail Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 medium lemon for garnish
- 1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/2 ounce honey or simple syrup
- 2 ounces chilled Lillet Blanc
- 1 ounce Hendricks Gin or other botanical gin
- Large ice cubes
- 3 ounces chilled club soda
- 1 sprig fresh basil leaves or tarragon or mint leaves, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Make The Horse's Neck Garnish: To remove the zest from the lemons, use a paring knife or Y peeler and, while rotating the lemon, carefully remove the peel in one long, continuous strip (avoiding the white pith).
- Make The Lemon Lillet Spritz Cocktail: In the bottom of a balloon wine glass or Tom Collins glass, stir together honey or simple syrup and lemon juice until dissolved and thinned out. Add the Lillet Blanc and gin and stir again.Place the horse's neck garnish against the inside of the glass and add ice cubes to fill (and hold the garnish in place). Add the soda water, then use a bar spoon to stir the mixture until it's thoroughly chilled. Garnish with herbs if using, and serve immediately.
