Hugo Spritz

The Hugo, or Hugo Spritz, is a modern classic cocktail that features St-Germain elderflower liqueur, Prosecco, seltzer, and mint. 

Invented around 2005, the drink first appeared as a creation of bartender Roland Gruber in the Northern Italian town of Naturno, near the Austrian border.

Starting out as a regional cocktail, the Hugo went through a few iterations before reaching its current form. Originally called the Otto, Gruber created the drink with a base of lemon balm cordial rather than the current elderflower liqueur, telling weekly German news magazine Der Spiegel that he eventually changed the name to what he thought was the better-sounding "Hugo," and swapped the cordial for an elderflower base. 

Though the drink grew in popularity throughout Europe during the 2010s, it took a while to jump continents. In the U.S., a similar drink called the St-Germain Cocktail, created by cocktail expert Simon Difford, was being pushed by its namesake brand to market its new elderflower liqueur which launched in 2007. 

Similar in composition to the Hugo, the St-Germain Cocktail combined elderflower with white wine and seltzer. It used a higher proportion of liqueur for a sweeter profile while omitting Prosecco in favor of a combination of still wine and club soda, which held considerable popularity for a time.

At the turn of the 2020s, as the Aperol Spritz experienced a renewed surge in popularity alongside the broader category of Italian aperitifs, the Hugo — now commonly referred to as the Hugo Spritz — finally skyrocketed into the global cocktail canon.

Why the Hugo Spritz works

While the Hugo’s stateside forebear, the St-Germain Cocktail, gained fans with its sweeter profile, the Hugo Spritz opts for balance through subtlety. Using only ½ ounce of elderflower liqueur to the U.S. version’s 1½ ounces, it compensates for this reduction with a higher proportion of sparkling wine, using 4 ounces of Prosecco rather than a split base of 2 ounces of white wine (or Champagne) and seltzer.

The result is a drier spritz that focuses on aromatics and effervescence over body and sugar. By diluting a smaller amount of elderflower liqueur, the more subtle botanical notes come through, while the extra bubbles from the combined Prosecco and sparkling water enhance the floral aspects of the Hugo.

The key to the drink is the garnish, a large bouquet of mint sprigs perched above the drink. This results in a heady perfume of mint with each sip, affecting how the cocktail tastes, and magnifying the cooling effect of the Hugo Spritz. Finally, a lemon wheel provides just a touch of aromatic citrus oils and a suggestion of tartness to bring the cocktail into balance.