From Polpo’s Cynar gin fizz (Cynar is an aperitivo made with artichokes) to Milk & Honey’s hobbes fizz (that’s vodka, lemon, orange blossom, egg white and soda), spritzes are on every discerning cocktail menu from London to Lisbon and have come a long way from the white wine spritz of our student years. In fact, the spritz can be traced back to Habsburg-occupied northern Italy in the 19th century, when Austrian soldiers added a spritz of water to local wines to make them more palatable.

Today, the spritz is so popular that entire menus are devoted to them, like at the Fentimans Secret Spritz Garden in central London, which runs from 8–30 August (secretspritzgarden.com). It’s even found its way into a can: Ramona does a Ruby Grapefruit Wine Spritz (£4.95, harveynichols.com) and Marks & Spencer offers cherry juice and rosé, peach juice and white wine and aperitivo versions.

The trend is fuelled not only by the spritz’s extremely drinkable nature, but by our changing attitudes towards alcohol, as we seek something that doesn’t leave us wincing. “People want to drink lower ABV cocktails and the spritz is naturally lower in alcohol,” says Whiley. No wonder it’s the UK’s fastest-growing cocktail, with a quarter of drinkers choosing it this summer.

With that in mind, here is the Stylist guide on how to make spritzes and where to drink them.

Spritz recipes: how to make the cocktail of summer 2019