Drinks of the Month

Drink of the week: Crodino

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on June 22 2018 at 10:58

More and more people I talk to seem to be cutting down on booze - or cutting it out entirely. That may be for obvious reasons like becoming pregnant or being on medication with which alcohol is incompatible but it’s definitely a trend - just as eating less meat is increasingly common.

The problem for most of us is what to drink when we're not drinking and the Italians as usual have it better nailed than most. Witness Crodino, a deliciously bitter alcohol-free drink that I discovered in Venice and which is an admirable substitute for an Aperol spritz. (Perhaps unsurprisingly as it’s owned by the same company)

It comes in dinky little 10cl bottles which you can simply serve on the rocks or, as I prefer, with a good splash of soda. Add a slice of orange and a large green olive and you’ve got yourself a sophisticated aperitivo. And it’s only 61 calories a bottle.

The only downside is the virulent orange colour* which of course applies to Aperol too and the fact that it’s at least twice as expensive here as in Italy. But at the moment I can't find anything comparable in the UK.

You can probably get it from your local Italian deli (I can from mine, Divino in Bristol who sell it for £15 a 10 bottle pack) or you can order it from Amazon (the original version is nicer than the blood orange one, IMHO)

* on the pack they warn that the colours they use may adversely affect children’s attention span and cause hyperactivity so I wouldn’t give it to your kids.

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