Finally the most magical period of the year is here: houses are decorated and the holidays are here to spend time with people you love.
You will probably pay great attention to menus for lunches and dinners with friends and family and you should also consider organising a perfectly balanced aperitif, elegant but also informal, with the perfect food and cocktails (the so called “pairing”): the best way to put guests at ease and prepare for the best dishes.
NIO high quality and ready-to-drink cocktails mean you should concentrate only on cooking…the cocktail recipes from one of the finest bartenders in the world (Patrick Pistolesi) and with premium quality spirits, will assure you the best of quality and a touch of innovation and glamour.
Holidays aperitif
The aperitif moment represents conviviality, light-heartedness and fun. It’a an Italian tradition to preserve at the bar but also at home. Especially during Christmas holidays, nothing is better than meeting your friends and family at home to drink cocktails with the perfect Christmas atmosphere. It can be quite difficult to create your favourite cocktails at home, not only do you have to buy many spirits to mix just one cocktail, but you also probably won't have the expertise of your favourite bartender! NIO Cocktails is the solution! You can receive at home premium cocktails already perfectly mixed with only premium ingredients. You only need ice and a glass. Your perfect aperitif is ready! Thanks to NIO Cocktails your aperitif at home can really become an opportunity for relaxation and fun.
Imagine a winter evening. Outside is cold and your home is embellished and ready to host your friends. The air smells of cinnamon and mistletoe, and the lighting is soft and warm. You only have to prepare some appetisers to offer to your friends. NIO will take care of the cocktails!
The perfect cocktails for an aperitif
We suggest to you perfect cocktails to taste during the aperitif. You can decide whether to compose your box with all the various cocktails to try different flavours, or if you already know which is your favourite cocktail you can also decide to compose a single-flavour box. It is the perfect solution for aperitifs at home during the holiday season, but also an original and exclusive gift for anyone who appreciates the quality and loves to spend moments of absolute relaxation at home.
Anyway, let’s talk about cocktails...
The perfect Italian aperitif: a cocktail bar in your living room
Are you organising a perfect Italian aperitif with traditional food from Italy?
Try two classical Italian cocktails: Negroni and Milano-Torino. Two cocktails with strong flavours, intense, bitter, timeless.
Negroni has also the most curious and interesting story. It was created in 1919 at Caffè Casoni in Florence when count Camillo Negroni asked the bartender Fosco Scarzelli a stronger Americano, which was his favourite cocktail.
The barman used a bit of gin instead of soda, so Negroni was born. Soon, people went to Caffè Casoni to taste Negroni cocktail, which became the Italian aperitif par excellence and one of the best Campari cocktail. Our master mixologist, Patrick Pistolesi, created a unique recipe for NIO Cocktails, mixing it with: Gin Tanqueray, Vermouth Cocchi, Bitter Campari and Angostura. Only the premium quality ingredients to an exceptional tasting experience.
The Milano-Torino: It is another symbol of Italian aperitif. It was created at Caffè Milano by Gaspare Campari in 1860, and it was for a long time a classical Campari cocktail.
This cocktail simply contains Vermouth from Turin and Campari from Milan to create a strong but balanced taste, because Vermouth attenuate the bitter taste of Campari. Garnished with a touch of orange, the Mi-To is a fresh and refined cocktail that will bring you back to the simplest times and flavours.
NIO Cocktails propose it to you with: Vermouth Cocchi, Bitter Campari and Angostura.
The two cocktails are both perfect for the aperitif food which many people prefer: focaccia. In fact, the bitter goes well with those oily or buttery dishes that need to refresh and cleanse the palate and then move quickly to another dish, as used to do during the aperitif. In general, they go well with flavours with distinctly salty, but also brackish notes.
Glamour and international cocktails wherever you want: with NIO you need only one click
If your apertivo instead has the most varied dishes for taste and origin, it can be cool to add internationality to the tasting of your cocktails. Here we serve you at your choice, directly on the sofa of your home, a perfect Cosmopolitan, an intriguing Garden Of Russia or the exclusive Gin Proved.
Very few cocktails are immediately recognisable as the Cosmopolitan. Simple and iconic, this sour and sweet recipe became popular at the end of the 90s after the successful television series, Sex and the City, brought it to the attention of all. Even today the Cosmopolitan is extremely popular and its typical pink colour makes it also the most photographed cocktail. The perfect gift for friends with a fashionable Instagram feed!
The Cosmopolitan is perfect to match with dishes characterised by a sweet and bitter contrast, just like this cocktail. Thinking of ideal finger food to pair with would be cheese and pear or a delicious cheese platter combined with fruit preserves.
Another interesting choice for the home aperitif with a touch of innovation is the Garden of Russia cocktail. An exclusive reinterpretation of the classic Vodka Sour by Patrick Pistolesi, who added to the classic one the Elderberry Liqueur Bols. This last ingredient transforms this cocktail into an exclusive NIO Cocktail, a fresh, fragrant and fruity tasting experience.
Perfect with an appetiser to lighten the meal with a bit of freshness, perfect with, for example, ascolana olives or dried fruit, which are rich in fat.
With this next cocktail you will exalt the palate but also the curiosity of your guests: it’s Gin Proved. Another exclusive recipe by Patrick Pistolesi. A classic and fresh Gin Sour, enriched by Parfait Amour, a violet liqueur and a scent of rose petals and almonds. A cocktail for real connoisseurs who will appreciate the delicate balance of the ingredients: Tanqueray Gin, Liquor Bols Parfait Amour, Citric Acid and Liquid Sugar.
Amaze your guests with the fascinating story of the Parfait Amour: created by Lucas Bols to donate a fragrant and unique elixir to ladies of high lineage, finding the most expensive spices in the world such as Madagascar vanilla and almonds and then perfume it with rose petals and violet; in that time we can talk about a real alchemist’s work and the result is a fresh liquor, Exotic and fragrant, whose floral tones intoxicate us at every sip.
A tasting moment so precious is certainly combined with equally refined dishes: we propose the king of the tables during Christmas holidays, smoked salmon, or a shrimp cocktail as in general all seafood.
Home Etiquette Aperitif 4.0!
As you can see, with NIO Cocktails you are spoilt for choice with options to organise your party aperitif, or to give a friend a really special and exclusive gift. The Christmas atmosphere you know will never be the same again and your table will be enriched with the premium quality that only NIO Cocktails can offer!