Highballs
Hugo
Made with elderflower syrup · Roland Gruber, San Zeno bar, Naturns, 2005
- wine glass
- cubes
- build
Hugo
- 5 oz150 ml chilled prosecco
- ¾ oz22 ml elderflower syrup
- 66 fresh mint leaves
- 1 oz30 ml soda water (a splash)
- Fill a large wine glass with ice and add the elderflower syrup and the mint, slapped lightly first.
- Pour in the chilled prosecco and add a splash of soda water.
- Stir gently once or twice so you keep the bubbles, and garnish with a citrus wedge.
Garnish: lemon or lime wedge and a mint sprig
The syrup
In this recipe
Elderflower Syrup¾ oz22 ml
Elderflower syrup is sugar syrup infused with fresh elderflower blossoms and lemon.
Our elderflower syrup goes straight in at 3/4 oz (about 2 cl), as in the widely served version. This is the popular version, not the creator's lemon-balm original.
As printed: 2 cl lemon-balm syrup in Gruber's original; elderflower syrup (Holunderblütensirup) is now the usual choice (German Wikipedia), and 1.5 cl in Stephan Hinz's version. Some bars use elderflower liqueur (St-Germain).
Where it comes from
Bartender Roland Gruber created the Hugo in 2005 at the San Zeno bar in Naturns, South Tyrol, as an alternative to the Aperol Spritz; he named it more or less at random after rejecting 'Otto'. His original used lemon-balm syrup, but elderflower became the standard as the drink spread through German-speaking Europe by about 2010.
Source: Interview with Roland Gruber ('Auf an Hugo'), BARFUSS, 2014 by Roland Gruber, interviewed by Mara Mantinger (2014).
Checked against: BARFUSS: Interview mit AK (Roland Gruber) – Auf an Hugo · Wikipedia (German): Hugo (Cocktail) · Wikipedia: Hugo (cocktail) (history only)
Gear for this drink
OXO SteeL Angled Measuring Jigger
Zulay Kitchen 2-in-1 Metal Lemon & Lime Squeezer
Best for Fresh citrus for sours and lemonade