The mixer
With spring finally arriving, it's a great time to add some sparkle to your social life.
Whether it's French champagne, Italian prosecco or Spanish cava, bubbly cocktails are light, refreshing and not too wearing on the brain cells.
At Amici, a new Italian bar and restaurant in Wan Chai, staff serve chilled prosecco on tap, part of a growing trend across the city for the excellent Italian sparkling wine that comes without the hampagne price tag. The good thing about using cava or prosecco, which are both made using the same methods as champagne but cannot legally use the name, is there's no need to be precious about what you mix them with.
For a twist on the traditional Buck's Fizz, Amici uses fresh mandarin, instead of regular orange, juice for a stronger, tarter flavour. This means you need less juice, so the bubble count is high in the signature Puccini cocktail. Amici's Bairiki prosecco cocktail packs a lot more punch, with vodka boosting the alcohol quotient and every bartender's trusty favourite, Blue Curacao, adding a cool splash of colour. This is not a drink to make with Dom Perignon, but it works well with cheaper sparkling wines.
A variety of cavas and proseccos can be found at most supermarket chains or liquor stores such as Watson's Wine Cellar, which sells the highly palatable Segura Viudas cava at $98 a bottle and a fine Sacchetto prosecco brut at $149, far less than the near $400 needed for champagne.
You can try the Bairiki and the Puccini for $65 ($45 during happy hour, from 7pm-10pm) at Amici, 1/F, 83 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai, tel: 2866 1918.
Bairiki (above, on left)
? shot Blue Curacao
? shot vodka
Chilled prosecco
Pour chilled prosecco into an ice-cold champagne flute, then add the vodka and the Blue Curacao.
Puccini (above, on right)
1 fresh mandarin
Prosecco to top
