The Hugo Spritz Overtaking Aperol Was Invented in 2005

The Hugo spritz is one of Google Summergeist's 2026 summer breakouts. "How to make a Hugo spritz at home" rose about 2,200%, and the broader spritz category is spiking — "what goes in an Aperol spritz" is also a breakout [1]. The Hugo is the lighter, floral alternative: prosecco, elderflower, mint, lime and ice.

The Hugo spritz is young. It is widely credited to barman Roland Gruber at the San Zeno bar in Naturns, South Tyrol, around 2005, as a locally rooted alternative to the Aperol spritz — swapping elderflower for bittersweet orange [2]. The spritz family itself is older, rooted in the Austro-Hungarian habit of diluting wine with sparkling water in the Veneto, then fixed by mid-20th-century bitter aperitivos such as Aperol and Campari [3].

The food-history value is that a 2,200% breakout is a roughly 20-year-old drink sitting inside a centuries-old spritz tradition. A 2026 cocktail trend is a recent branch on an old tree. For the full history of wine, see the article below.