Name: Summer Manhattan
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1 ounce Aperol; 1 ounce Sweet Vermouth; 1 dash Angostura Bitters; 3 oz Prosecco; 1 maraschino cherry (for garnish)

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This Summer Manhattan is a light summery twist on a Manhattan. Aperol and Prosecco step for the rye whiskey in this fun, bubbly cocktail!

Two cocktail glasses filled with a reddish brown cocktail, garnished with a cherry.

Sparkling Summer Cocktail

I'm calling this a Summer Manhattan because that is what Valerie Bertinelli called it. I was perusing through her "One Dish at a Time" cookbook and was intrigued by the sound of this cocktail.

In this recipe, Aperol and Prosecco take the place of Rye Whiskey. That's quite a substitution. One might argue that it takes it out of the Manhattan Cocktail range.

If you think it's too far gone from a Manhattan, then may I suggest our Classic Manhattan.

If you're willing to stray a little bit, then our Maple Manhattan and our Cranberry Manhattan might be more your style.

But I'm not going to quibble. We loved this cocktail, it was light, bubbly and perfect for warm weather (or cool!) sipping.

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Bottles of Aperol, bitters, sweet vermouth and Prosecco.

Ingredients

Aperol - a bright red, bitter Italian aperitif. Campari would be an interesting substitution.

Bitters - the original recipe called for Angostura Bitters. We had a bottle of Cherry Bark Vanilla from Bittercube. This would be a fun cocktail to experiment with different bitters.

Sweet Vermouth

Prosecco - use your favorite brand.

Photo collage showing Aperol and vermouth being poured into an ice filled glass.

Directions

We decided to build this cocktail in glass. So fill a double rocks glass or a flute with ice.

Add 1 ounce of Aperol.

Pour in one ounce of Sweet Vermouth.

Add a dash of bitters and stir. (Sorry I put my photos together in the collage out of order!)

Top with Prosecco.

Garnish with a cherry - we used our Homemade Maraschino Cherries.

Two cocktails on a mirror, darkish red in color and garnished with a cherry.

We really enjoyed this cocktail. It was light and refreshing. It would be the perfect party or backyard barbecue cocktail - lower in alcohol and easy to customize.

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Two dark brown cocktails garnished with a cherry sitting on a mirrored surface.

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5 from 20 votes