The Spritz has a Differentiation Problem
Brand Insights
As an industry, we know the spritz category is growing. More brands are competing for a place at the table. The question isn’t whether there’s room for another spritz. It’s what will make the next one worth choosing.
We've been looking at where the category could go next, identifying four opportunities we think are worth exploring.
Invert the season
Spritz is deeply rooted in owning the summer. We think of an orange drink, on a sun drenched terrace. It's an incredibly successful association and it's also one that much of the category continues to reinforce. It leaves a white space for warmer spices, deeper colours and different social settings that could give spritz a place at the autumn or winter table. What would make a spritz feel as desirable in November as it does in July?
Functional benefits
There’s a space for spritz to offer more, rather than less. Many wellness-led drinks have built their proposition around what has been removed. What if we looked at what could be added? The word aperitivo comes from the idea of opening the appetite. It's an interesting piece of heritage that could inspire a new approach to the category. We're seeing functional ingredients become increasingly familiar across drinks, from electrolytes to botanicals. Could there be an opportunity to bring that thinking into aperitivo? Imagine a spritz built around a considered blend of bitters, ginger and other botanicals, with a clearly defined and substantiated functional proposition. Rather than simply putting a calorie count on the front of the pack, could a brand give consumers a different reason to choose it?
Unexpected terroir
Could the next aperitivo come from somewhere unexpected? Italian heritage, French botanicals and British provenance have become familiar territory. Brands such as Auberon, Elders, Lav'a Belle, St-Germain and Italicus have successfully built identities around ingredients with a distinct sense of place. What happens when we look further afield?
Nordic, Japanese and South American botanicals offer interesting new directions for flavour, colour and storytelling. What if we explored Japanese matcha or the broader botanical possibilities of South America? There’s an opportunity to explore ingredients outside the category’s traditional European influences.
The real opportunity isn't simply finding an unusual ingredient. It's finding one with a story strong enough to build an entire brand around.
Cross category spritz
Most innovation in the category still takes familiar forms: another aperitif, another liqueur, another ready-to-drink variation. But the appeal of spritz extends beyond the traditional serve. Its refreshing, bittersweet flavour profile could have a life elsewhere. Longboat Brewing has already taken spritz-inspired flavours into beer, demonstrating how a familiar taste can move into a completely different drinks category. It's a simple but interesting shift in thinking. Instead of asking what new flavour we can bring to spritz, perhaps we should be asking where else could spritz flavours belong? Beer, seltzers, draught formats or entirely new drinking occasions could offer a way to reach consumers without fighting for attention in an increasingly familiar space.
The question for brand owners isn’t just what's next for spritz. It’s what you can bring to the category that nobody else can.
At Studio Minerva, we help brands turn questions like these into a clear strategic direction and purposeful, beautiful design. If you’re exploring what comes next for spritz, we’d love to talk.
hello@studiominerva.co.uk
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