Absolutely nothing is better than this drink if you like all variations of orange. The Aperol Zest pairs delightfully floral Pavan liqueur with zingy and slightly orange-bittered Aperol. And gin, of course! You almost don’t need the lime, but you do.

This happy accident of a gin cocktail was a huge surprise. Aperol is such a unique flavor, I started to wonder how it might be softened just a bit, while picking up the orange tones. Enter Pavan – the liqueur of orange blossoms. Sweet, but not in a way that makes you cringe. This is one of my absolute favorite drinks! Oh, I used some London dry gin to make this one.

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The Aperol Zest

The Aperol Zest is a delightful orange based cocktail, borrowing tones from Pavan and Aperol to use with gin. Add some lime juice to round it all out.

Ingredients

1 Oz. Gin
.75 Oz. Aperol
.75 Oz. Lime juice
.5 Oz. Pavan orange blossom liqueur

Instructions

Combine! Toss (carefully) your ingredients into a cocktail shaker.
Chill! Add some ice to your shaker.
Shake! I hope this part is self explanatory.
Strain into your coupe glass.

More Aperol drinks to be tempted by, and a few Pavan drinks, too.

Can you make the Aperol Zest any better?

I don’t know! I do know that you may be able to get away with lemon juice if you have it, but orange juice just doesn’t seem to work with this one. Strange, but true. Lime seems to be a great addition without taking away from any of the bitter or sweet orange flavors.

I’ll warn you that this is a drink loaded with alcohol, so use caution. It does have the tendency to disappear quickly – just be prepared.

You could add some edible flowers to everything if you really want to “instagram it up”. Personally, the Aperol Zest stands alone just fine.