Bar & Restaurant recently spoke with Chris Beyer, Founder and CEO of Veso, an American Aperitif company with a mission of inspiring a more intentional drinking culture.
Beyer created Veso out of a love for wine and the desire to create a more intentional drinking experience.
"I found myself increasingly dissatisfied with the other drinking experiences I was having—one of excess, feeling like those experiences had no real intention," says Beyer. "I was thinking about how I could change that, and I started creating more meaningful drinking experiences for me and my friends—gathering around food and wine, cocktails, supper clubs. In 2017, I discovered European aperitifs (at first, it was Italian Sweet Vermouth) and fell in love with the culture surrounding it, and I realized that they were the perfect type of drink to fuel these experiences—crafted with a real process and real ingredients, easy to sip, and delicious."
While the aperitivo culture is popular in Europe, aperitifs are not as well known in the US, and Beyer sought to recreate that culture here in America. "I realized that there was an education gap in the US around these drinks, and some of them were too bitter and herbal to appeal to the consumer on the first sip," he says. "So I knew that if I wanted to get these to catch on in the US, I would have to innovate upon the flavors and spend a lot of time educating the consumer on what they are."
After many trials of testing, fermenting, and formulating in his kitchen in San Francisco, Beyer made the leap and created Veso. The brand currently offers two varieties: Strawberry Solstice and Vanilla Nightfall. They also recently launched Eclipse, a new experimental development arm for aperitifs focused on pushing the boundaries of flavor, ingredients, and process to test aperitif development at a rapid pace. The first two flavor varieties to launch within the Eclipse portfolio will be Alpine and Bitter Citrus.
Read the full Q&A below for our discussion with Chris Beyer on aperitif culture, the no- and low-alc movement, and more.
Bar & Restaurant (B&R): Tell our readers more about what aperitivo hour is.
Chris Beyer (CB): Aperitivo hour has really just started catching on in the past year in some circles, especially those natural wine bars and other innovative cocktail bars and restaurants. The idea behind aperitivo is that you have a drink with friends, always alongside some food, to cap off the work day and socialize. It’s more focused on the social interaction, rather than just going out to drink and get drunk.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen a huge wellness wave with people figuring out what’s working for them and their bodies and minds, and cutting out what isn’t. A lot of people have realized that drinking often plays an unhealthy role in their lives. Some have chosen to cut it out entirely, and others have chosen to moderate their consumption.
Aperitivo hour and the culture around it is a beautiful way for people to consume with intention and moderation. It’s easy to regret a late night of drinking when you wake up hungover, but an early evening surrounded by friends, snacks, and a drink or two will often leave you feeling fulfilled. These more intentional experiences around alcohol, like aperitivo hours, give us a healthier way to interact with alcohol than many people currently do.
B&R: Do you think the idea of the aperitif and the aperitivo hour is catching on here in the US as a drinking ritual?
CB: It absolutely is. Vermouth, Aperol, Campari, and other bitters have been popular with bartenders for years, even decades, but the end consumer hasn’t really known about them until recently. The European giants (like Campari group) have started investing a ton of marketing dollars in the US to get aperitifs to be a thing. The start of this was with Aperol, and the Campari group made the Aperol spritz a household name. The Aperol spritz is the first aperitif to really make a splash in the US, but it wasn’t sold to the consumer as an aperitif or part of aperitivo culture, just as a stand-alone drink. In more recent years, they’ve started investing in promoting all their other aperitif/vermouth brands in the US as well (which shows that these big companies have the data that supports these trends).
In the past few years, we’ve obviously seen Haus do a great job of getting the “aperitif” term out to many consumers, and they built an incredible foundation of education for a lot of consumers, though aperitif knowledge is still limited to a small percentage of the US. It’s really starting to catch on in some of the foodie scenes—innovative cocktail bars, natural wine bars, low-abv bars and restaurants. The first time I saw an aperitif section on a menu in the US was around two years ago, and since then, I’ve seen dozens more pop up. The wave is definitely starting, and I think it will continue to spread from those more innovative bars to the masses.
B&R: How are you seeing aperitif drinks being served in the on-premise? I read an article recently that argued happy hours are getting earlier/more sophisticated and turning into “aperitivo hours.” Is it in the form of earlier happy hours? Or something else?
CB: Aperitifs are so versatile—they can be served over ice to sip slowly, with sparkling water or sparkling wine as a spritz, or made into a low-abv cocktail. Aperitifs are typically a bit bitter, which helps our digestive system prepare itself for food, but also helps moderate our drinking—you can’t drink something bitter too fast; the bitterness makes you stop and appreciate it for little longer.
As far as earlier aperitivo hours, I’m not necessarily seeing that all that often, but I don’t doubt it’s happening. I think happy hour and aperitivo hour are two different things—aperitivo hour is a certain evolution of the happy hour. When Americans think happy hour, they think: cheap drinks, cheap food, which means you can get your buzz on for less money. So many dive bars and cheap restaurants have implemented mediocre happy hour menus (house wine and a cheap cocktail, with cheap wings and fries), that I feel like happy hour now has a bit of a negative connotation (or at least not a classy connotation). That’s pretty much the antithesis of aperitivo hour.
Aperitivo hour is the more sophisticated evolution of happy hour. People are going out to end their work day and socialize with friends. It’s not about saving money so much as it is about having a curated experience of food and drinks. Since aperitivo drinks are often lower-abv, people don’t use an aperitivo hour to get drunk on a budget, and the resulting experience is one that’s much more intentional and focused on the whole experience rather than the consumption of alcohol.
B&R: Aperitifs also fall into the low-ABV cocktail column, which has been gaining popularity over the last few years. What do you think is behind the interest in low-ABV and no-ABV?
CB: The low- and no-ABV movement has been booming recently as the focus on personal wellness has increased (both mental and physical wellness). Alcohol in excess can be very bad for us—both our physical health and our mental health—and many people have started to realize that the negative effects are outweighing any positive experiences.
Many people have chosen to cut out alcohol entirely, and the non-alcoholic options that have gained steam in recent years have helped make that an easier choice. For some, they see the benefit of an occasional drink but want to keep themselves from overconsuming, and low-ABV options make that easier.
I sit in the second camp. I recognize that alcohol is not inherently physically healthy, but I do see the benefits in how it helps us connect with each other, and there’s a real mental/social benefit of that. I love to gather with friends around food and drinks, and I think alcohol can play a role in that, as long as it’s in moderation or consumed with intention.
B&R: Do you foresee this category growing even more?
CB: Absolutely. We are just at the precipice of this wave, and I see this category (low-abv, aperitifs) growing a few orders of magnitude over the next decade or few decades. A few things are behind this:
- Aperitifs are just starting to catch on in the foodie/cocktail scenes. These trends tend to catch on there first and then trickle down to the mainstream over the years.
- Americans love global culture, especially when it comes to food and beverage (see gin from London, tequila and mezcal from Mexico, etc). We are already seeing aperitivo culture gain steam, and I think the American aperitivo culture will continue to flourish and define itself.
- People are continuing to prioritize wellness, and I don’t see this going away anytime soon. With that, I think people will continue to seek out lower-ABV options and experiences. The low-ABV wave has only just begun, and most people still don’t know about it or that it’s an option. More education from brands, bars, and restaurants will help it continue to grow.
- Generation Z is drinking less than any other generation. While I don’t think that Gen-Z will get rid of alcohol entirely, I believe that when many of them begin to incorporate alcohol into their lives in some way, they will often choose healthier, lower-ABV options and be choosy about their experiences and consumption habits.
B&R: Do you have any recommendations for how the on-premise can incorporate non-alc or low-alc cocktails onto their menus?
CB: Using aperitifs as the “base” in a cocktail instead of spirits is a great way to create lower-ABV versions of classics—using our Alpine aperitif instead of gin, our Bitter Citrus aperitif instead of Campari, our Vanilla Nightfall in place of whiskey. Vermouth, aperol, and some lower-ABV amaros also work really well as a base.
Another classic is the spritz—we tend to think of the Aperol spritz as “the” go-to spritz, but you can make one out of any type of vermouth, aperitif, or liqueur—just mix up 2 oz of an aperitif with 2-3 oz of sparkling water or sparkling wine and garnish with citrus or herbs. If a bar has a sparkling wine by-the-glass, it’s so easy to add a spritz to the menu. Just keep an aperitif (or a few) behind the bar and mix a few ounces of that into your by-the-glass sparkling wine for a spritz.
As for non-alc, there are so many great zero-ABV spirits out there nowadays that can easily be incorporated into classic cocktail recipes. And I’m seeing a lot of innovative bartenders emulating cocktail-like flavor profiles through the use of fresh juices, spices, and botanicals.
B&R: Can you share one of your favorite cocktail recipes?
CB: A restaurant in Venice, California made this one a while back, and I still think about it.
Midnight Spritz
2 oz Strawberry Solstice Veso
3 oz Prosecco
¼ oz balsamic vinegar
½ oz simple syrup
Serve over ice in a wine glass, garnish with a basil leaf
Another favorite of mine is a lighter riff on the Negroni (technically a lower-ABV Negroni)
The Alpine Negroni
1 oz Veso Eclipse Alpine
1 oz Veso Eclipse Bitter Citrus (or Campari)
1 oz Blanc Vermouth
Add all ingredients to a rocks glass over a large ice cube, garnish with an orange peel.
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