This is THE spring cocktail for 2026 (The Spring Awakening)

I have been dunking on vodka for a long time. It's since the beginning of this channel. But today, I'm gonna show you a vodka cocktail I actually like. It has two names. It's called the Winter's Nap and Spring Awakening. And the only thing that makes the two things different is the garnish. It's the same drink. Because we're going into spring, I'm gonna focus on the Spring Awakening. But if you watch how I make it, then you know how to make the Winter's Nap. This also happens to be one of our mix-alongs, so if you already have the bottles and you're ready to go, awesome. If you got them at House of Bitter Bear, even better. Thank you so much. Let's get to it, to the bar. The history of this cocktail, the Winter's Nap slash Spring Awakening. It only dates back about 10 years ago. It's found in the Waldorf Astoria bar book, which came out in, I wanna say 2016. It's not to be confused with the old Waldorf Astoria bar book. This one is a revised and expanded edition written by Frank Caiafa. And the drink was created by Frank as well. Now, in the book, this three-ingredient cocktail, it says that it was created for a vodka event. So clearly there's gonna be vodka in it. We can't change that. I mean, you can, but we're not going to change that. Also, it was for the Peacock Alley bar at the hotel. Now, Peacock Alley, this alley originally was from the original Waldorf and Astoria hotel because they were separated by an alley and it was called Peacock Alley. And that's where all the fancy people walked around and strutted or something. By the way, the Waldorf Astoria hotel now is not where it once was. It used to be where the Empire State Building is. So the two names, what's the deal with the two names? So the two names, they're both, the Winter's Nap and the Spring Awakening are the same drink. It just comes down to how you garnish it. As Frank says in the book, if you garnish it with a sprig of rosemary, you've made yourself a Winter's Nap. If you garnish it with a zest of orange or a zest of lemon, you've created a Spring Awakening. All right? So that's what we're going to be doing today. I've actually tried it with all the different garnishes and it does alter the drink ever so slightly. I'm okay with the two names based on just the garnishing. At first, when I read that, I thought, eh, it's a little gimmicky. It doesn't really matter, but I'm okay with it now. We're going to be making the Spring Awakening with an orange zest. But before we do that, a quick word from our sponsor. Today's video is sponsored by me. House of Bitter Bear is the place online that you can get booze delivered right to your face. It's powered by Curiata, curated by me, and catered to the recipes we make here on the channel. In fact, the bottles that I'm about to pull out to show you, you can get over on House of Bitter Bear. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Back to the film. All right, so mix along, mix along. We're making vodka cocktails. We're surprising the world. To make the Winter's Nap or Spring Awakening, you'll need vodka. We'll need vodka. This is a mix along, not a you do it. This is, I'm doing it with ya. We'll need vodka, Aperol, and Cocchi Americano. Bianco. There is also a Cocchi Americano Rose, but we're going with the Bianco. So we've got vodka as the base. I am using St. George All-Purpose Vodka for whatever your purpose may be with this vodka. Today we'll be drinking it. St. George makes some great stuff out of California. Some great gins. I use their Absinthe quite a bit. Whatever your favorite vodka is, that's gonna do great in this cocktail. Why is it that I'm good with the vodka in this drink? Usually I like to swap out other base spirits, but here's the thing. If you look at these ingredients, the Aperol and the Cocchi Americano both have a slightly bitter finish and they're delicate. The Aperol is a little sweeter and it has a soft bitterness. The Cocchi Americano has a bitterness with a soft sweetness. So they work really well together and both of them have a delicate flavor profile. So the vodka, it's just there to keep this drink from getting too cloying. Know what I mean? It's there to kind of thin it out, but also give it a little bit of backbone, but not say, hey, I'm here, simply browning out the cocktail and making it a nice sipping drink. Now the garnish, you're gonna want either an orange and a lemon or the sprig of rosemary. This is kind of a funny sprig of rosemary. Also, I have not said anything. I didn't even hint this out. I'm gonna make a bonus cocktail. I'm gonna take these three ingredients, add something else, and we're gonna come up with a different cocktail. I'm calling it the Early Thaw. Get it? It's like right in between the winter and the spring. All right, it's not that brilliant, but it's a good drink. So stick around for that. With that, let's build. Because this is a mix along, I'm gonna be going a little bit slower than usual so that you can actually mix along with me. Now, if I'm going too slow for you, you're welcome to fast forward. I won't be hurt by that. Also, I'm adjusting the ratios a little bit, just a little bit for my taste. You're welcome to do the same. We'll start with the vodka. In the mixing glass, one ounce of vodka. Be sure you go right to the top of the jigger. I know a lot of times when I've talked people through this, they don't fill it all the way to the top, and then when you have your finished cocktail, it comes up short. Now let's add one ounce of the Cocchi Americano. You could also use Le Blanc here, but it is gonna be less bitter. There we go. And finally, half an ounce of the Aperol. A lot of people compare this to Campari. It's a lot less bitter, a little bit more sweetness up front. I think it's actually quite different. Half an ounce, this is less than what Frank called for in his recipe, but I like this ratio. Okay, now go grab your ice, drop it into your mixing glass, and we will stir. I'm gonna be stirring this for a little while because my freezer is very cold. So this ice is very hard, and it takes a little while for it to dilute. If you're not familiar with how to stir a drink, the whole idea here is to not add too much air to the drink. You wanna mix it up without agitating it too much. So that's why when we stir, we don't go back and forth and mix up that ice and add air bubbles. If you don't have a bar spoon, a real easy way to get started with this is a chopstick. A lot of times I'll say, oh, like 30 seconds or so, but actually for me, it's over a minute that I will stir because that ice is so cold. When I'm at home making cocktails, my ice there is not as cold, and it melts a little bit faster. So things to look for with a mixing glass is a little condensation on the side. Also watch the edges of the ice. Once those corners start to round off and the ice falls into the drink, these are signs that the drink is about ready. So I'm getting close. I'm watching one cube, this one right here. I want it to sink down a little bit more. And I'm also seeing that it's fogging up here. So I know that it's cold. There we go. All right, let's stop right there. I would say in general, most people under dilute their cocktails. So don't be scared to mix it a little bit longer or add a little bit more ice. Grab your low ball glass and some ice. I've got a nice chilled low ball. Boom, there it is. Drop in your Bojumbo ice chunk or cubes, whatever it is you're using. Then we can strain the cocktail into the glass. It's a pretty color, I gotta say, right? So now is the point when we decide whether or not we wanna make a winter's nap or a spring awakening. I've got all the things. I've got a little sprig of rosemary here. If you were to wake that up just like that, drop it on there. You've got yourself the winter's nap. Smells really nice. It smells wintery, but that's not what I want. And we are making a spring awakening. So you have your choice between an orange or a lemon. If you have the lemon, it's going to bring out the flavors of the Cocchi Americano. The orange is gonna do the same thing with the Aperol. And I really like the orange with this build because we have less Aperol than we do the Cocchi Americano. As always, feel free to experiment and see what you like best. What is it? One dry, sad cutting board. I am sorry. Like a nice big swath and express the oils. Cross the top. Hit the sides. Clean up the edges. Cut this into a parallelogram like that. And then now let's cut a little slice right in the middle. See? Roll that up because we want it to have a natural curve. Give it a squeeze. And then you can just put it right on the edge of the glass. There we go. Like that. I think that looks pretty sharp. Don't you? Well, well, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Spring Awakening. Cheers. Or did you make a winter's nap? Let's go in for a quick sip. But remember, I'm gonna show you how to make another cocktail after this. So stick around. Cheers. Yeah, see, I think that's nice. I think it's really good. It has a nice silkiness to it. A little bit of weight. Both the Cocchi and the Aperol have some sugar, but it's not a really sweet cocktail. It actually finishes a little bitter. The vodka is there to keep it from being too syrupy. I don't get a strong ethanol finish. Of course, in the past, I've always said, you know, try different base spirits to swap out that vodka. In fact, Frank himself even said, you can try this with a light gin. I think that would be really good. But I would be curious to try this with tequila or maybe like a rum agricole. I think that that would also be good. But you don't wanna go too heavy because the delicate flavors of the Aperol and the Cocchi Americano might not behave well. You'd have to just try it. I'm gonna take one more sip and then I'm gonna show you something else you can make with these bottles plus one more. Let's move on to the Early Thaw. Now, this is essentially the same cocktail reconfigured with a little bit of sparkling wine added to it. It's a spritz. If you want, you can serve this in a big wine glass like an Aperol spritz, but I'm gonna serve this on the rocks in a low ball. We can build this right in the glass. To make the Early Thaw in a low ball, add some ice. Let me get it all in there. And we'll start with the vodka. I'm only gonna go half an ounce here because this is a spritz kind of based on the Aperol spritz, but we'll add just a little bit of vodka. Three quarters of an ounce of the Aperol. So just a little bit more Aperol. And then three quarter ounce of the Cocchi Americano. Just right on top in the glass. No big deal. And top it off with some sparkling wine. I've got a little bottle of Prosecco, but you could use Cava. Maybe not a real bready champagne, but whatever sparkling wine you want is gonna work. A nice dry bubbly wine. About three ounces or so. And if you wanna keep this true to spritz specs, then you're gonna wanna top it off with a little bit of club soda. This is just gonna be like three quarters of an ounce, maybe. Just like that. Half an ounce. And that's optional. That's up to you. We'll give that a stir. Make a big mess. Little sip. And for a garnish, I'm gonna drop in a lemon wheel. Again, you could do an orange wheel like you would in Aperol spritz, but like I mentioned with the other cocktails, that orange is gonna pull out the Aperol, but I wanna pull out the Cocchi in this one. So just drop in a lemon wheel. As it sits, you'll get more of the lemon notes, but that's it. The early thaw, pretty simple. Cheers. Yeah, that's really good. It has more depth than an Aperol spritz. I don't know where this would really line up in terms of ABV. This one, the Spring Awakening, is a little bit more punchy, obviously, but I think it's really nice. So yeah, there it is. Pretty simple, right? And you get to use it with the same three bottles that you already have. Ozzy, you wanna give these a try? All right, this is the Spring Awakening. Oh, it's soft. It is soft, right? All right, so this is the early thaw. Oh, that's yummy. I like this one. You like that one? Do you prefer that one? Yes. Yeah, the bubbles give it a nice dry finish. It's like a slightly more bitter Aperol spritz. All right, so what'd you think? Are you gonna make these? Have you made these? Did you make these with me? I sure hope so. If you did, thank you so much. If you're just here to watch and hang out and have a good time, thank you for that too. I appreciate all of you. Remember, if you didn't grab these bottles and you still want to, head on over to H-O-B-B. I don't know why I said that. Hob, House of Bitter Bear. And also, check us out over on Patreon. Starting to make more content over there and we're having a lot of fun doing it. We've got exclusive after hours episodes, sneak peeks, link down below as always. Thank you all for watching. I'll see you next time. Cheers.