Versin is a Spanish 0.0% aperitif in the vermouth style, made by Espadafor from an infusion of botanicals — clove, cinnamon and ginger leading, with bitter orange and citrus zest behind them. Naturally sweet, deeply spiced, herbaceous, and properly bitter on the finish. Full-bodied in the glass rather than thin. Never fermented, so it is 0.0% by nature rather than by removal.
Below are ten drinks built around it, ordered from the simplest to the most involved, and each one says why it works.
First: vermouth is the easiest category to pour at 0.0% — here is why
Most spirits lose something structural when the alcohol comes out. Vermouth loses less, for one reason: the classics were already built with vermouth as the largest ingredient, not the supporting one. An Americano is vermouth, a bitter and soda — there is no base spirit in it at all. A Negroni Sbagliato is famously the Negroni with the gin left out. A Marianito is vermouth with a splash of everything else. These drinks were low-proof on purpose a century before anyone asked for a 0.0% shelf, which means the 0.0% version is not an adaptation. It is the same drink.
The four levers still apply — and one of them changes shape here:
- Acid. Fresh citrus. This is what gives the drink a finish instead of a fade, and Versin needs it more than a dry spirit would.
- Bitterness. Tonic, a bitter aperitif, citrus pith, an olive brine. Bitterness is what makes a drink read as structured rather than sweet.
- Texture. Carbonation, or aquafaba. Versin already arrives with more body than a clear spirit, so you are topping up, not building from nothing.
- Salt. An olive on the side is not decoration — it is the salt lever, delivered on a stick. Spain worked this out a long time ago.
The one thing to leave out: sugar. Versin carries 16 g of sugars per 100 ml, so the sweetness is already in the bottle. Almost every classic recipe below calls for simple syrup, and almost every time you should skip it and reach for lemon instead. That single swap is the difference between a Versin drink that tastes composed and one that tastes like a soft drink.
1. The Vermut de Grifo
100ml Versin · one large ice cube · orange twist · one good olive
Pour it very cold, straight from the fridge, over a single large cube in a short tumbler. Twist the orange peel over the surface and drop it in. Put the olive on a stick across the rim, or in a small dish beside the glass.
Why it works: this is the producer's own serve and the standard pour across Spain at midday, and the olive is the whole trick. Salt suppresses bitterness that has run too far and lifts aromatics at the same time, so alternating a sip with a bite of something salty makes the clove and orange read louder than they do on their own. Use one big cube, not four small ones — less surface area, slower dilution, and the drink stays cold instead of going watery.
2. Versin con Sifón
75ml Versin · 100ml soda water · orange wheel
Fill a wine glass with ice, add the Versin, then pour the soda down the inside of the glass so the bubbles survive. One gentle stir, orange wheel in.
Why it works: ordering vermut con sifón is a Madrid habit, and it does two jobs at once. Carbonation supplies texture, and the dilution pulls the sugar down to somewhere you can drink for an hour. The bubbles also carry aromatics up out of the glass — the same job the alcohol used to do.
3. The Versin & Tonic
50ml Versin · 150ml tonic water · sprig of rosemary · lime wedge
Build over plenty of ice in a large wine glass. Slap the rosemary against your palm before it goes in — that wakes the oil without bruising the needles.
Why it works: tonic's quinine is a genuine bitterness, and it pushes directly against Versin's sweetness rather than sitting alongside it. Rosemary is the deliberate part: it is resinous and slightly medicinal, which is exactly the register the clove and cinnamon are already in, so it reads as part of the bottle rather than a garnish on top of it.
4. The Americano
45ml Versin · 45ml Melati Botanical Aperitif · 90ml soda water · orange slice
Build in a tumbler over ice, stir once, half an orange slice in.
Why it works: this is the most important drink on the list. The Americano has never contained a base spirit — it is vermouth, a bitter and soda, full stop. So there is nothing here to work around and nothing missing. Melati brings the real bitterness that keeps the whole thing from collapsing into sweetness, and the soda handles texture. Make this one first if you want to know whether the 0.0% bar is worth building.
5. The Negroni Sbagliato
30ml Versin · 30ml Melati Botanical Aperitif · So Jennie Paris Blanc to top · orange twist
Add the Versin and Melati to a rocks glass over one large cube, stir briefly to chill, then top with So Jennie. Express a broad orange peel over the surface.
Why it works: sbagliato means mistaken — the drink exists because a bartender in Milan reached for sparkling wine instead of gin. The gin was never coming back, and nobody has minded since. The sparkling wine brings acidity and carbonation together, which is a more useful pair here than the gin would have been, and it lightens a base that is naturally sweet. Pour the So Jennie last and do not stir again.
6. The Vermouth Cassis, rebalanced
60ml Versin · 15ml blackcurrant cordial · 20ml lemon juice · soda water to top · lemon twist
Build the first three over ice in a tall glass, stir to combine properly, then top with soda.
Why it works: the original Pompier is dry vermouth and a heavy pour of cassis, because dry vermouth needs the sugar. Versin does not — so the cassis comes down to a third of the classic measure and 20ml of lemon goes in to hold the line. Blackcurrant is the right fruit for this bottle specifically: it is tart and slightly resinous, so it meets the clove instead of burying it. Blackberry or cherry would flatten it.
7. The Marianito
45ml Versin · 20ml Ginsin 12 Botanics · 15ml Melati Botanical Aperitif · orange twist · one olive
Stir all three with ice for 20 seconds. Strain over one large cube in a short glass. Orange twist expressed over the top, olive on a stick.
Why it works: the Marianito is northern Spain's low-proof Negroni — vermouth led, with gin and a bitter in support, and the proportions change at every bar that pours it. That structure is a gift here, because the ingredient carrying the drink is the one you can buy at 0.0%. The classic finishes with a couple of dashes of aromatic bitters; this version does not need them, because Melati is already supplying real bitterness rather than a trace of it. Keep the olive. It is doing the same work it does in the plain serve.
8. The Versin Sour
60ml Versin · 25ml lemon juice · 20ml aquafaba · pinch of salt
Dry-shake everything without ice for 10 seconds, then add ice and shake hard for 10 more. Strain into a coupe and let the foam set for a moment before you drink it.
Why it works: note what is not in the ingredient list. A sour is spirit, citrus, sugar and foam — and Versin has already brought the sugar, so adding syrup here makes a cloying drink. The aquafaba, the liquid from a tin of chickpeas, whips into a dense foam that gives the drink the weight alcohol used to. The salt is not optional; it is what stops the spice going harsh and makes the lemon taste rounder.
9. Hot Spiced Versin
150ml Versin · wide strip of orange peel · 1 cinnamon stick · 3 cloves · star anise if you have it
Warm everything gently in a small pan until it is just steaming and no further. Do not let it simmer. Pour into a heatproof glass and leave the peel in.
Why it works: this is the one drink on the list where 0.0% starts level rather than behind. Heat volatilises aromatics — it does the carrying that ethanol does in a mulled wine — so nothing has to be built back. And the spices you are adding are the ones already in the bottle, which is why it tastes concentrated rather than layered-over. The instruction that matters is the one about not boiling it: the clove and orange top notes cook off fast, and once they are gone you are left with the sugar.
10. The Manhattan — the hard one, done properly
15ml Espadafor Whissin + 45ml cold water · 30ml Versin · 3 drops saline · orange twist
Whissin is a concentrate — dilute it one part to three before it goes anywhere near the glass. Combine the diluted Whissin with the Versin, stir with ice for a full 30 seconds, strain into a frozen coupe, express a broad orange peel over the top.
Why it is hard, and why this version works: a Manhattan is two ingredients stirred cold, spirit-forward, with nowhere to hide — the opposite of the Americano. Three things make it land. Dilute the Whissin properly first, because poured neat it is far too intense and it will bulldoze the vermouth. Stir long, because the dilution is structural, not incidental. And add saline — 1 g of salt dissolved in 10 ml of warm water, three drops of it — so the caramel and the clove lift instead of sitting flat. Skip any one of those and it disappoints. Do all three and it holds up beside the real thing.
What this list actually needs
Six of these ten need nothing but Versin and something from the fridge door. The other four need one more bottle: a bitter aperitif for the Americano, the Sbagliato and the Marianito, a juniper spirit for the Marianito, and a concentrate for the Manhattan. If you buy one more thing, buy the bitter — it unlocks three of the four.
Shop Espadafor Versin → · Melati → · Ginsin → · Whissin →
Pouring gin instead? Ten cocktails built on Ginsin 12 Botanics →
