Italian Spritz

Aperitivo is a hard style to reproduce without alcohol, because in the original a lot of the bite comes from the booze itself. Banks gets there another way. The base is their Herbarium spirit, five botanicals distilled individually in Healesville in the Yarra Valley, including cassia bark, lemon myrtle, lime, wattleseed and wild Tasmanian pepperberry. On top of that they lean on grapefruit extract and quinine from cinchona bark for the bitter backbone. Orange and grapefruit peel come first, aromatic herbs sit behind, and the finish stays dry instead of collapsing into sugar. It ships as a 250ml can at 0% ABV, low in sugar and vegan, with the familiar orange red colour coming from black carrot juice rather than dye. Serve it the way you'd serve the real thing, in a big wine glass packed with ice and a fat orange slice, ideally before dinner. It does contain quinine, worth knowing if you avoid it.