Spumoni

[helenjp]

Suntory made a hit with a canned cocktail called "Spumoni" made like so: 20ml campari, 30ml grapefruit juice, tonic water to taste.

Since then, it's morphed into versions containing fresh fruit pulp or fruit juices, in particular DITA lychee liqueur.

This combination of campari and grapejuice with a fizzy mixer - is it known under another name in English, or is this ladies' tipple strictly a Tokyo item?

[Hiroyuki]

Helen, it only took me one minute to get the right answer:

http://www.suntory.co.jp/cgi-bin/wnb/cktl.pl?ID=spumoni

It's Italian in origin. Are you a fan of that cocktail?

P.S. Sorry, your question was, "is it known under another name in English".

Anyone?

[helenjp]

Yeah, I got curious enough about a query on a translation list to look into it, and so found the Suntory product too .

But "spumoni" in English refers to a dessert, not a drink, so I was curious about what people would call it in English...if they had it! But I think they probably call it something boring like Campari Grapefruit Fizz

I'm also mildly curious about why the drink became *so* popular in Japan - I believe that lychee liqueur cocktails have become popular elsewhere too, but in Japan it's called a Dita 'moni, and I'm pretty sure that's not what a tall lychee liqueur drink is called in English!

Am I fond of that drink? No - I'm a little old for canned cocktails - at least, I'm pretty sure the young girls who dine on a packet of babystar ramen snacks and a can of shochu highball outside our local station probably wouldn't care for me to join them!

[eje]

Campari and Grapefruit is a pretty common flavor combination. A local frozen dessert company even makes a sorbet in that flavor.

Just googling the two turned up quite a few drinks calling for both.

Check out the Campari Cocktails topic for more info.

I don't know of a drink recipe that calls for those ingredients specifically, so you'd probably want to order it as campari, grapefruit and tonic.

Does seem odd that they would call it "Spumoni". I guess they just thought it would sound cool? As long as you don't think you're ordering ice cream. But, that's probably a topic for the Japan forum.

[ThinkingBartender]

Spumante?

[Hiroyuki]

I'm also mildly curious about why the drink became *so* popular in Japan - I believe that lychee liqueur cocktails have become popular elsewhere too, but in Japan it's called a Dita 'moni, and I'm pretty sure that's not what a tall lychee liqueur drink is called in English!

←

Mildly curious??

from here

女性客のみの調査で上位に選ばれたのはスプモーニ、カシス・オレンジといった、ジンやウオツカ以外の甘くて香りの高いリキュールをベースにした軽いものが中心だった。

Japanese women prefer light cocktails based on sweet and fragrant liqueurs, not on gin and vodka, such as spumoni and cassis orange.

What do you say, Helen?

Edited to add: Do you know this comedian duo, Spumoni?

Edited December 8, 2006 by Hiroyuki (log)