Here’s why Aranciata Rossa is so good.
If there’s one pre-made drink I love more than any other, it’s San Pellegrino Blood Orange Italian sparkling drink.
Sold as Aranciata Rossa, this nonalcoholic red beverage works well in cocktails like a Lambrusco spritz but is also absolutely perfect on its own. (The product’s website also offers a basic mocktail recipe with orange, sugar, and soda water.)
This copywriting from the product’s website is pretty on point: “Let yourself be transported to a dreamy landscape where the oranges are soaked in sunset, their flesh the color of crushed velvet. Sanpellegrino Aranciata Rossa is a celebration of the prince among oranges, the blood orange.”
The company’s name is represented as everything from S.Pellegrino to Sanpellegrino or San Pellegrino. All are unnecessary incumbrances, and in my household, we generally opt for the diminutive “San Pellie.”
We generally don’t need to specify which flavor, because the blood orange rules all. That said, the Aranciata basic orange flavor is totally solid, and can sometimes be found atop or inside our fridge.
For the unfamiliar, the San Pellegrino Blood Orange drink (and its counterparts, for that matter) are somewhere between a seltzer and a soda, offering a gentle fizz and a bolder flavor than seltzer without the weight and syrupy-ness of most soda. They’re marketed as “Italian sparkling drinks,” but that honestly doesn’t mean anything to me.
And by the way, these are caffeine-free.
San Pellie sells a zero-sugar option for its bubbly drinks if that’s your thing.
I can pronounce all the ingredients on the can — which start with water, sugar, orange juice concentrate, and blood orange juice concentrate. Instead of using something like Yellow 5 for the color, it relies on black carrot extract.
It feels very “summer” to me, but I drink it all year. Most weeks, I grab a pack at the grocery store. I’ve also seen single cans for sale at gas stations and bodegas around the country. A quick internet search tells me they’re also available in-store at Target and Walmart or online from Amazon and other retailers.
The only downside to San Pellegrino Blood Orange: I’m a little nostalgic for the former branding in stouter cans, with the totally unnecessary foil over the top that made it feel higher shelf.
Love blood orange drinks? You may also enjoy our recipes for a blood orange mule cocktail or a blood orange gin cooler.
And a reminder—these “Obsessed” columns aren’t sponsored content or affiliate promo deals. They’re just things our editor truly loves and wants you to enjoy!
Be sure to check out some of our other Obsessed columns, like this one on our editor’s favorite beef jerky.