Vermouth and Soda

Vermouth and soda has no single documented inventor or date; it is a simple traditional serve that grew directly out of vermouth's own history as an aperitif. Modern vermouth was developed in Turin in the late 18th century, credited to the distiller Antonio Benedetto Carpano, who began selling his aromatized fortified wine there in 1786. Turin's cafés popularized drinking vermouth on its own as an apéritif, and lengthening it with soda water became a natural, lighter way to serve it as the drink spread through Italy, France, and Spain in the 19th century.

The pairing became especially associated with Spain, where drinking vermouth, often cut with soda, developed into the weekend midday ritual known as "tomar el vermut," particularly in Catalonia and Barcelona. Because the combination is essentially a simple two-ingredient extension of vermouth-drinking custom rather than a bartender's invention, sources describe its spread as a regional tradition rather than crediting any single creator, bar, or exact year.