Agua de Valencia

Valencia's signature party punch combining fresh orange juice with cava, gin, and vodka—a dangerously drinkable celebration of Spain's orange country.

The Agua de Valencia was born from an impromptu challenge in the spring of 1959 at the Cervecería Madrid — now known as the Café Madrid — in Valencia's old town, just steps from the Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas. The bar's owner, Constante Gil, was a Valencian artist and restaurateur who had transformed the establishment into one of the neighborhood's most beloved evening gathering places. A group of Basque travelers who were regular visitors to the bar had developed a habit of ordering the house's finest cava and jokingly calling it Agua de Bilbao — Bilbao's water — a cheeky reference to the quality of their home city's tap water. Tiring of the same drink, they one evening challenged Gil to invent something entirely new for them. He accepted and improvised on the spot, adding freshly squeezed orange juice from Valencia's renowned local trees, a shot of gin, and a shot of vodka to the pitcher of cava. The Basque visitors loved it, and returned to order it on every subsequent visit. For nearly a decade the drink remained known only to the inner circle of Café Madrid regulars. It was not until the 1970s that it spread through Valencia's wider nightlife culture. Today it is considered the city's defining cocktail, invariably served from large communal pitchers and poured into broad champagne coupes — a format that emphasizes its role as a celebratory, social drink. Constante Gil died in June 2009, having also left behind a body of paintings documenting the café's clientele.