What People Drink in Buenos Aires: 6 Traditional Beverages

Buenos Aires drinks like a port city with long summers: bitter-sweet aperitifs, chilled highballs, and low-ABV options built for lingering on sidewalks and patios. The humid subtropical climate and breezy evenings shape what porteños reach for before and after dinner.

Italian and Spanish immigration cemented a love of vermouth, wine, and the daily café ritual. From soda siphons on every table to family asados, the city’s palate favors refreshment, light bitterness, and convivial drinks that stretch across a slow meal.

Vermouth in Buenos Aires—vermú, as locals say—is aromatized wine fortified and infused with botanicals like wormwood, gentian, chamomile, and citrus peels. Bottles typically sit between 15–18% ABV. The classic pour is over ice with an orange slice and a generous splash from the sifón de soda, which lightens the body and teases out citrus aromas. Expect a bittersweet profile with herbal depth, subtle vanilla, and a clean, refreshing finish.

The ritual arrived with Italian migrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and took root in bodegones (old-school taverns) and cafés. Sundays before lunch—la hora del vermut—families share tumblers alongside a picada of olives, salami, and cheese. You’ll find this everywhere from traditional counters to contemporary bars, the serve often customized with green olives or a twist of lemon for an extra bitter nip.

Few things say Buenos Aires like red wine softened with soda water straight from a glass siphon. Using everyday Malbec or Bonarda, locals cut wine 1:1 or 2:1 (wine to soda), dropping the final strength to roughly 8–11% ABV while preserving fruit and acidity. Carbonation lifts aromas and smooths tannins, turning hearty table wine into a brisk refresher suited to warm afternoons.

The city once relied on neighborhood soderías delivering refillable siphons; that heritage lives on in bodegones where house wine arrives in a ceramic pingüino carafe. Vino con soda pairs naturally with parrilla and milanesas, and it’s a staple at summer asados where the goal is to sip for hours without fatigue. It’s the democratic drink of the lunch menu: unfussy, cooling, and built for conversation.

This highball blends intensely bitter fernet—an Italian-style amaro at 39–40% ABV—with cola and ice. Fernet is made by macerating dozens of botanicals (think gentian, myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, saffron) in alcohol, then aging before bottling. The standard build is 1 part fernet to 5–3 parts cola, poured slowly to tame the foam; some add a squeeze of lemon for brightness.

In the glass, cola’s caramel and spice soften fernet’s mentholated bitterness, landing a long drink that sits around 7–10% ABV depending on the ratio. Adopted at scale in the late 20th century, it’s now a citywide ritual—poured at house parties, concerts, football nights, and after-work gatherings. In Buenos Aires, kiosks, corner bars, and clubs keep the combo flowing, ice-heavy and designed for the dance floor.

Hesperidina is a bitter-orange liqueur born in Buenos Aires in 1864. It’s made by macerating peels of bitter and sweet oranges in neutral spirit, blending and lightly sweetening, then resting to marry flavors. Bottled around 32% ABV, it shows marmalade-like citrus, pithy bitterness, hints of spice, and a lingering floral note reminiscent of orange blossom. Served neat and chilled, it’s vivid and aromatic; with soda or tonic, it becomes a crisp aperitif.

Created by Melville Sewell Bagley, Hesperidina is widely cited as Argentina’s first registered trademark and a symbol of the city’s inventive 19th‑century spirit. For generations it was sold in cafés and pharmacies alike, sipped as both tonic and tipple. Today, bartenders fold it into spritzes and citrus-forward cocktails, while traditionalists keep it simple: a short pour over ice before dinner on a warm evening.

Legui is an Argentine cane liqueur built on distilled sugarcane alcohol infused with herbs and gentle vanilla-like notes, then sweetened with caramel. At about 29% ABV, it tastes smooth and rounded—think toffee and light spice—with a medium body that’s easy to sip. Producers rest the blend in tanks to knit flavors, aiming for a soft texture rather than overt oak influence.

Launched in the 1920s and named in tribute to jockey Irineo Leguisamo, Legui evokes Buenos Aires’ golden age of tango and horse racing. It functions as a classic digestivo in neighborhood bars: poured over ice after a steak, dashed into coffee for a bracing carajillo-style treat, or cut with cola for a sweeter highball. You’ll encounter it in old cafés, clubhouses, and family tables where nostalgia carries as much weight as flavor.

Argentine sidra is fermented apple juice—light, fruity, and gently effervescent—typically clocking in at 4.5–7% ABV. Large producers source apples from Patagonia’s orchard belt, and styles range from sweet to semi‑dry. Served well-chilled in flutes or tumblers, it offers crisp apple aromas, modest acidity, and a softly sparkling texture that suits long toasts.

In Buenos Aires, cider equals celebration. It’s the traditional drink for Christmas and New Year’s toasts, a seasonal staple stacked high in supermarkets each December. The city’s warm end-of-year weather makes chilled, lower-alcohol sidra a practical alternative to heavier wines, whether at office parties or the finale of an asado. A modest craft scene is adding drier bottlings, but the classic sweet styles still dominate family gatherings.