Cheers to cheap beers.
Talk of the “drink of the summer” has begun. This year, ome people might argue that it’s the Hugo spritz, or perhaps the Paper Plane, which was crowned 2025’s “drink of the year.”
Yet with the rising costs of inflation, and ensuing shrinking wallets, a lot of people are turning to the Spaghett — a Miller High Life with a splash of Aperol and a squeeze of lemon — as a more budget-friendly option for a refreshing hot weather bev, according to Business Insider.
It goes by many names: the NASCAR Negroni, the hobo Negroni or the trailer park spritz. Essentially, it’s an Aperol spritz sans the pricey prosecco. And what better to replace the bubbly than with the champagne of beers?
Experts are saying that the rising popularity of the the Spaghett could be due to drinkers keeping an eye on their wallets.
Considering a typical Aperol spritz could cost anywhere betwee $15 and $20 in NYC, the cheaper beer version is a big part of the appeal. It will save quite a few bucks to go for the knock-off, especially since the beer is cheap to begin with.
Bar man Stuart Wellington, the owner of Hinterlands, Minnie’s and Commonwealth in Brooklyn, told BI that Miller High Life is his “recession beer.”
“I’ve definitely noticed within a certain portion of my, let’s say, moderately employed regulars, they went from drinking draft beer to switching over to just drinking High Lifes,” he said.
And the thought of turning a beer into a Spaghett “has a little bit of, ‘Oh, we’re going something fun today,’” Wellington added.
Orders for Spaghetts in the first half of 2025 have increased by 65% from last year, according to data from payment platform Square, and since 2022, orders for Spagetts are up 1,000%.
Square’s data shows that the number of Spaghetts on bar receipts has risen over the past five years, and Google searches for the poor man’s Aperol spritz have spiked this summer.
Despite the Spaghett is finding a home on more bar menus as of late, they’re also easy to DIY at home — just crack open a beer, pour a little out or drink a swig, then put in a half a shot of Aperol.
Before people started spreading the word about the existence of the Spaghett, it was a kind of secret-menu drink for “service industry nerds and other weirdos that are in the know,” Wellington said.
There’s also been a push from Miller High Life to make the drink more popular. In July, he company introduced the Spaghett-sicle, a push-up pop version of the drink with up to 5% ABV, as the “the ultimate way to toast to summer.”
The brand has seen the dive-bar drink gain “steady momentum” over the past year, Jacquelyn Caldwell, an associate brand marketing manager for Miller High Life, told the outlet.
“It started as a bartender favorite in dive bars — mixed directly in the High Life bottle, no frills, just great flavor. From there, it evolved from an under-the-radar pick to a popular choice,” she said.
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