What Is Gazoz? Shukette’s Signature Drink Explained

Gazoz shows up on Shukette’s drink menu often enough that first-time guests usually end up asking their server what it actually is. The short answer is that it’s a spritz-style drink, but the details are a little more specific than that, and understanding them makes it easier to pick one that fits what you’re in the mood for — a useful thing to sort out before you sit down and start working through our first-timer’s ordering guide.

Where the word comes from

Gazoz is the Hebrew word for soda, and in Israel it originally referred to a simple carbonated drink, often flavored with fresh fruit or herbs and topped with soda water. Over the past decade, bars and restaurants across Israel and, more recently, in cities like New York have built more elaborate versions around the same basic idea: fresh produce, a bit of acidity, something aromatic, and bubbles. Shukette’s version takes that base and builds it out with aperitif wines and natural infusions, landing somewhere between a classic Italian spritz and a fresh-pressed soda.

The Gazoz menu at Shukette

How to pick one

If you like a classic Aperol spritz but want something a little less sweet, the Tangier is the closest comparison, since the grapefruit and cocchi americano lean bitter rather than syrupy. The Cyprus is the more savory option of the four, built around cucumber and dill, and it pairs especially well with the dips at the start of a meal since the flavors overlap. The Raspberry is the most straightforwardly fruity of the group, and the Garden, with sugar snap pea and cucumber, is the lightest and most vegetal, closer to a garden cocktail than a dessert-adjacent drink like the Mic Drop.

Non-alcoholic versions

Non-alcoholic Gazoz are also available, keeping the fresh produce and soda base of the cocktail version without the aperitif wines. They’re worth asking about directly, since the non-alcoholic list isn’t always printed alongside the full cocktail menu. It’s a genuinely different experience from ordering a mocktail at most restaurants, since the drink was designed around the produce first rather than built as a modified version of an alcoholic recipe. If wine is more your speed, our plain-English guide to the wine list covers the rest of the drink program.