Shake with ice and strain into a Collins glass containing 2 oz soda water. Fill with ice cubes, add a straw, and garnish with an orange twist.
Overall, the drink's appearance and balance is a complex orange soda albeit one with herbal and tropical flavors in the mix.
When I was plotting turning over the cocktail menu for Winter/Spring 2016 at Loyal Nine, I needed some new low proof drinks. For inspiration, I started to riff on Michael McIlroy's Rome With a View. Given that we had an abundance of Avèze gentian liqueur, I wanted to include that (instead of Rome With a View's Campari) especially after having tried the Vatican City riff of that neo-classic. Another drink that came to mind for a flavor combination was the Square Root in pairing Aperol, gentian, and citrus. Given how well passion fruit works with bitter liqueurs, I considered taking things in a tropical direction. Finally, the name Italian Stallion came up from thinking about Rome and Italian themes, and a kitchy movie title seemed apropos. In 2020, this drink was placed on the menu at the Paper Plane in San Jose, California, as part of their guest drink section.