I'm spending a calm new years with my friend Magnus Borén, watching videos and drinking lots of champagne. Here are some recipes for Champagne cocktails we might try:
Champagne Cocktail
On New Year's Eve, flutes of champagne are passed out by the armful, but a flute with aromatic bitters and a sugar cube is more appealing. This champagne beverage, The Champagne Cocktail, adds just the right amount of variation to the classic.
• 1 sugar cube • 2-3 dashes of cinnamon • brut champagne • Angostura bitters
Directions
In a chilled champagne flute, place a sugar cube, lash it with 2 or 3 dashes of bitters, fill with brut champagne, and squeeze a lemon twist on top.
Classic champagne cocktail
Ingredients
1 sugar cube
¼ tsp Angostura bitters
10ml cognac
75ml cold champagne
strip of orange peel
Method
Put the sugar cube on a small dish, then drizzle with the bitters, turning a few times so it’s fully coated.
Drop the cube into a champagne flute, then top up with the cognac. Slowly pour over the champagne.
Twist the orange peel over to express the oils, then discard or loop around the stem of the glass.
Aperol Spritz
THE BRIDGE OF HEIDI
The Aperol Spritz screams summer, yet no one will notice if you drink it outside of the season. It's everywhere, and weirdly enough, it's divisive.
Ingredients: 2 oz. Aperol,
3 oz. Prosecco,
2 (or a splash, or a top off) soda club
• pieces of orange
In a wine glass over ice, combine Aperol, prosecco, and club soda. In the glass, garnish with fresh orange slices.
FRENCH 75
A French 75, despite its effervescent appearance, is more potent than a cannon explosion, thanks to the combination of gin and champagne. And, surprise, surprise, that's what it's called.
5 oz. brut champagne
2 oz. London dry gin
1 tsp. superfine sugar
1/2 oz. lemon juice
Directions
In a chilled cocktail shaker, combine the gin, lemon juice, and sugar and shake vigorously with cracked ice. Strain into a half-filled glass with ice and top with champagne.
Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon
• 1 1/2 ounces absinthe • 4 ounces brut champagne
Directions
Fill a champagne flute halfway with absinthe and top off with iced brut champagne (at least 4 ounces).
Buck's fizz
Ingredients
- 100ml orange juice , freshly squeezed
- 200ml chilled champagne
Method
- STEP 1
First, pour 50ml of the orange juice into each glass.
- STEP 2
Very slowly top up each glass with 100ml champagne.
