Champagne Cocktails
12 recipes
This Field Manual holds 12 recipes built on champagne or sparkling wine. The bubbles are an ingredient rather than a mixer, and that changes the order of work: everything else goes in first, the wine goes in last, and nothing gets stirred afterwards.
Dryness decides the drink. A brut keeps a sugar cube or a liqueur in check, where a demi-sec on top of either turns cloying. Temperature does the rest, because a warm bottle loses carbonation as it pours and the drink is flat before it reaches the table. Prosecco and cava work in most of these and cost less; the exception is anything where the wine is most of the glass, which is where the better bottle shows.
Difficulty Level
Bellini
A Bellini is 100ml prosecco over 50ml white peach purée: the purée goes into a chilled flute, the cold prosecco is poured over in stages and folded in, and it is served straight
Buck’s Fizz
A Buck’s Fizz is two parts champagne to one of orange juice: 50ml cold, freshly squeezed orange juice in a chilled flute, topped slowly with 100ml brut champagne, with no garnish.
Champagne Cocktail
A Champagne Cocktail is a sugar cube soaked with two dashes of Angostura and dropped into a chilled flute, then 10ml of cognac and 90ml of cold champagne poured slowly down the
Champagne Punch
Champagne Punch for about twelve is a chilled base of 200ml of cognac, 100ml of Cointreau or dry triple sec, 200ml of fresh orange juice and 50ml of fresh lemon juice, poured into
Death in the Afternoon
Death in the Afternoon is 30ml absinthe in a cold flute, with about 90ml of very cold Champagne poured in slowly until the drink turns cloudy. No garnish and no ice. About 3.1 UK
Hugo Spritz
A Hugo Spritz is 25ml of elderflower liqueur, 90ml of cold prosecco and 30ml of soda water, built in a large wine glass full of ice with a slapped sprig of mint and a lime wheel,
Kir Royale
A Kir Royale is 10ml of crème de cassis in a chilled flute, topped slowly with 90ml of cold brut champagne and not stirred. No garnish is needed. About 1.2 UK units. These are the
Limoncello Spritz
A Limoncello Spritz is 50ml of limoncello from the freezer, 90ml of brut prosecco and 30ml of soda water, built over ice in a copa or large wine glass, stirred once and finished
Mead Royale
A Mead Royale is 30ml of dry mead and 15ml of elderflower liqueur in a chilled flute, with 90ml of cold dry sparkling wine poured slowly over them, finished with a lemon twist.
Mimosa
A Mimosa is 75ml of fresh orange juice poured into a cold flute, then 75ml of cold prosecco added slowly and stirred once. About 0.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and
Rossini
A Rossini is 50ml fresh strawberry purée topped with 100ml cold prosecco in a chilled flute, folded gently and served at once. It is the Bellini’s strawberry relative: the same
Sgroppino
A Sgroppino is a scoop of sharp lemon sorbet whisked with 20ml of vodka and 60ml of cold prosecco into a pourable froth, served at once in a chilled flute with a lemon twist.