Champagne Cocktail
Champagne FluteBuild
Origin
Jerry Thomas · 1862
First published in Jerry Thomas's How to Mix Drinks (1862), one of the ten cocktails in the original landmark guide. Earlier mentions of 'Champagne cock-tails' exist (e.g. Robert Tomes's 1855 Panama Railroad account), but Thomas's recipe is canonical.
A sugar cube, a few drops of bitters, and cold brut champagne. Celebratory and absurdly simple.
Ingredients
- 1 sugar cube
- 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
- 4 to 5 oz cold brut Champagne
- Lemon peel
Instructions
- Place the sugar cube in a chilled flute.
- Saturate the cube with the bitters.
- Slowly top with cold champagne. The cube will fizz and sink gradually.
- Express a lemon peel over the glass and drop it in.
Tips
- Use a dry brut. Sweeter sparkling wines turn cloying with the sugar.
- Don't stir; the slow dissolution of the cube is the whole point.
Related guides
Champagne and Sparkling Decoded
Champagne, Prosecco, Cava, Crémant, and the rest: how the production method sets the style, and when each is worth the money.
Food Pairing: What to Drink With What
A cocktail-pairing framework: match weight, mirror sweetness, use bitterness, cut fat with acid, and know the combinations that actually work.